Tattooing in Contemporary Society

Identity and Authenticity

Michael Rees

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367271411
• eBook ISBN: 9781000516579
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Tattooing has become an increasingly popular phenomenon in the twenty first century, with growing numbers of sports stars and celebrities choosing to go 'under the needle' and tattooing regularly featuring in mainstream media. Based on interviews and participant observation at tattoo studios and tattoo conventions, this book investigates the reasons why so many people choose this form of body modification among all the options available to construct their identity. Drawing on Norbert Elias' figurational sociology, the author considers the importance of the desire to create community with others and to claim an authentic identity among the various reasons for choosing to be tattooed. A study of the connection between body and identity, richly illustrated with empirical material, this book will appeal to sociologists and scholars of cultural studies.

1 The history of Western tattooing

DOI: 10.4324/9780429295072-1

Tattooing is an increasingly popular cultural phenomenon; evidenced by the growing number of individuals choosing to go ‘under the needle’ and the large amount of popular media devoted to the practice. Globally distributed tattoo magazines; easily accessible TV programmes such as Inked, Tattoo Hunter, and the Ink series which now includes Miami, LA, London, and New York versions; and most importantly the internet, which grants individuals unprecedented access to hundreds of thousands of web pages providing tattoo designs, information on the tattooing process, profiles of shops or artists, and forums where tattooed and non-tattooed individuals can share information, provide a seemingly endless array of information about the practice. Traditionally, sociologists are concerned with investigating modern society (whether under the guise of ‘late modernity’, ‘organized modernity’, ‘disorganized modernity’, ‘high modernity’ or ‘postmodernity’) (Kilminster 2007), but we cannot understand social phenomena simply from its contemporary standing; instead we should ‘draw empirical evidence from a wide variety of historical and contemporary societies’ (ibid. 4). Thus, in order to consider one of the main aims of this research – understanding how and why tattooing is such a popular phenomenon in twenty-first-century Britain – we must recognise that tattooing is not a new phenomenon, and trace the historical development of the practice to examine how it has come to occupy its current position.

As Goudsblom (1990: 69) has demonstrated, establishing sequential order is difficult, and ‘a characteristic feature of all chronologies … is that they tend to be place-bound’. Detailed below are the key periods in the development of tattooing in the West, each of which has had an unintended sociogenesis on current tattoo figurations (Elias 2000, 2012a; Atkinson 2003a). Exploring the social relevance of tattooing during each of these periods allows for an exploration of how meanings ascribed to the practice are closely related to dominant bodily habits and preferences of the time, and a recognition that competing definitions of tattoos are present in any era. It also allows for an exploration of the development of the practice and offers a preliminary analysis of its changing status and current level of popularity.¹ The periods presented below are chronological and I have provided approximate years for these periods, but they are not intended to represent isolated periods. There are characteristics from earlier periods that endure into later periods and so there is necessary overlap between these periods. By exploring the various meanings attributed to the practice throughout its history in the West, I aim to provide an insight into how we can utilise these various and competing definitions of tattooing to inform our understanding of the practice in the twenty-first century.

Pre-modern tattooing (until late fifteenth century)

Archaeological evidence demonstrates that tattooing dates back to at least the late Stone Age. In 1948 a number of well-preserved human remains, encased in ice, were found by archaeologists in Siberia; these remains showed evidence of tattooing and were dated to the fifth century BC. The human mummy ‘Otzl’, discovered in Northern Italy in 1991, also bore tattoos and lived between 3350 and 3100 BC. Likewise, extensively tattooed mummified remains representing Aztec, Inca, and Mayan culture, and dating from the first century AD have been found in Peruvian excavations. The purpose for these tattoos is not clear, but it is speculated that they represented membership of specific tribal groups, similar to those used by the Picts and Celts in Europe, and more famously by island tribes of Polynesia such as the New Zealand Maori (Macquarrie 2000).

