TATTOOED:

THE S O C I O G E N E S I S OF A BODY ART

Tattoos have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially

among young people. While tattooing is used as a symbol of personal
identity and social communication, there has been little sociological
study of the phenomenon. In Tattooed: The Sodogenesis of a Body Art,
tattoo enthusiasts share their stories about their bodies and tattooing
experiences. Michael Atkinson shows how enthusiasts negotiate and
celebrate their 'difference' as it relates to the social stigma attached to
body art — how the act of tattooing is as much a response to the stigma
as it is a form of personal expression - and how a generation has appro-
priated tattooing as its own symbol of inclusiveness. Atkinson further
demonstrates how the displaying of tattooed bodies to others - techni-
ques of disclosure, justification, and representation — has become a part
of the shared experience.
Cultural sensibilities about tattooing are discussed within historical
context and in relation to broader trends in body modification, such as
cosmetic surgery, dieting, and piercing. The author also employs re-
search from a number of disciplines, as well as contemporary sociologi-
cal and postmodern theory, to analyse the enduring social significance
of body art.

MICHAEL ATKINSON is an assistant professor in the Department of

Sociology at McMaster University.
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MICHAEL ATKINSON

Tattooed

The Sociogenesis of a Body Art

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS

Toronto Buffalo London
 www.utppublishing.com

© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2003

Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada

ISBN 0-8020-8777-9 (cloth)

ISBN 0-8020-8568-7 (paper)

Printed on acid-free paper

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Atkinson, Michael, 1971-

Tattooed : the sociogenesis of a body art / Michael Atkinson.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-8777-9 (bound). ISBN 0-8020-8568-7 (pbk.)
1. Tattooing - Social aspects. I. Title.
GN419.3.A84 2003 391.6'5 C2003-901041-4

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities
and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to

its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its

publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
Contents

Preface vii
Acknowledgments xiii

1 Tattooing as Body Modification 3

2 Tattoo and Sociogenesis 23

3 Academic and Media Representations 51

4 Meeting Tattoo Enthusiasts 69

5 Subculture or Figuration? 91

6 Sociogenesis and Personality Structures 127

7 Life-course Transition and Representation:

The Deviance Tightrope 157

8 Shame, Social Control, and Display 207

9 The Body-modification Habits of Canadians 237

References267
Index 289
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Preface

In the early 1990s, I wandered into a dank tattoo studio on a pier in

downtown Halifax. It had not been the first time I had sauntered into a
tattoo parlour, and definitely not my first encounter with tattoo artists.
On this cold and blustery day in the middle of February, I entered into
the first significant agreement I had ever made with my skin. With a very
dear friend of mine, with whom I have shared some of the more impetu-
ous and potentially destructive moments of my life, I decided to join the
ranks of 'tattoo enthusiasts' - a relatively small band of individuals
devoted to marking the skin in an ancient and deeply human way. As
describe in this book, a tattoo enthusiast is simply a person who has a per-
sonal/cultural fascination with tattoos, and at some point in the life course
decided to become tattooed. My friend and I did not know anything about
the process, had not deliberated about the designs we were going to
choose, nor about the locations on our bodies that were to be tattooed.
With naive trust and a sense of adventurousness, we clumsily flipped
through the designs available in a decrepit photo album sitting on the
artists' front counter in the shop. After selecting a design, I sat down
and rolled up my left shirt sleeve. Through the course of the hour it
took to apply the tattoo I felt exhilaration, nausea, and a recurring
twinge of shame. But at the end, I was tattooed.
Reminiscing about the experience just about every time I gaze down
at the tattoo, I wonder if I would do it all over again. If the tattoos from
my arms could be magically erased, would I begin to have my body tat-
tooed once more? I thought a single tattoo would suffice, and that I
would be satisfied in doing what I had always dreamed about that one
time. But I have now been tattooed by artists across the country, with
both of my arms adorned in tattoo sleeves. I know very few people with
viii Preface

