Although there were many interesting things throughout the readings, I found myself particularly drawn to Braunberger’s writing. This was because it was tiring to read. Not tiring in the sense that it was long and I was tired, but I found myself emotionally out of it by the end of the reading because there doesn’t seem to be any winning for women, as per usual. Body politics is so prominent and women’s bodies in particular are always being controlled and this reading just seemed to further that idea. Tattooed women are described as bringing up thoughts of groups of people like bikers and prostitutes and that is a perception that, for a while, held weight to the larger society. For instance, Braungberger notes of a rape case in which they decided that two men that raped this one girl were innocent because she had a tattoo on her leg. These are images and perceptions that we cannot change on our own no matter how much we want to. When I think about what I have heard about tattooed women, I often hear that they are “trying too hard to look tough,” hence the biker image. I also often hear of tattooed women being sexualized, hence the image of a sex worker. In addition to this, I also hear about women who get looked down upon within tattooing communities if they have “too feminine” of a tattoo. This can be interpreted as a lack of a safe space for tattooed women to escape the perceptions of the general public. So much of this reading goes into bodily ownership and we have discussed before the idea that getting a tattoo doesn’t give you ownership of your body, but I feel like this is doubly true for women.

It was also just interesting to read these articles while doing more research for my annotated bibliography because from what I understand, tattoos in Korea are perceived to be more feminine than masculine. This is because historically, it was primarily men that had tattoos that had negative meanings such tattoos as signs of gangs. Meanwhile, women historically had tattoos of their lover’s name. But this difference in history still influences their perceptions today as they also see tattoos as a form of body decoration. Interpreting tattoos this way makes many Koreans see tattoos as feminine because decorating the body is something that women place more importance in than men.