More generally, the chin stripe aesthetic was important to the Diomede Islanders living in Bering Strait. Ideally, thin lines tattooed onto the chin were valuable indicators for choosing a wife, according to anthropologist Sergei Bogojavlensky as quoted in Harrington (1981):
“A full set of lines was not only a powerful physical statement of the ability to endure great pain but also an attestation to a woman's powers of "animal" attraction. In the St. Lawrence and Chaplino Yupik area of the early 20th century, women painted and tattooed their faces in ritual ceremonies in order to imitate, venerate, honor, and/or attract those animals that would bring good fortune to the family.”
Tattoos assured a kind of spiritual permanency: they lured into the house a part of the sea, and along with that, part of its animal and spiritual life (Harrington, 1981; Miller, 1992). These tattoos (atngaghun) distinguished a woman in “after life” from a man, on account of the similarity of their dress. Intricate scrollwork found on the cheeks (qilak), and tattoos on the arms of women (iqalleq), possibly form elements of a genealogical puzzle (Kruttack 1998).
As well as being used to suppress the stylistic practices of subgroups, religious values have been expressed via body art in order to denote belonging and identity (Ardner, 1981; Berman, 1986; Bordo, 1989; Hambly, 1927). An early example of this was observed and recorded in AD 496 by Procupius of Gaza who commented on early Christian tattoos (Hambly, 1927). It is interesting to note however that in orthodox Christian groups tattooing became increasingly forbidden and deviant (Hambly, 1927; Douglas, 1966).
Historically, tattoos on women were rare in the West. Although more prevalent,
and diverse in the non-Western context, women's tattooing is most often discussed in terms of how their tattooing relates to men; for marriage and fertility (Hambly, 1927). In the western world, “because of the persistent stigma attached to the practice, no one knows exactly how many women are tattooed (Tucker 1976:29).” In the 19th century, only cosmetic tattooing was common for women. At the turn of the century, some heavily-tattooed women worked in circus sideshows (Scutt, 1974). Tattooing became a kind of economic freedom for them (Scutt, 1974:156). After W.W.II, “tattooing became a personal, eccentric, and comparatively rare mark of identification for women” (Tucker 1976:29).
Later in the 20th century, tattooing in the West became the public province of bikers, outlaws, soldiers and prostitutes, groups seen as deviants and rebels against social control, or it remained private and thus no challenge to power. The development of a "new" or avant-garde style has its roots in the 1960s, when more artists and women got tattooed. During this era of hippies and the gay/lesbian movement, more people were concerned with taking back control of their own bodies. Arnold Rubin describes this period as a "tattoo renaissance" sparked by an interest in non-Western cultures and a loosening of attitudes toward the body. More men and women became both tattooed and tattoo artists (Rubin, 1983).
The rise in tattooing is even stronger and more evident today, as the practice has spread to mainstream middle-class culture (Blanchard 1991, Hardy 1982, Tucker 1981). For modern women, “this rise in popularity (is attributed) in part to the new sense of freedom and rebellion against traditional gender identification which has been one result of the women's movement” (Tucker 1976:29).
The popularity of the pop-sociology book, Modern Primitives: An Investigation of Contemporary Art and Ritual (Vale and Juno, 1989), attests to the level of current interest in tattoo. The book takes this underground interest and the fetish and makes it public. It focuses on tattooing as body art. The book is an essentially postmodern document comprised of twenty-four interviews (only six are women) with people who are actively involved in this world. Editors Vale and Juno's premise is that “amidst an almost universal feeling of powerlessness to 'change the world' women are changing what they do have power over: their own bodies” (Vale and Juno 1989:4).
They characterize the growing revival as the dream of and desire for a more ideal society. “In this Postmodern Epoch in which all the art of the past has been assimilated, consumerized, advertised and replicated, the last artistic territory resisting co-optation and commodification by museum and gallery remains the human body” (Vale and Juno, 1989:5).
