Tattoo Ideology – Meaning of Tattoos in our Culture – What has it come to?

Mythologies

Institutions such as MTV create the mythology that tattoos are “cool” and stylish.  The representations of tattoos has changed over the years, where tattoos were perceived as negative aspects in our culture are now becoming a trend, and they are more popular and accepted.  The ink of tattoos is used as tool to show important values, beliefs and ideologies to an individual, such as love, religion, art and group affiliations.  For example the following photo below is a tattoo (Obay Karim) represents important ideologies that I believe in. The coat of arms of Syria represents cultural pride, and the letters on the bottom are my family member’s initials.

Binaries:

Good Vs Bad

The binary good and bad can be seen in tattoos. Tattoos can be seen as good when good intentions is put into the work of the tattoos, such as the name of loved one, a religious symbol/ icon to show you believe in faith for example a cross.  For the most part tattoos are usually seen and associated bad/darkness because of criminals, gangs and teenage rebellion. For example many gangs such as MS-13 and 18^th Street  all identify themselves with tattoos. Some of these tattoos are the name of the gang, and/or the area the individual came from. 

Nature Vs Culture

The binary of Nature versus Culture is present within our tattoo culture, known as the “Nature” versus “Nurture” debate. Whereas nature represents our biology set up so our race and genetics versus nature what is learned as we grow up i.e. religion, culture, and technology. This showcases that tattoos is categorized under the non-reality or nurture category, as you are not born with a tattoo.

Reality Vs Illusion:

The Vampire lady’s name is Maria Jose Cristerna and she is from Mexico. She is becoming an icon for her physical transformation with her numerous tattoos and piercings.  Regarding her transformation, she said the following in an interview: “My body transformation has been a part of taking my taste to the extreme. Life is short and sometimes we waste it on many things, so I've chosen beauty. And for me it's beautiful to be this way, so that's why I do it.”

Her statement confirms that she transformed herself into her vision and fantasy of what represents beauty for her.  The binary opposition here is the difference between reality and illusion.  The reality is that Maria Jose Cristerna was not born the way she looks now. It was her cultural values and beliefs that led her to transform herself into what she looks like now. Her appearance is made up of an illusion; it is not real because in reality the fact is that she was not born that way.  The following link is a video and article of the Vampire Women.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/vampire-woman-maria-jose-cristerna_n_1242542.html

Ideology:

Eternity and Brands

Tattoos has becomes embedded within our culture as a way to express one’s self. Reasons why individual get tattoos range from their personal values and beliefs to rebellions acts, all to set an identity and representation of that individual. The idea of why individuals attain tattoos in our culture can be the idea of what the tattoo representations. For instances the idea of eternity. Tattoos are “permanent” (they can be removed, however it is unlike) or ever-lasting. When individuals take tattoos to the extent of cosmetic tattooing such as eye browns, eye line, and lip line – demonstrates the yarn for ever-lasting beauty and “permanent” features. In addition when individuals get names of loved ones and in memory showcases they want this to be with them forever. This displays the endearing of loves ones and the profound meaning behind tattoos. The idea of eternity in our culture can be illustrated from the beginning of time with “Adam and Eve” and how they had eternal life. From there on man has tried and placed belief in ever-lasting life. Our culture has based eternity into fictional characters to live through these characters. For example vampires who live forever. Also super heroes tend to live forever as well.

The idea of tattoos is becoming a brand – a way of selling the representation of the meaning tattoos. Branding is an apart of market whereby we can conclude that tattoos are a part of the big world of marketing. There many instances in our culture were tattoo is branded and sold or the idea of tattoos is. The following link below of the tattoo rock parlour is located in Toronto and showcased and has the ambience and target market of tattoos. The tattoo rock parlour is edging, has creative décor, and rock music. This demonstrates how the word and meaning of tattoos can be translated into an experience. Another example is of the new line of eye-shadow make-up under the cosmetic line of Maybelline called Tattoo Tenacity. This displays the idea of the “permanent”, ever-lasting, uniqueness of tattoos. In addition to the marketing the experience of tattoos, Tattoo artist has become established within our culture for example Miami Ink a new reality show about talented tattoo artists.

™ Tattoo Club: http://www.tattoorockparlour.com/

™ Cosmetic make up: http://www.maybelline.ca/products/122/eyes/eye-shadow/eye-studio-color-tattoo-24hr-cream-gel-shadow/painted-purple/20?shadeId=635&view=shades&position=484

Human Commodification

Tattoos are seen as a way to express a person’s individuality and ideals. For example, if a person gets a cross, then the association is that the person may be religious or if a person gets a music notes tattoo, the association then is that it means they love music.

Branding serves human commodification. The increase in consumption of brand logo tattoos like Apple, Ikea, Mcdonald’s can be linked with the commodification of culture through the representation of brand loyalty.  People who get a brand logo tattoo identify themselves with that brand’s philosophy and identity. Hence, brand tattoos serve as a way of objectifying people.

Examples of Human commodification:

If an individual gets a bar code tattoo, it can be argued that it does not portray the uniqueness of each person; but instead it just places everyone into the same group of objects because the permanent marking of a bar code objectifies the human beings by taking away their humanity and turning them into human commodities. On the other hand, the fact that each bar code is different could also imply the opposite - that each human being is unique. 