only one tattoo, and some of their experiences will be discussed

throughout this work on tattooing. However, I would hazard a guess that
in the years to come, they too will seek out tattoo artists on more than
one occasion, filling in bits and pieces of their bodies with ink. I do not
know when, or perhaps where, my predilection for tattooing will end.
But I am certain I will continue to tattoo my body as part of chronicling
my life.
My first academic encounter with tattooing occurred about ten years
ago. Enrolled in a course in the sociology of deviance, I read a piece
from Clinton Sanders's well-known work, Customizing the Body: The Art
and Culture of Tattooing (1989). Contextualizing tattoing as an example
of stigma management and secondary deviance, Sanders skilfully pre-
sented it as an exotic, disrespected, and marginal social activity. Need-
less to say, my own experiences with tattooing did not completely res-
onate with Sanders's representations. I eventually decided to pursue
a small study of tattooing for a course in qualitative methodology dur-
ing my Master's degree research. I quickly learned that sociologists,
psychologists, and the majority of cultural anthropologists writing on
the subject had advanced no description or explanation of what Cana-
dians were doing with tattoos. Furthermore, even though we have
witnessed a recent boom in academic interest in the subject, the lack
of knowledge we have as an academic community about tattooing is
only slightly overshadowed by our commitment to classifying tat-
tooing processes within the broad category of social deviance or per-
sonal pathology.
Quite simply, we need to inspect critically and readjust our under-
standing of tattooing as a cultural form of expression. With this said, my
own studies of tattooing have never been about political campaigning,
claims-making, lobbying, or condemnation. From the onset of my
research, my intentions were to venture into sociologically uncharted
waters - by talking with tattoo enthusiasts in an attempt to grasp their
experiences with this form of body modification, and eventually repre-
senting these experiences in the most respectful and responsible way I
know how. In this way, I didn't want to produce another coffee-table
book about tattooing, or another detailed description about what tat-
toos 'look like' in contemporary societies. The goal is to analyse tattoo-
ing practices sociologically, exploring how this body project is a deeply
social act. I do not set my work on tattooing up as the definitive piece on
the subject, nor do I imply we should regard it as a point of closure.
Hopefully, this piece of sociological work will encourage others to muck
 Preface ix

around in this area, extending what I have done into other contexts, sit-
uations, and cultural settings.
Aside from my personal interest in the topic (that is, as someone who
is tattooed and a sociologist trying to make theoretical sense of the prac-
tice), I possess a fervent sociological interest in issues of corporeality. M
sister, now a lawyer in Toronto, began her academic career by complet-
ing university degrees in English. During her years as a student, she
exposed me to critical readings of the body, often from postmodernist
theoretical perspectives. At the time I believed textual deconstructions
of the body to be academic gerrymandering, a sign and task of someone
with little better to do than pontificate about the textuality of the physi-
cal self. Exploring this literature during my initial foray into the tattoo-
ing figuration, I found a wealth of sociological knowledge and insight
about bodies and their cultural significance.
The sociology of the body is, for me, one of the most exciting, pro-
lific, and innovative sub-fields within the discipline. Arising out of virtual
obscurity in the 1980s, the subject of corporeality has never been more
consequential in sociological research than now. Theory, methods, and
substantive foci of investigation are all affected by our return to bodies.
In writing this book, I cannot help but reflect upon the growth in
research on bodies even since I began this research several years ago. An
interdisciplinary journal, Body and Society, now exists as a vehicle for
gathering and disseminating research on bodies, articles about corpore-
ality in other journals continue to grow in number as do books on the
subject, and courses in the sociology of the body are creeping into
undergraduate curricula across the country. Furthermore, experts in
typically marginalized sociological sub-fields such as sport, gender, and
health/illness are now called upon for their theoretical insight, and
long-standing theoretical dualisms such as the mind/body, self/society,
and agency/structure separations are vigorously questioned through
empirical research.
At the same time, I cannot help but wonder where and how the sociol-
ogy of the body will develop in the future. We currently stand at a criti-
cal point in this area. Looking backwards, we see a path carved out by
individuals establishing that bodies matter in sociological theory and
practice. Viewing our current standing, we see scores of researchers
rushing into the field, rapidly working to construct a bridge so that
others may cross the divide separating modern and postmodern society.
We should, however, carefully inspect the empirical quality, theoretical
durability, and methodological strength of the planks providing this
x Preface

