Document Type
Article
Abstract
Within the tattoo community in the United States, and specifically within the tattoo artist community, the historic legacy of the commodification of tattooed individuals has created a strong reaction against the idea that they influence people in choosing to be tattooed. The narratives of capture and forced tattooing vilified the people doing the tattooing not those receiving the tattoos. While the carnival barkers were not identifying American citizens as the "barbarians" that would inflict ink on an unwilling person, the association nonetheless came to be. To distance themselves from the image of the "savage tattooer", the tattoo artist community has adopted an adamant stance concerning their coercion in the individual's choice to be tattooed. My role as both researcher and tattooist places me in a position where I must choose to break with one tradition to serve the other. This article examines the forces that created the current standing of communications both in the tattoo community and in the academic community that examines the tattoo community to better understand my changing role in my research and the barriers to communication that I have encountered over the course of my fieldwork. Examining the historic underpinnings, the available literature on tattooing, and my personal encounters in the field provide a foundation for this article and my research.
Repository Citation
Dass, Rhonda. "Avoiding the Peep Show: Talking from within the Tattoo Community." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 9, no. 1, 2009, pp. 1–14. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol9/iss1/4