Evidence of tattooing also exists from the Greek and Roman Empires. However, the Greeks and Romans considered themselves too refined to use such practices to mark themselves decoratively, considering it barbarous, so it was used as a punitive measure; words such as ‘Stop me, I’m a runaway’ were tattooed on slaves in Greece to discourage the very act of running away for example. A similar practice was adopted by the Roman army, as evidenced by the military writer Vegetius, who described how recruits would be ‘inscribed with permanent dots in the skin’, representing the names or numbers of their units (Jones 2000: 12; Durkheim 1995). Additionally, both Jones (2000) and Gustafson (2000) provide examples of the forced tattooing of criminals and traitors by both the Greeks and Romans. Most commonly inscribed on the forehead – due to the face being considered a representation of the self – these tattoos served one of three functions: to name the crime committed, name the ruler offended by the crime, or to name the punishment for the crime committed.

This practice continued for some time but was changed by the first Christian emperor, Constantine, who ruled from 306 to 337, and issued a decree that declared criminals would be tattooed on the hands or calves rather than the face in order to ensure that, ‘the face, which has been formed in the image of the divine beauty [God], will be defiled as little as possible’ (quoted in Jones 2000: 13). Sometime later, evidence suggests that the practice was substituted altogether in favour of using inscribed metal collars (Thurmond 1994). Evidence also exists of Christians voluntarily becoming tattooed; for example, Procopius of Gaza, writing in the fifth century, claimed, ‘many Christians chose to be marked on their wrists or arms with the sign of the cross of the name of Christ’ (Gustafson 2000: 29; Durkheim 1995: 234), and many authors cite evidence that early European pilgrims to Palestine became tattooed (for example, Ebensten 1953; Durkheim 1995; Sweetman 1999a; Caplan 2000). These totemic body markings provided visible symbols of an individual’s membership to the religious collective (Durkheim 1995). While early Christians approved of tattooed signs of the cross, the practice later came to be seen as a sign of Paganism, and in order to distinguish Christians from outsider Pagan groups a new emphasis on the sanctity of the body as created by God was imposed. This resulted in Pope Hadrian banning the practice completely at a Church Council in Northumberland in 787² (Ebensten 1953; Parry 2006; Sanders 2008).

Pre-modern tattooing was largely limited to specific groups: members of tribes; criminals and/or slaves that were forcibly tattooed; and Christians who voluntarily tattooed themselves to honour Christ. As such, they acted to signify membership of specific groups, allowing members to be easily identified. The pre-modern use of tattooing may bear little resemblance to the practice today, especially as regards the process of being tattooed and the diverse clientele now associated with it, but an effect can be recognised. By demonstrating tattooing as meaningful historical cultural performance, those who choose to bear such marks have been able to reclaim or legitimate its contemporary usage (Caplan 2000); this has most clearly been demonstrated by gender-, racial-, and sexuality-based political movements that have used the body – including tattooing – for doing ‘identity politics’ (Dunn 1998; DeMello 2000; Atkinson 2003a; Thompson 2017; see also Chapter 2). Throughout the history of the practice, tattooing has continued to be associated with particular social groups, sailors, bikers and criminals for example, and many contemporary commentators continue to demonstrate how tattoos act to signify membership to particular groups, for example the middle-class (DeMello 2000), tattoo collectors (Vail 1999a, 1999b; Irwin 2003), or subcultures (e.g. Vale and Juno 1989; Wojcik 1995; Atkinson and Young 2001; Atkinson 2003a; 2003b). The rest of this, and the subsequent, chapter will examine more closely how and why tattooing is utilised by myriad groups and individuals, but first I begin with an examination of how tattooing was reintroduced to the West.

Cook's Pacific voyages and the ‘rediscovery of tattooing' (1690s–1870s)

Both sexes paint their Bodys, Tattow as it is called in their language. This is done by inlaying the colour of Black under their skins in such a manner as to be indelible.

(Captain Cook’s First Voyage, quoted in Jones 2000: 1)

