Category: AR474 (Page 6 of 10)

This week, I’ve continued my research by collecting a ton of sources about my topic from the library and academic journals online. Additionally, the research question I am currently working with is:

“Why is there a prevalent societal innate aversion or dislike towards face tattoos, and what are the underlying factors, including cultural, psychological, and historical elements, that contribute to this disapproval?” The wealth of sources I explored allowed me to explore the multifaceted nature of this aversion.

I began by reviewing the historical context, uncovering how face tattoos have been associated with indigenous cultures, colonialism, and their impact on contemporary Western society. 

Moreover, I delved into the psychological aspects, understanding how our brains process and react to tattoos. Research on disgust and moral judgments helped clarify the emotional underpinnings of this aversion. It was fascinating to discover how deep-seated emotions, like disgust and fear, play a role in our societal perceptions.

This week’s research has also highlighted the importance of nuance and the need to consider individual experiences and personal narratives. It reinforced the idea that aversion to face tattoos is not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon but varies widely based on culture, upbringing, and personal beliefs.

In preparation for this class session, we read several articles recounting sociological studies of tattooed people. The Atkinson article about tattoo enthusiasts talked about the importance of pain to the process: “Viewed as a sacred part of being tattooed and as a mark of one’s commitment, the ability to endure pain is lauded by many enthusiasts” (332). I thought it was interesting how explicit some of the enthusiasts were about their enjoyment of – or at least deep respect for – the pain of the tattooing process. I have always thought of the pain of getting a tattoo as an unfortunate byproduct of getting art on your body forever, versus an integral part of having that art. Atkinson also noted that “studios often become known locally for the specific types of patrons serviced,” which made me wonder, in relation to my research topic, whether there are specific studios frequented by musicians (334). For example, do an overwhelming number of musicians living in Nashville, L.A., or NYC go to the same artist for their tattoos?

In her “First Tattoo” article, Irwin writes that many of the participants in her study belong to certain “fringe social groups,” which often include music-based subcultures (56). I think the historical influence of music subcultures on tattooing practices will have an impact on modern-day intersections between tattooing and the music industry. Further, Irwin says “one of the major constraints that prevents individuals from engaging in deviance is their relationship with mainstream individuals” (57). Is it the case that the more popular a music artist is, the farther away they move from “mainstream individuals”? Or is the opposite true, because popularity places them directly in the sites of the mainstream? The second Irwin article on “Elite Tattoo Collectors” elaborates on my earlier question about whether specific tattoo studios are hubs for musicians; she writes “collectors and artists sometimes find themselves circulating within celebrity social networks…this is especially true for members of the rock n’ roll scene” (48). I think this somewhat confirms my thought that certain artists are sought after by musicians more than others, but I would love to identify some specific studios.

The final two articles were also authored by Atkinson. In the study of Neo Primitives, Atkinson and Young discuss the “socially constructed body,” which they define as “the body that is voluntarily sought out and manufactured as a site of social and cultural meaning” (119). I thought this was a really interesting concept – how are musician’s bodies constructed to be culturally meaningful? Do the inscriptions they place on their bodies in the form of tattoos influence their cultural meaning as a public figure? In the final article, Atkinson talks about a specific tattoo subculture known as “straightedge,” which is based on living sober and taking close care of one’s body. I had never heard of this subculture before; I usually think of tattooing as closely tied in with party culture. I appreciated Atkinson’s inclusion of a history of the subculture, because I knew nothing about it before this reading.

The readings for this class were interesting to read considering how tightly intertwined tattooing and subcultures are. By getting a tattoo, you are immediately categorized into a tattooing/tattooed subculture. I feel like Michael Atkinson’s “Tattoo Enthusiasts” embodies this idea perfectly. They get accounts from people, whether they are tattooed or are tattoo artists, and many of them speak of how the way people reacted to them and interacted with them changed after they got a tattoo. There was this category of other that these people were placed into, regardless of whether or not their reaction was positive or negative. Even when reactions were positive, it was understood as a big deal to get a tattoo and they were met with amazement and questions. I also just thought it was interesting to read about Straightedge tattooing because it was new to me. I knew and understood that subcultures existed within tattooing, but never knew about how deep they could really go. The idea that this tattoo is pretty much a declaration of their lifestyle is insane to me, insane in that I never even considered it. I mean, people always make assumptions about the lifestyles of heavily tattooed people, saying that they are criminals or affiliated with gangs, but I had never considered the possibility of a singular symbol being an indication of a specific lifestyle. Speaking of ideas that were insane to me, in “Legitimating the First Tattoo,” Irwin references journalists who have wrote that tattooing is so “thoroughly middle class.” In a way, I thought this to be really ironic. This is because tattoos are still not seen as acceptable by many people and more importantly, by many professions. They are often deemed unprofessional or an aesthetic and subculture that they do not want to be affiliated with and can lead to being fired and so much of that workforce with these values is made up of the middle class. So it’s this idea that tattoos are a thing of the middle class but in actuality, many can not have tattoos or as many as they want wherever they want because these restrictions within America’s mainstream culture exists.