walkway. In clamouring to gather evidence about the impact of postmo-

dernity on bodies, we seem to have forgotten that sociologists are in the
business of conducting social research - research founded upon empiri-
cal evidence, methods with evaluative criteria, and theories that can be
tested against lived experience. Taking the development and empirical
testing of theory on bodies as a central concern in this research, I wish
to continue the sociological investigation of corporeality demanded by
sociologists of the 1980s and early 1990s, while warning others about the
perils posed to the study of bodies by nihilistic, seemingly purposeless,
or self-indulgent musings on the subject.
One of the most troubling criticisms that friends of mine have made
of sociology is that sociologists have a tendency to describe that which
is easily perceptible in exceedingly verbose and confusing academic
texts. As a sociologist, I understand this concern, while simultaneously
realizing that we simply must venture beyond 'common sense' under-
standings of human interaction. If we do not we are merely social com-
mentators, aimlessly strolling city streets offering social opinion to those
who might listen. In practice we walk a fine line, carefully developing
concepts and theories to explain the nebulous collage that is the social
world, yet retaining the integrity and voice of those we study (or those
with whom we study social life). I sincerely question the benefit of socio-
logical research that is solely geared toward pleasing the academic com-
munity rather than stimulating or benefiting other 'communities.'
The following discussion of tattooing is based on over ten years of per-
sonal involvement with tattoo enthusiasts in Canada. I have met many
characters along the way, seen friends come and go, and questioned my
own beliefs about tattooing. Deviant or not, tattooing is a deeply histori-
cal and unique form of human representation. As a species, we mark
our bodies in order to signify our humanity, to express and communi-
cate our sociality as we do through sculpture, architecture, painting,
speech, dance, cinema, or gesture. For too long, sociologists have down-
played the (cross) cultural significance of tattooing, favouring depictions
of the tattoo as a symbol of personal sickness, subcultural deviance, or
social disrepute. Our cultural sensibilities toward this form of art are
undergoing rapid change, however, and in failing to recognize the fluc-
tuating nature of the tattoo as a cultural signifier, sociologists have mis-
interpreted the humanity ingrained in the practice and the relevance of
tattooing across time and space. The discussion of tattooing constructed
here is, then, not a totalizing, politically charged, perfect, romantic, or
theoretically flawless account of individuals who at some point in their
 Preface xi

lives decided to become tattooed. It is simply a piece of sociological

research, and I offer it as such.
The analytical orientation I adopt in this book is what sociologists
refer to as a figurational approach to the study of group life. Figura-
tional sociology points to how social life is best conceived of as a grid of
interrelated actions and processes, and how individual lives are tied to
others' through extensive chains of interdependency - literally, as a web
of interconnected people. In this book, I undertake an analysis of the
contemporary tattooing figuration in Canada to illustrate how the
highly individualistic act of tattooing is essentially a group phenomenon
involving a litany of connected social actors. Furthermore, the tattooing
habits of Canadians are located within broad, and changing, social con-
ditions and relationships within Canada and elsewhere. My goal is not to
force a theoretically complex or abstruse understanding of social life
onto tattooing practices, but rather to help understand why Canadians
have rediscovered tattooing as a viable and meaningful form of corpo-
real expression. The process of 'figuring the tattoo' is concerned with
exposing not only how tattoo enthusiasts' practices are linked together
as a figuration, but also how movements and changes in the tattoo figu-
ration are related to social practices and processes outside of the group.
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Acknowledgments