This commonly quoted statement is associated with the beginning of modern tattoo figurations. Although evidence demonstrates the practice was found to some extent in the interim period (Gustafson 2000), the adoption of Christianity as an official religion throughout Europe meant that the practice largely disappeared on the continent before re-appearing in the eighteenth century following the European voyages of discovery by Captain Cook and others. Upon returning from their voyages, Captain Cook and others transported tattooed natives from North America and Polynesia to Europe, where they were displayed as cultural oddities. The first of these was Prince Jeoly, brought to Europe by Dampier in 1691, who later died in Oxford after contracting smallpox. Two North American ‘Princes’ also toured European fairs in 1723, and Captain Cook famously brought the South Sea Islander Omai to England in 1774, though his biography was somewhat unique as he was later returned home (Ebensten 1953). This represented a new dimension of tattooing in the West: while historically, tattooing had been used as a mark of membership to specific groups, the transportation of natives to Europe and beyond – despite their markings being symbolically important in the tribal cultures from which they originated (representing the individual’s tribe, social position, family, etc.) – focused on the display of tattooed bodies. Paraded as oddities in carnivals and fairgrounds, these primitives stood in dramatic contrast to regimented cultural codes about the body emphasising modesty and humility that were dominant in Western habituses of the time, and allowed the audiences to enjoy the radical ‘self-expression, physical vanity, and exuberant sexuality’ which they had denied themselves (Atkinson 2003a: 31; Elias 2000). These displays also served to enforce notions of Western cultural advancement and progress over so called primitive societies and to legitimate the imperialist agenda ‘as the outwardly uncontrolled libidinal bodies of the ‘backward’ tribal cultures of the world articulated a brutality long overcome in Western [civilised] cultures’ (Atkinson 2003a: 31; DeMello 2000; see also Elias 2000; Caplan 2000).

Though representing a cultural fascination to Europeans, the voyages had a damaging effect on the tribal cultures they encountered. The most widely known tribal group to use tattooing are the New Zealand Maori, famous for their facial tattoos called the moko. The heads of deceased Maori were kept by their tribes to preserve their memory and were considered sacred, as they were believed to contain the deceased’s tapu (their magical qualities). However, just a year after Cook’s initial discovery of New Zealand, Europeans became interested in obtaining these heads as souvenirs, and a heads-for-weapons trade that lasted over 60 years began. It is speculated that during the tribal wars of the 1820s, such was the demand for these heads that non-tattooed captives were forcibly tattooed before being decapitated, with the heads sold to European traders (Gathercole 1988). European missionaries travelling throughout other parts of Polynesia, with the intention of ‘civilising’ the tribal societies, prohibited tattooing, along with other habits considered ‘uncivilised’ such as polygamy, leading to a rapid decline in its traditional practice (DeMello 2000; Kuwahara 2005). Western interest in tattooing during this period can best be described as a ‘paradoxical mix of fascination, disgust, irreverence, and wonder’ (Atkinson 2003a: 32) but it had considerable influence in re-introducing the practice to the West with large-scale cross-fertilisation taking place. Sailors of Cook’s own ship, the Endeavour, were tattooed by natives of Tahiti and returned to Europe with these cultural artefacts, playing a major role in the re-introduction of the practice to Western figurations (DeMello 2000; Atkinson 2003a). Later voyages to the Pacific in the nineteenth century noted that the earlier tattoo designs such as animals, plants, and geometric patterns had been extended and included insignia such as rifles, cannons, and dates and words commemorating tribal chiefs. In Hawaii it is speculated that because of the introduction of guns, the protective aspect of tattoos was no longer needed and so tattoos – which continued to be utilised – became solely decorative (Kaeppler 1988). As DeMello (2000: 46) has stated, ‘without this early cross-fertilization, it is doubtful that tattooing would have been re-established in Europe or seen as anything more than a primitive oddity’. With the rediscovery of tattooing, a new fascination had developed, and seeing an opportunity to make money from audiences willing to pay to view tattooed attractions, white tattooed performers began to display themselves.

Sideshow and fairground performers (1800s–1930s)

The display of tattooed ‘primitives’ in sideshows and fairgrounds were popular attractions throughout Europe and America for many years, but as audiences became increasingly familiar with these exhibits their popularity waned; however, the fascination with tattooing, and crucially the willingness to pay to see tattooed bodies, did not. This resulted in increasing numbers of Westerners beginning to display their heavily tattooed bodies alongside other ‘freaks’ such as bearded ladies and dwarves. Almost exclusively inventing narratives of capture and forced tattooing, these Western performers continued to rely on...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• 1. The history of Western tattooing
• 2. A review of the current literature and the case for figurational sociology
• 3. Researching tattoos
• 4. A figurational understanding of tattooing
• 5. From outsider to established Explaining the current popularity and acceptability of tattooing
• 6. Representing the self Deviance and normality
• 7. Quests for authenticity
• References
• Index