As tattooing has moved from the margins to the mainstream of middle-class culture (Blanchard 1991, Hardy 1982, Tucker 1981), it has become less linked with deviancy and has become a more culturally important form of visual communication. Earlier literature on tattooing has not focused on its cultural meaning. However, resistance to control forms and operates at this site of cultural meaning (Bolin, 1992). It is in this context that I will examine the cultural meanings that tattooing has for women in North American culture, and investigate how it may function in opposition to the dominant female beauty ideal/standard.
The majority of research on the cultural significance of tattooing in the West has focused on the psychological aspects of tattooing, especially in terms of deviance (gangs, prisoners, etc.), without much exploration of the range of its communicative aspects. A notable exception is Sanders' work (1989), in which his emphasis is on the exchange aspects of the practice and the development of tattooing as an art world (Becker, 1982).
Tattooing is at least a 5,000-year-old form of visual communication; an
ancient practice with multiple origins. As a socially significant practice, it has long been the object of inquiry, most specifically in non-Western contexts. In these contexts, tattooing practices mainly have public ritual and economic significance (Faris, 1972; Strathern and Strathern, 1971). Historically, tattooing in the West did not have such meaning. Whatever the actual practice, tattooing is a type of social communication, as well as being a personal form of body art or decoration, and these two different types of meaning cannot be separated (Strathern and Strathern, 1971). It is as a form of visual communication that tattooing acquires its cultural meaning “by transforming the natural body into a cultural body” (Brain 1979:15). Tattoos serve to write the cultural order on the body and in this way take on value. In his research in Russian prisons, Bronnikov notes that, “tattoos are another kind of secret language, understandable only to the initiated” (1993:53).
Tattooing carries cultural meanings in North America. It is communication
“given off” that is, it is nonverbal and relates to the presentation of self and to the impression one desires to make (Goffman, 1959). Tattooing is permanent and thus takes on great significance in a culture dominated by impermanent images (Blanchard, 1991). Tattooing is not fashion; it differs from clothing and other adornment in its permanence. It is unavoidably of the person, like a signature on the skin. Tattoo is a mark taken to affect and reflect the presentation of self and the body in everyday life (Blanchard, 1991).
Philosophers have wrestled with questions about the body from the beginnings of analytical thought (Jageur, 1990; Bordo, 1989). One of the earliest recorded Western assumptions was that the mind and the body were separate, and that there was an inherent duality between human physical and human psychological existence (Berman, 1986), this dichotomy was ranked and hierarchical. Some scholars who put forward a mind/body (or soul/body) split, such as Thomas Aquinas, St. Paul and St. Augustine, were religiously trained (Berman, 1986). They therefore tended to think in terms of a distinction between sacred and profane, mapping that difference onto the soul and body (Wilshire, 1989).
A core problem that arises from this division is the devaluation of the body and the extrapolation of negative values to things closely associated with the body (Berman, 1986; Wilshire, 1989). Important body processes, systems and needs are denigrated and ignored (Wilshire, 1989). This causes a devaluation of those members of a society or culture who are intimately involved or associated with the body and its workings (Levi-Strauss, 1969).
Women and women's bodies are often traditionally linked to nature and the natural in this schema and therefore ranked as less valued than men and men's bodies (Daly, 1973). The male has been coded as active, conscious; the female has been coded as passive, and primitive (Bordo, 1993). The arena of feminist body politics theory explores this demarcation of the female as more natural (Sayers, 1969).
Sherry Ortner's discussion of the universal secondary status of women in society, and the work of other American feminist scholars like Naomi Wolf, Susan Griffin and Nancy Chodorow examines the prescriptions for female behavior and ways of being that have arisen as a result of attempts to control and civilize what has been coded as the ‘wild or natural’ feminine (Ortner, 1974).
