Tattooing: Art Creation, Tradition, or Mutilation?

Paper Summary:

This paper describes and analyzes three different purposes served by tattoos. The paper discusses tattoos as forms of art, tradition, and even mutilation. Also, the paper posits that tattooing is a process conducted by the society that defines tattoos not only as an art form, but also a ritual wherein positive and negative images of body art, as well as its explicit and implicit meanings, are embedded.

From the Paper:

"Tattoos are one of the most prevalent forms of self-expression and self-identity in the American society. Tattoos are created mainly for its aesthetic purpose, illustrating the wearer's personality as personified in the graphics created and permanently "scarred" into the human skin. Technically defined, tattoos are a form of body art, where illustrations are decorated within the skin through the process of inserting ink substance into the skin through needles. This process, called tattooing, is a popular practice primarily conducted as either of the following purposes: (1) as a decoration or body art; (2) as a form of ritual; and (3) as creations of mutilation of the human skin."

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