Tattoed and Booed

Assignment No. 1 Forum 1: Tattoed and Booed(250 Words)

One of the most popular subcultures in America is the tattoo subculture. Over the span of roughly over half a century, tattooing emerged from being a trend among sailors, circus performers, and sideshow freaks to being body ink sported by bikers, convicts, professional athletes, actors, musicians, Millennials, hipsters, Moms, Dads, and just about everyone in between. Thanks to trendsetters in popular media, tattooing broke out into the mainstream in the 21st century. What was once a shocking display of body ink meant to symbolize one’s difference from others has now become so common among people today that to see a tattooed person, or a dozen of them, in a restaurant is nothing out of the ordinary.

Watch the attached video and respond to the questions the discussants are presenting in order to generate a conversation in this forum:

Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H7YtGfIi1o

Assignment No. 2 Tattoed and Booed

Materials:

Tattooing and the Art of Being a Social Deviant

While an estimated one-third of the United States population has a tattoo, tattoos are still seen as a sign of deviance. The appearance of the first tattoos in the United States were relegated to the bodies of the lower classes and outcasts of society. Over the past few decades tattoos have migrated on to the celebrity skin of today’s pop culture icons. In the past twenty years, tattoos have moved from deviant subcultures to the mainstream, and yet are still considered to be a mark of the disfavored factions of society. The dominant culture continues to regard the bearers of tattoos as social deviants, while at the same time appropriating tattoos for use as fashion statements, beauty enhancements, and mechanisms for continued oppression.

What is Tattooing (Links to an external site.)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAuta2rzFwI

Higher education welcomes tattoos in the workplace (Links to an external site.)

Link: https://websterjournal.com/2018/10/31/higher-education-welcomes-tattoos-in-the-workplace/

Prompt:

Most tattooed people see their tattoos as unique aspects of themselves, but sociologists who study tattooing focus on group patterns and overall trends. They examine the influence of media and consumer culture and the influence of gender, sexuality, race, and class on “body politics.” While no single explanation accounts for the increasing popularity of tattoos, researchers find that people use tattoos to express who they are, what they have lived through, and how they see themselves in relation to others and to their social worlds. Studies also find that people cannot fully control the meaning of their own tattooed bodies; the social contexts in which they live shape the responses to and interpretations of their tattoos by others.

Since the 1980s, tattooing has won a following among teenagers and college students, who have altered the reputation of tattooed people from that of criminals and laborers to that of artists and free thinkers. Whereas many cities, including New York, once banned tattoo parlors, they have become ubiquitous in most college towns. Numerous Hollywood celebrities, musicians, and models have visible tattoos, including Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Janet Jackson, Johnny Depp, and Nick Carter —inspiring many youth to emulate their pop idols by becoming tattooed.

The message that a person intends to communicate through a tattoo is not always the message received by others. The complex motivations of people who get tattoos are filtered through historical and cultural lenses that often impose unintended and unwanted meanings on their tattooed bodies. A person’s choice of imagery, location of the tattoo, and whether or not to cover it are all influenced by that person’s social context.

Despite their increasing popularity, tattoos still carry stigmas and can provoke discrimination. The University of California at Los Angeles conducted a “Business Attire Survey” in 1999 which revealed that 90 percent of campus recruiters looked negatively on tattoos. Despite evidence to the contrary, teenagers with tattoos are more likely to be perceived as gang members, drug users, dropouts, and troublemakers. A study by Armstrong and McConnell shows that medical professionals still often attribute tattoos to gang affiliation. Racial and ethnic minorities are especially likely to have their tattoos perceived as marks of gang membership or criminal behavior. Defense attorneys often advise their clients that visible tattoos can have a negative influence on middle-class (and White) jurors and judges.

Young people may find it necessary to cover their tattoos not only when looking for work but also on the job. Once employed, many people still need to keep their tattoos covered or face situations like that of a receptionist in San Diego interviewed by Mifflin: “People think I’m stupid until they talk to me. They think because you look different you have no respect for society and that you’re not educated.” Thus, while they may desire the tattoo as a mark of individuality, rebellion, or creative expression, some tattooees have difficulty reconciling their own intentions with negative social perceptions of their tattoos. Furthermore, hardcore forms of tattooing—such as full-body and facial tattoos—result in stronger stigmatization that can affect employability and social acceptability in ways that a small, easily hidden tattoo would not.

Tattoos, in and of themselves, do little to change social conditions and may contribute to the very conditions they seek to challenge. The anti-consumer values expressed by many neo-primitives and tattoo enthusiasts are undermined by the marketing of tattoos as fashionable and chic. Pitts reports that attempts to use tattoos to counter demeaning and objectifying images of women have been subverted by the popularization of tattooed bodies in pornographic magazines, videos, and strip shows.

The tattoo speaks to the ongoing, complex need for humans to express themselves through the appearance of their bodies. The tattooed body serves as a canvas to record the struggles between conformity and resistance, power and victimization, individualism and group membership. These struggles motivate both radical and mundane forms of tattooing. The popularity of tattoos attests to their power as vehicles for self-expression, commemoration, community building, and social commentary. At the same time, the tattoo’s messages are limited by misinterpretation and the stigma that still attaches to tattooed people.

ASSIGNMENT:
Reflecting on the data provided in Week I, and the above attached video, article and summary, write your reflection thinking about the following questions:

• While tattoos make their way from the prison cell to the pop culture runway, how do you think they are perceived by society?
• Are tattoos still seen as markers of deviance or has society adopted the mainstream culture’s perception and view tattoos as self-expressive artwork?
• Do you think tattoos can negatively influence law enforcement’s judgment where individual discretion is exercised?
• Is tattoo placement and type critical in affecting the severity of how an individual is seen as deviant or not?
• What are you experienced perceptions of the differences between seeing tattoos on men or women, and do sex or gender affect deviant judgments?

Layout and Design:

Writing 200 – 250 words, and complying fully with the following criteria makes for a successful assignment:

• Typed in Times New Roman 12pt font
• double-spaced
• numbered pages
• appropriate heading (name, class, date, professor’s name, topic)
• citations if applicable

*Your grade will reflect grammatical inaccuracies in your work.