In the hegemonic structure of Western thought, culture rules over and modifies nature; men rule women; reason conquers the emotions (Ortner, 1974; Wilshire, 1989). Wilshire argues in an important point that the right hand, less valued side of these dichotomies needs to be reclaimed and re-visioned by both women and men (1989). Once the female body and experience has been encoded as a lack, or as the ‘other’, it becomes easy to deny or omit that experience from the cannon of what constitutes human behavior (Grosz 1994). In this way the male body and experience, when spoken of in the universal voice, becomes encoded as neutral, while the female becomes coded as marked, a deviation from the norm (Berman, 1986).
By obtaining tattoos, women inscribe culture on their bodies, which are paradoxically coded as doubly natural by the traditional dichotomy: once for being body and again for being female (Berman, 1986; Foucault, 1978; Sayers, 1969). In reaction, the details and manner of the behavior of women with tattoos are perceived by people in our culture as functioning in the categories of the hyper-feminine (Ardner, 1981; Berman, 1986; Cash and Pruzinsky, 1990).
The present culture of the Western World contains the ideals that women choose 'feminine' designs for their tattoos such as hearts, flowers, or butterflies (Barthel, 1988; Blanchard, 1991; Firth, 1973; Goldin, 1986). Cultural expectation is also that women choose to place these tattoos in areas that are thought of as discreet (a category coded as feminine) (Blanchard, 1991; Firth, 1973), and that they choose to become tattooed at the behest of men in their lives (Barthel, 1988; Blanchard, 1991; Goldin, 1986).
The fact that these categorizations of female behavior may bear little resemblance to the actual choices women make when they become tattooed merely reinforces and points to the strength conventional categories have developed in the Western psyche (Barthel, 1988; Blanchard, 1991; Firth, 1973; Goldin, 1986).
This phenomenon is similar to the difficulty some people have in seeing beyond their own values when observing ‘other’ cultures. The empirical status of women in other cultures is frequently overshadowed by false beliefs of Western cultural bias that reproductive roles cause women to be subordinate (Bolin, 1992; Bordo, 1989), and that males are somehow intrinsically socially and culturally dominant (Bolin, 1992). Expecting this to be the universal case, Euro-American sociologists have often seen it to be so, even in cultures where women are neither superior nor inferior to men, and both sexes are valued for the contributions they make to the society (Wilshire, 1989).
Body politics theory exposes the perceptions and ideas commonly held about bodies and their place in the world as a result of the traditional Western philosophical dualism (Wilshire, 1989). This type of feminist body politics theory focuses on women, examining in part how the construction of the female role in society is related to the association of women and bodies with Nature (Dallery, 1989). As Arleen Dallery remarks “writing the body celebrates women as sexual subjects not objects of male desire...[it] celebrates woman's autonomous eroticism, separate from a model of male desire based on need, representation and lack....[it] precedes self/other dualisms” (1989: 58). Each major contemporary feminist theory has taken up the issue of the relationship between women and nature, although many times these theories have been unable to escape dualistic thinking, equating the reclaiming of the category of nature with surrender to some form of natural determinism (King, 1989).
“Feminists first began to develop a critique of the politics of the body, however, not in terms of the body as represented, but in terms of the material body as a site of political and social struggle.” (Bordo, 1993: 16). Part of Bordo's work has focused on women's struggle for the control of their bodies.
Women's ideal outward appearance has long been dictated by societal attitudes about femininity, for example in contemporary society, thinness, (Bordo, 1993). Due to the emphasis on outward appearance, women's inscriptions (choice to have tattoos) on their own bodies allow them to “make their own mark” and take control of themselves (Grosz, 1994; Hammond, 1996). Women who become tattooed, by participation in an activity coded as male, break down part of this dichotomy in a manner analogous to and moving toward androgyny (Grosz, 1994; Hammond, 1996).
A body can be deprived of, but cannot be separated from the surrounding air it breathes, the food it ingests, it’s speech patterns, and gestural repertoire, thus its communication. To do so creates an artificial dichotomy that cannot be sustained in any real sense (Brain, 1979; Chernin, 1985). Just as the behaviorists found it impossible to isolate one stimulus among the thousands received every moment as the cause of any one psychological behavior, so too it is impossible to remove the human being from the human environment and the complex of social interrelations therein (Brain, 1979; Chernin, 1985).
