The Tattoo: Still Taboo (original) (raw)
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2020
In different parts of the world, tattoos historically have been expression of the socio-cultural identity of individuals or communities: Tattoos are firmly integrated into social practices as elements of initiation or marriage, in other parts of the world, however, tattoos carry negative associations being linked to immorality, and crime. To research the practice of and places associated with tattooing a research-based study project was designed to address the practice of tattooing from the point of view of its cultural heritage values, both intangible and tangible. In the winter semester 2018/2019 this study project was offered jointly by the Chair of Architectural Conservation and the Department of Heritage Management at the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) Cottbus-Senftenberg. Twelve international students from the study programmes World Heritage Studies and Architecture participated in this study project, which included a field trip to London and Oxford and several int...
TATTOO OR TABOO?THE SOCIAL STIGMA OF TATTOOS
The paper analyzes the characteristics of tattoo perception in the society based on the description of the students' attitudes to tattooing and piercing. Based on earlier empirical studies related to the study of tattoo perception (Shannon-Missal L., Sidoti E., Paolini G., Tringalii G., Camacho J., Timming A.), a survey was created consisting of 23 questions (14 questions were intended for people without tattoos and 9 items were designed for people with body art). The study involved N=131 respondents (M=67, F=64) aged from 15 to 25 years old.
Obscenity, dirtiness and licence in Jewish comedy
Comedy Studies
We examine the notion of obscenity in relation to constructions of Jewish sexuality in stand-up. Since Lenny Bruce, stand-up has been defined by extreme licence. Acknowledging that stand-up is reliant on the construction of performer identity, we examine the routines of Belle Barth and Pearl Williams, female Jewish contemporaries of Bruce, in contrast to Bruce, and show that Bruce used his construction of Jewish identity as a scourge to beat a wider, more general audience, whereas Barth and Williams used theirs as a way to ridicule and deflate themselves and their mainly Jewish audiences. All accused of obscenity, these comedians referred to themselves as ‘dirty’ rather than obscene, implying a contrast between dirtiness and obscenity. Exploiting this distinction, they pushed the latitudes of comic licence. Although they all attacked hypocrisy, their targets and goals were different. Some 60 years later, Bruce is generally acknowledged as the father of modern stand-up – he is immortalized and beatified – whereas Belle Barth and Pearl Williams are forgotten. We argue, however, that their personae persisted in Bruce's female inheritors: Joan Rivers, and Sarah Silverman. We examine selected material from Rivers and Silverman, tracing public and domestic uses of ‘dirt’ as a means of attack in Jewish comedy. Their performances stringently interrogated social mores while simultaneously questioning and comically deflating obscenity. We conclude that, as with their forerunners, in their intensely Jewish construction of self, obscenity is licensed as simply dirtiness.
2021
The article explores the Tattoo Convention environment as a privileged context to observe the power relations and the negotiation of meanings framed by the tattoo culture. We focus our analysis on the dynamics that regard the field of Tattoo Convention as an alternative cultural heterotopia (St. John, 2011), giving particular attention to the tension between the desire for community and belonging - which shapes the bio-sociability (Ortega, 2004; Ferreira, 2009) in the space of the convention - and the pursuit of a unique and exclusive body-project. We see broader dynamics of conflict - between inclusion and exclusion, "cool" and mainstream, standardisation and artistry - resonating with this tension. Within this frame, corporal dimensions such as the pain take on the intensification of the biographical meanings (Le Breton, 2002) for individuals and liturgical element for the community.
Italian Sociological Review, 2021
The article explores the Tattoo Convention environment as a privileged context to observe the power relations and the negotiation of meanings framed by the tattoo culture. We focus our analysis on the dynamics that regard the field of Tattoo Convention as an alternative cultural heterotopia (St. John, 2011), giving particular attention to the tension between the desire for community and belonging - which shapes the bio-sociability (Ortega, 2004; Ferreira, 2009) in the space of the convention - and the pursuit of a unique and exclusive body-project. We see broader dynamics of conflict - between inclusion and exclusion, “cool” and mainstream, standardisation and artistry - resonating with this tension. Within this frame, corporal dimensions such as the pain take on the intensification of the biographical meanings (Le Breton, 2002) for individuals and liturgical element for the community.