Tattoos in Our Culture (Trends of Tattoos) - Why do people get tattoos?

In these modern days, tattoos are becoming more popular in our culture, especially in western nations.  Tattoos are a growing trend and many different kinds of people, from bikers to celebrities, are getting them. Today, tattoos are widely spread, but in the past when individuals got tattoos, it brought many negative cultural associations with it, and these people were perceived as criminals, gang members, and/or the “bad guys”.

These days, you see many young successful professionals and celebrities with tattoos, and the fact that they have tattoos does not affect their daily life nor corrupt their image as it did in the old days.  If we look at the entertainment business for instance, there are many actors and artists who got tattoos specially made for them like the rapper Lil Wayne for example. Lil Wayne has full body art on his face, chest, arms and back. Other celebrities who also got ink done are: Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Angelina Jolie, and Chris Brown. Still, even though they have tattoos, it does not affect their reputation and fan base.  Also, the tattoo TV shows like “Miami Ink” and “NY Inc” became really popular and boosted the tattoo cultural trend.

Tattoos come in many different forms and sizes and there are many reasons why individuals get tattoos. One reason why people get tattoos is because it is a way of illustrating ideologies that are important to them. The ink of the tattoos is used as a tool to show important values and beliefs for these individuals.

Many of the tattoos that people get represent ideologies of love, religion/spirituality, cultural, rebellion and organization. For example, love tattoos such as heart or a persons’ name is way of expressing and symbolizing love for their mothers, boyfriends, family and friends.  For religion/spirituality, many people get tattoos of crosses to show their love for Christ or like the some Japanese tribes which get tribal tattoos because they believe it is a way of connecting with the spirit world. In quite a few African tribes, there are cultural tattoos like for instance when a woman has given birth to a male baby; she will get a tattoo on her face. Moreover, when the male is older, he will receive tattoos as these tribes believe that the male’s painful tattoo proves his masculinity. Also, tattoos can be a form of rebellion or revolt against something, and this is not only for adolescents; an example is teenagers using tattoos to demonstrate their disagreement with their parents’ thinking and attitudes. Other persons’ tattoos have the purpose to show that they belong to an organization such as gangs and bikers groups where tattoos are mandatory to identify themselves as members of the group.

 

Sources:

15 Reasons someone could become addicted to tattoos. (2010, June). Retrieved March 2012, from New Look Houston: http://www.newlookhouston.com/blog/2010/06/28/15-reasons-someone-could-become-addicted-to-tattoos/

Veal, E. (2012, February). Tattoos: A trend and a symbol . Retrieved March 2012, from The A&R Register: http://www.ncatregister.com/business/local_business/tattoos-a-trend-and-a-symbol/article_73dcf558-5d76-11e1-b1c9-001a4bcf6878.html

History & Evolution of Tattoos

Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years and for different reasons across the world. Through the course of time the representation of tattoos have been associated with gangs, tribes, religion, and played a significant role within different countries.

Tattoos consist of marking the skin with colour pigments by repeatedly puncturing the skin with a sharp object (needle). “The word tattoo is said to have two major derivations- from
the Polynesian word ‘ta’ which means striking something and the tahitian word ‘tatau’ which means ‘to mark something”(designboom).

The earliest form of tattoos can be dated back to over 5000 years ago (Rachuy, 2010). ‘ötzi the ice man’ (a frozen mummy) was discovered in 1991 on a mountain between the Italian-Austrian border. The corpse contained roughly 57 observable tattoos on his body (Rachuy, 2010). Experts believe that the tattoos were therapeutic to ease joint pains, due to the location of the tattoos; on his ankle joints, knee, and lower spine (Rachuy, 2010).

Also, sailors traditionally got tattoos of an anchor and/or of beautiful ladies. Sailors began tattooing when Captain Cook met the tattooed indigenous of the South Pacific in the 16th century. “The Captain's sailors wanted a memento of their adventures and the exotic tattoo seemed the perfect souvenir, thus beginning the tattooing of sailors”(Rachuy, 2010).

The representation of tattoos has changed over the years, whereby the negative association with tattoos has less or no effect on individuals now. Today, people get tattoos out of love, lost (in memory of), rebellion, and no reason (it was the spur-of-the-moment, usually when drunk). Our generations have become more immune to tattoos and see it as a freedom of expression.

There is still group of people and country/culture association from tattoos. In a gang, a tattoo represented their personal skills and accomplishment as gang member. For example, in Britain if a person has dot tattooed on his left cheek meant he was in prison. In the United States a teardrop tattooed near the eye would indicated that they killed someone or his friend did.

Also, the purpose of tattooing has evolved and changed over time. Back in history tattoo was a form of collective representation of a group of people such tribes and religious groups. Today, tattoos are a form of individualism, expressing the ideology of a particular individual. 

 

 

designboom. (n.d.). Retrieved 2012, from a brief history of tattoos : http://www.designboom.com/history/tattoo_history.html

Rachuy, C. (2010, June 28). Retrieved January 2012, from Tattoos: The Histroy and Evolution of Human Body Art: http://christine-rachuy.suite101.com/tattoos-the-history-and-evolution-of-human-body-art-a255163