Tattooing in this sense can be seen as a border marker, the site of an inscription of identity that sets the self aside from the environment at large (Ardner, 1981; Rubin, 1988). It provides a signifier of individuality and indicates an attempt to direct and affect perceptions (Ardner, 1981). It is an external energy investment that symbolizes internal boundaries (Ardner, 1981).
Bordo reminds us that the context of interpretation of these cultural texts is constantly changing, and that while tattooed women are now accepted in the public sphere, it is the acceptance of only those women who have adopted a male perspective. Those tattooed women who do carve themselves a niche in the public world do so at a price and may be severely criticized for being too masculine (Bordo, 1993).
The context of a tattoo is the body, a tattoo cannot be viewed separately from the living being. It is a form of social communication and provides symbolic information about the bearer (Kottack, 2000). Tattooing must be understood in its cultural context because “...irreversible modes of body amount to a quintessential imposition of a conceptual, cultural, order on nature” (Rubin, 1988:16). This cultural mark also must function within the greater cultural order of body codes (Rubin, 1988).
“These conventions say cogent things about the values of any given society, urban, as well as tribal” (Vlahos 1979:5) and form a map of body meanings. Among other forms of dress and body decoration, tattooing stands out in its permanence. Its enduring nature sets it apart (Vlahos, 1979).
Viewed as a commodity, tattoos can be a form of resistance to capitalist commodity culture. They cannot be easily discarded or changed at the whim of the marketplace (Chapkis, 1986). The practice remains artisan, as tattoos are not easily mass-reproduced, and each body and experience of the tattoo differs. The tattoo remains an individual decision, not subject to the laws of the market, and is thus removed from the realm of fashion and commodification of appearance (Chapkis, 1986; Featherstone, 1991).
Tattooing involves pain, and pain cannot be simulated. In a world of mass-produced images, the body is the last realm of first-hand experiences (Featherstone, 1991). Tattoos bear personal meaning and they represent a permanent, almost irreversible mark. Tattoos are beyond fashion, which is about impermanence, although there may be elements of fashion in terms of what images people choose (Vale and Juno, 1989). In some respects, class and social group affect these choices (Firth, 1973). Although not a fashion itself, tattoos have become widely commented on as the new "cool" thing. They still retain enough of a deviant reputation to be "sexy" for the media in their search for new and exotic topics (Rubin, 1988). With the increased visibility of tattoos comes the booming business of tattoos, which turns tattoos into fashion commodification (Featherstone, 1991).
Clinton Sanders looks at the development of tattooing as an art world, but he also examines the tattoo within the realm of visual communication, as giving information and shaping social situations (1989). He discusses the tattoo within its greater cultural setting. "How closely one meets the cultural criteria for beauty is of key social and personal import" (Sanders 1989:1). People who meet these criteria have more success in the ‘social arena’, including economics, so to be physically deviant is risky business (Vale and Juno, 1989). The tattoo is still socially deviant and demonstrates a disregard for norms (Sanders, 1989).
It is this connection to deviance that gives tattooing power. “The power of tattoo, like that of street graffiti is primarily derived from its ability to outrage members of conventional society” (Sanders 1989:162). People with tattoos still often need to hide them because of the response they provoke. Even though the tattoo may be more of an art form, it remains controversial. “The idea of permanently altering one's body is a difficult one for many to accept” (Tucker 1981:47).
In, Modern Primitives, tattoo artist Vyvyn Lazonga, puts the problem into focus, “I always felt strong and powerful about it, and I still do. But I try to keep my arms covered if I'm taking care of business, I sorta’ wear a uniform according to what I'm doing. I want to get my business done quickly and easily, and I don't like having any hindrance or prejudice against me” (Vale and Juno 1989:125).