I also just did a lot of mental comparisons to my research topic because tattooing as a subculture is so important in Korea because there is legitimately no space within the mainstream culture for them to be accepted. Even celebrities are forced to cover their tattoos with clothes or skin colored tape when on tv. Because of this, identifying other tattooed people and finding a community within them is so important in Korea. In America, you could at least say that tattooing is being more accepted by the younger generations, but in Korea, many of the younger generation do no like tattoos either, holding onto the ideas and beliefs that tattooed people are affiliated with gangs, are delinquents, or are going against the word of God by “defiling” their body. It is because these perceptions are still so prominent and there really is no space for them to be prideful about their tattoos that the idea and existence of a subculture is so important in Korea. In fact, from what I have found, it is because of them being forced to seek out one another for positive words about their tattoos that many of the tattoo artists in Korea seem to know each other or are at least familiar of one another.

This week, I centered my research on investigating the scientific basis behind people’s innate distaste for tattoos, because this aspect of my paper really interests me. Firstly, there are not many studies published on this topic; I found a great paper called “Evidence of negative implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tattoo near the face”; this paper contends that they are the first paper to be published on this issue. The study had some really interesting findings that I definitely want to pursue and look into more; additionally, the resources that were cited to develop their argument for the validity of their experiment are valuable for me to pursue (which I’ve already begun). 

In sum, this study found: 

• Observers hold negative associations towards individuals who exhibit a tattoo near their face 
• The expression of the negative implicit attitudes was not caused by the potential interruption of visual processing that an asymmetrical tattoo could create (this was in response to the possibility that individuals may be put off by facial tattoos due to the asymmetry of the design, which could subconsciously lead to an implicit evaluation
• positively valuended tattoos increased but not eliminated the expression of implicit prejudice toward the target with tattoos (tribal image vs heart image)
• Individuals with high internal motivation (“i am personally motivated by my beliefs to be non prejudiced toward people with tattoos” and low external motivation “if i acted prejudiced toward people with tattoos, I would be concerned that others would be angry with me” to respond without prejudice expressed lower implicit attitudes = these findings shed light on which personality factors could contribute to the extent to which an individual dislikes tattoos 

These findings are meaningful to my research and this text has provided me with some background context on what the psychology field is saying about the implicit attitudes associated with tattoos, specifically face tattoos.

I had a LOT of fun with this presentation project because I got to look into an artist very personal to me — my brother’s tattoo artist! My brother’s decision to get tattoos is a big part of why I was thinking so much about tattoos and therefore why I was intrigued by this class. His artist has such a cool Instagram page and has done so many different styles, displaying their wide skill. I was particularly drawn to their interest in using bright colors in tattooing, which was really fun. I tried to look for song lyrics in their work and found a couple of examples. One was a Mac Miller lyric and another was multiple different tattoos of “you are my sunshine” — a lyric that has become such an expression I forget it originally came from a lullaby. These examples were written with imagery or in someone’s handwriting, which I thought was beautiful and enhanced the meaning of the lyrics. I can’t wait to do more research on this, and it was really cool to look at it from one artist’s perspective.

In researching for this presentation, I looked into the many styles or kinds of tattoos that exist. One of my sources mentioned 12 different styles which helped me to understand a broad definition of what each style consisted of. There were definitely tattoo styles that I knew very well and others that I had never heard of. When relating this back to what I would deem as “my typology,” I found that I was strictly drawn to styles that all fall under a similar artistic style, tattoos with clean, simple designs: minimalist, fine line, floral, abstract, or negative space. As I was looking for a tattoo artist to help me relay my typology, I found that Emily Reid, who works at Blanc Space Tattoo really matched what I think would emulate my typology.

Emily Reid’s tattoo typology varied from minimalist to floral to negative space and additionally did include some blackwork ones. At first, I was intimidated by the vast amount of tattooists that exist and were possible options for me to look at. Fine line and minimalist are both tattoo styles that have interested me since I began looking at tattoos. This is due to the fact that my artistic eye has always been present in everything that I do, including the organization and style of my room, the way I aspire to have my art appear, and the organization of my work as a whole. I also found that there was a personal aesthetic to her tattoos that stuck to me in a way that I would want to be perceived.

One of the reasons that line art appeals to me is its ability to be complex and simple at the same time, while the design or imagery may appear clean or simple, the deeper meaning could be personal or intimate to the tattooed. I also think that minimalist and line art styles are similar in the nature that they are portrayed and what they represent. The connections between the use of ink and the idea that “less is more” is applicable to both of those styles.

