Today’s class was the second, and last day, of our research presentations. I really liked these past two classes with these research presentations. I thought it was really interesting to see the different approaches that people took and how varied our topics were. I was curious about Julia’s because it took a psychological and neurological approach that I didn’t expect, but it was precisely because I didn’t expect it that I found myself absorbed in it. I had never thought to consider the possible reasons as to how our brains work to maybe influence our perceptions of face tattoos. I was also interested by Layla’s. We talked in length about people’s perceptions of tattoos and their relations to gangs, but I never really stopped to consider how tattoos really worked within these gangs. Also, speaking of presentations that made me reconsider things, Rohit’s presentation made me think again about the tattooed characters I have seen in media. It made me reconsider tattoos as a storytelling device and how these tattoos are used in different ways to tell and contribute to these stories.