Besides being linked with deviancy, tattoos remain outside the cultural standard of female appearance, signifying alienation from, and resistance to the social control of idealized images (Finkelstein, 1991). Tattoos negate those standard images. While motivations for tattooing are multiple, controlling one's own body and creating unique, personal cultural meaning are central themes with women in modern tattooing (Finkelstein, 1991). Resistance to traditional appearance standards can constitute part of a new social order. While a “self” can be fashioned through images (Finkelstein, 1991), the permanence of tattoos and the realness of the associated pain ensure against impermanence and irreality.
Tattooing absolutely has different meanings for men and women. “It is, of course, significant that in Western culture men choose to have their bodies marked more frequently than women” (Mascia-Lees and Sharpe, 1992:152).
That tattooing is gendered is made clear by Sam Steward, Ph.D., an English professor who left academia to be a tattoo artist in Chicago and who kept notes for Alfred Kinsey on the sexual motivations for tattooing. He asserts (in the few instances that he mentions them) that “ladies” don't go into tattoo shops and that “nice girls don't get tattooed” (Steward 1991:128). He characterizes women who get tattoos as “ugly, lank-haired skags, with ruined landscapes of faces and sagging hose and run-over heels” (Steward 1991:127) and “as lesbians who scare men away” (Steward 1991:128). Steward lauds tattoos as transgressive and transforming for men, but he did not accept women's desire to rebel.
Scutt's , Art, Sex and Symbol: The Mystery of Tattooing (1974), an informative but non-theoretical history of world tattooing, includes a chapter on tattooed women entitled “Sex Appeal.” He echoes Steward and exposes the sexist attitude within the tattoo world, “the fair sex, in general, is not prone to acquiring tattoos. For other than those who have been institutionalized, few women approve of tattooing, let alone indulge in it. It would be fair to state that most women who possess tattoo gained them under or through the influence of their men folk” (Scutt, 1974:143). Although Scutt mentions that tattooed women face a greater stigma than tattooed men, rather than relate this to women's secondary status in the society he reinforces the view of women as sexual objects. As ‘reproductive units’ women incur more negative reactions from the non-tattooed majority when they decide to obtain a tattoo than men do (Douglas, 1966).
To summarize, the arguments I have advanced support my aim in proving that women’s tattoo practices, although viewed as tabu, must be seen as a means of cultural expression and nonverbal communication within modern society. Due to the associations with pain and deviancy from the norm, tattooing carries overtones linked with forms of expression primarily coded as masculine in North American mainstream culture, which is often perceived in general as inappropriate for women. In addition, tattooing represents a cultural (rather than a natural inscription). Therefore women choosing to become tattooed in our society are perceived as crossing cultural categories and entering an ambiguous zone of gender coding.
Tattoos, in Western culture at present, are primarily coded as masculine. Tattooing has been used to symbolize rank and lineage. Given how dualistic Western culture has been opposed philosophically to nature, and the linkage of the concept of male with the concept of culture and the concept of female with nature, it becomes apparent how women's tattoo practices engender the conflicting reports that they do. Tattooing is a cultural process, and was once a civilizing process. Animals did not tattoo and so to tattoo your self was, historically, inscribing yourself as human. Women who become tattooed in our society are engaging in behavior that carries a coding as male, crossing the boundaries of accepted Western prescriptions for behavior into ambiguity. The conflict between the expectations that are part of the Western contemporary framework and the actuality of women's behavior in becoming tattooed results in the contradictory reports of that behavior in our history as well as the expectation that women who choose to tattoo are not quite feminine.
Fortunately, with the advent in the 1990s and more women authoring books on
tattoo practices (of both men and women) in popular culture, and with the continuing focus of a portion of feminist theory on body politics and the perceptions of bodies in Western culture, the future holds some possibilities for exploration of theses issues in a less biased (or at least differently biased) fashion. In any case, tattooing will continue to be a subject of interest. The fascination with the permanent alteration of the body has a long history, as do the practices themselves.
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