In preparation for this class session, I looked at a lot of tattoos online in order to have a better understanding of the many types of tattoos that exist. I think that it is almost impossible to create enough categories or names to encompass every single tattoo style, but I found it helpful to break the tattoos I saw down by color, linework, shading, level of realism, and content. To analyze any given tattoo I see, I can ask several questions: Is the tattoo in color or black/grey? If it is in color, is it fully colored in or partially? How many different colors were used? Does the tattoo use linework, or is it lineless? Are the edges soft or hard – do they blend into the skin or contrast with it? Is the tattoo comprised entirely of linework, or is it shaded? Is the linework thick or thin? Does it vary throughout the tattoo? If the tattoo is shaded, what does the shading look like – is it soft or grainy? Is it made of dots, lines, or neither? Is the tattoo photorealistic, a cartoon, or somewhere in between? Is the subject/content of the tattoo real or imagined (or even fully abstract)? Is the tattoo an image, words, or both? If it includes words, what font are the letters in? Are they handwritten? How much space does the tattoo take up on the body? Is it miniature, or does it take up an entire limb or part of the body? Is the tattoo part of a larger piece, like a sleeve, or does it stand alone? These are a lot of questions, but I think they are all necessary to gain a comprehensive understanding of a tattoo, or a tattoo artist’s style. 

I asked myself all these questions as I looked at the work of the artist I chose to research, Tori Elyce. Tori does mostly shaded black and grey linework tattoos, and some unshaded linework pieces. Their subject matter is usually not abstract, and falls somewhere between photorealism and cartoon on the realism scale. Tori seems to like tattooing nature imagery, especially small animals (and sometimes dead ones). They have done some experimentation with thicker lines, but mostly stick to thinner lines. Tori almost always does stippled shading, meaning that individual dots are visible in shaded sections. Finally, their tattoos range in size, with some taking up a 2×2 inch square, and others taking up the entire top of someone’s thigh.

In preparation for Wednesday’s presentation, I started by doing some research on the styles that are in circulation today. In doing so, I was simply reminded of how many different styles of tattooing there are. Because of my interest in tattoos and my hopes to one day get one, I was aware of the tattoo styles that existed, but looking back on it, I never really bothered to categorize the tattoos and artists I like into styles. For this presentation, I looked through all the images of tattoos I have saved and started to categorize them in my head into both preexisting categories and categories I named on my own. In the end, I ended up choosing a tattoo artist that I didn’t think fit into one of the larger tattoo categories that are well known.

For my presentation on contemporary tattoo styles, I decided to describe and focus on the tattooing of a Korean tattoo artist named Gong Greem. I chose this tattoo artist, partially because I really want to get a tattoo from them, but also because I thought looking into them would give me some insight for my research. The first thing I noticed was that the didn’t have a website. Everything was done through Instagram and email, and this was actually common for a lot of the Korean tattoo artists that I like. In addition to this, they do not go by their name, but rather a pseudonym, Gong Greem. It seems like because of the illegality of their tattooing, anonymity is something they strive for. I also found myself intrigued by the fact that their tattoo studio seems to be their house, which also doubles as a gallery for their art. By using their space in such a way, it allows their studio to be in a place that is easier to find. I have also found that because the tattooing community in Korea is all underground, none of them really have any connections to any one tattoo studio. Rather, most seem to travel as visiting artists at other tattoo studios instead of staying in Korea and joining one there. Looking into Gong Greem for this presentation really just made me realize how different Korea’s tattooing community is and how our, America’s, ability to be so open with it is thanks to the changing public perception of them.

In this class, we explored tattoos by a lot of national traditions including Polynesian, Balkan, Egyptian, and Maori… My presentation was on Balkan tattoos and the more I researched it more I thought that it was a very intriguing topic. I thought the ritualistic aspects of the traditional Balkan tattoos, such as how tattooing is traditionally performed on certain days of the year like the spring solstice, and the unique ingredients of the tattoo ink such as the mother’s milk of a woman with a male baby with blue eyes, was very interesting. I paid attention to the fact that in many national traditions, there are ritualistic aspects to the act of tattooing, like chanting during the application of the Aboriginal Australian tattoos.

One of the new tattoo traditions that I learned about that stood out to me was the Inuit tattoos. I was very intrigued by how the Inuits interpreted some traditional tattoos as protection from the spirits. They believed it was possible to be possessed by the spirits of the animals they hunted, so they got tattoos that would protect them from those spirits.

The contrast between the prevalent contemporary perception against tattoos, and how the people whose tradition is to wear tattoos perceive tattoos was also brought to my attention. Contrary to today’s belief that getting tattoos is a reckless decision made by the young and immature, tattoos were seen as a sign of maturity and power in many of the national traditions we talked about.

When reading both the Sarnecki and Gentry & Alderman articles, I kept thinking about how a powerful way to tattoo trauma would be through song lyrics. I know a lot of people use song lyrics to get them through challenging times, and so I figured this would be a way people would want to express their growth in getting through those challenges. So I searched some examples of this and found multiple people who tattooed song lyrics on themselves, and they all had a moving story associated with it. I think it’s really cool how other people can see those song lyrics and connect to them because they know them and yet have a totally different experience with them. Songs hold a strong memory trace involving everything a person was feeling or going through when they listened to that song, and so song lyric tattoos are a beautiful way to tell that story and embody that resilience.