There are dozens of people who helped make this book possible, and
each contributed in different yet equally valued ways. First and fore-
most, this book would not have been possible if tattoo enthusiasts did
not allow me to pry into their lives. I feel privileged to have shared time
and space with tattoo enthusiasts in this study, and to have talked about
our most private body-modification experiences alongside our inner-
most thoughts and feelings about tattoos. To the tattoo artists I have met
over the course of the past few years: there are no words I can use to
relate how much I appreciate your openness and honesty. I wear the
reminders of my experiences in tattoo studios, and will reflect upon
them with much nostalgia in the years to come.
There have been many others who provided critical assessment and
support of this work at varying stages of its completion. I would like
especially to thank Kevin Young for encouraging me to pursue this
topic, and for providing constant faith in, and incredible insight regard-
ing, my work. I would also like to thank Bob Stebbins sincerely for his
guidance and advice regarding what I should do with the text. I have
also been fortunate to receive keen recommendations and direction
from Eric Dunning, Leslie Miller, Bruce Arnold, Billy Shaffir, Alan
Smart, Dick Wanner, Arthur Frank, Kelly Hardwick, Brian Wilson, and
Andy Hathaway - to each of you I owe a unique thank-you for reading
my work, listening to my ideas, and giving me theoretical inspiration.
I also wish to acknowledge the efforts of Virgil Duff at the University
of Toronto Press, who enthusiastically supported this book from the
time I first submitted my proposal to him. My sincere thanks also go to
John St James for his thoughtful editing of the manuscript of this book.
Thanks are in order to the anonymous reviewers from the University of
xiv Acknowledgments

Toronto Press and Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme / Humani-

ties and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, who offered considerably
constructive evaluations of the manuscript. I would also like to thank
the granting agencies that helped fund both my initial research on tat-
tooing in Canada and the publication of this book. The research dis-
cussed in this study was funded in part by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Finally, I would like to thank my father, mother, Jodi, and Bronwyn for
their continued belief in my abilities and trust in my life choices - par-
ticularly, those that have led me to redesign my body through tattooing!
Many thanks are also due to Scott Veldhoen for providing the photo-
graphs contained in this book.
TATTOOED:
THE S O C I O G E N E S I S OF A B O D Y ART
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CHAPTER ONE

Tattooing as Body Modification

Recently, I watched a commercial on television advertising a revolution-

ary way to tone one's abdominal muscles. A person attaches a series of
high-tech, scientifically designed plastic electrodes to the midsection
and 'the muscles are stimulated into sending out fat-burning and mus-
cle-producing messages.' The purpose of the apparatus is seemingly ele-
mentary: to rouse the muscles into a state of simulated exercise. The
commercial shows several hulking men lying on a beach or lounging on
chesterfields while their bodies are effortlessly shaped by the device.
Similarly, young, bikini-clad women are shown relaxing in tanning beds
or watching television while the machine works away their unwanted
pounds.
The product, and commercial advertising of the product, underscore
the simple fact that we are increasingly motivated to pursue new and
innovative ways to modify our bodies. We live in an era in which people
are expected socially to engage in a full gamut of body-modification
practices, from the routine (e.g., a haircut) to the physically traumatic
(e.g., breast augmentation). Body modification products and services
abound in everyday life. Grocery stores, hair salons, diet centres, exer-
cise gyms, fashion retailers, laser eye-care offices, and health spas all
offer commodities and strategies oriented toward changing our physical
bodies and bettering our lives. We are, in a sense, a culture of body mod-
ificationists, with our hunger for altering the corporeal only frustrated
by the limits imposed by our imaginations, financial resources, products
at our disposal, and scientific-medical technologies.
Since the late 1980s, sociologists have become increasingly mindful of
the frequency and rapidity with which people deliberately modify their
bodies. Through perhaps one of the most focused and insightful exege-
4 Tattooed

ses of the topic, Shilling (1993) conceptualized body modification as

intentionally designed 'projects,' and contended that such undertakings
are integral in formulating identity over the life course. He argued that
bodies exist in a continual process of becoming - as their sizes, shapes,
appearances, and contents are subject to ongoing transformation.
One of the most visibly en vogue, and clearly contested, body projects
in the new millennium is tattooing. It is estimated that approximately
15 to 20 per cent of North Americans are now tattooed (Atkinson
and Young 2001). This prevalence is historically unparalleled in West-
ern cultures and somewhat surprising given previous estimates, which
suggested the participation rate to be as low as 4 to 6 per cent (Sanders
1989; Steward 1990). Though tattooing was associated almost exclu-
sively with the social underbelly (Grumet 1983; McKerracher and Wat-
son 1969; Paine 1979; St Glair and Govenar 1981), existing research
illustrates how it now cuts across categories of age, gender, socio-
economic status (i.e., education, income, occupational prestige), ethnic
background, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation (DeMello 2000;
Irwin 2000; Myers 1997; Vail 1999). With the influx of people (both
artists and their clients) into the tattoo 'scene' (Irwin 1977), and a con-
temporary shift in cultural understandings of tattoos, the practice is
undergoing unplanned transformation in North America.
For the most part, though, we still know very little about contempo-
rary tattoo enthusiasts' fascination with this body project, cultural sensi-
bilities about the practice, or collectively shared understandings of
tattoo art. This is particularly true in the Canadian context, since there
have been no sustained analyses of Canadian tattooing. Given the ongo-
ing renaissance in Western tattooing - a collection of activities and
events altering the membership base of tattoo enthusiasts and ushering
in a new era of professionalism in tattooing (DeMello 2000) - it seems
that an empirical look at where tattooing has come from in the recent
past could shed some much needed light on the contemporary appeal
of tattooing for Canadians.
This book is, then, organized around two main sociological problems.
First, I am principally concerned with explaining why a noticeable num-
ber of Canadians are tattooing their bodies at this juncture in our cul-
tural history. With a plethora of less permanent and more normative
methods for manipulating bodies readily available, why has tattooing
become undeniably de rigeur among Canadians? In my effort to locate
the current study in the ongoing historical development of the Cana-
dian tattoofiguration- the term 'figuration' referring to a collection of
 Tattooing as Body Modification 5

social actors bound together by chains or webs of interdependency

(Elias 1994) - a primary concern is how long-term social transforma-
tions in Canada (both within and outside of the tattoo figuration) have
influenced individuals to become more curious about, fascinated with,
and accepting of tattoos.
Second, and conjointly with the first problem, this book examines
how individual habituses (Bourdieu 1984, 1990; Elias 1994, 1996; Mauss
1973) - what one might call 'personality structures' or 'second natures'
- fluctuate over time. Specifically, through the critical inspection of sto-
ries about tattooing provided by contemporary tattoo artists and their
clients, key segments of the text are devoted to detailing how tattoos are
sought out as a form of personal expression. Attention is given to how
tattooing corresponds with the ongoing 'psychogenic' development of
individuals, and how the experience of being tattooed is grounded in
fundamentally interdependent, highly rationalized, and deeply affective
structures of interpretation. Cultivating an analysis of tattoos as concur-
rent markers of independence (qua individuality) and interdependence
(qua group affiliation), I centre my focus on the processes through
which tattoos become reflective of specific personality structures to-
ward, and cultural sensibilities about, the body and its modification.
What is offered in this book is, then, a theoretical/empirical analysis
of Canadians' tattooing habits. For readers new to this subject (tattooing
and/or sociology!) this text describes and analyses some of the most
pervasive trends in contemporary Canadian tattooing from a 'figura-
tional' perspective. For those possessing a familiarity with tattooing, this
book is intended to encourage you to reflect upon your own tattooing
experiences, and those of others around you - to see yourself linked to
other enthusiasts who share your penchant for the practice. In either
case, my aim is to underline how tattooing body projects are deeply
social, personal, and meaningful communicative acts. In what follows in
this chapter, some attention is given to how figurational sociology helps
shed light on tattooing body projects, and to where this book fits into
our understanding of bodies and their modification.

What Is Figurational Sociology?

The principles of figurational sociology were initially assembled

through the works of Norbert Elias. A German-born Jewish sociologist
who spent portions of his life in Germany, England, Ghana, and the
Netherlands, Elias produced a series of masterfully written and poi-