“I am a canvas of my experiences, my story is etched in lines and shading, and you can read it on my arms, my legs, my shoulders, and my stomach.”
- Kat Von D

I remember the moment I decided I wanted tattoos like it was yesterday. I was thirteen years old and had just entered a tattoo parlor for the first time with both of my parents. Upon entering the small building, I was immediately overwhelmed by the beautiful images taped and stapled to the walls. Although we were there to get my mom a tattoo, I couldn’t help but play a little make believe in my mind. I walked through the shop, staring at the walls as if I was about to choose a design. Soon it was time for my mom to sit for her tattoo and she called me over to hold her hand. She talked to me the whole time but all I can remember was studying the artists skin. The marks that covered his body told so much about him that by the time the tattoo was done, I felt like I knew him and that was exactly what I wanted for myself; I wanted to be an open book. I wanted my outward appearance to reflect my innermost thoughts and passions. I wanted what I loved to be etched permanently in my skin for all to see. In my death, I thought as I sat holding my mother’s hand, people would look at me and know what I’d been through. As disturbing as it may sound, I could picture my body laying in a casket covered in beautiful black markings. People would walk by and would immediately know who I was in my life. Although my soul was no longer there, my body would tell its story.

Because the idea was so alluring to me, I had a bit of a hard time understanding the stigma surrounding tattoos in our society. How could something that sounded so appealing to me seem so appalling to others? Why are tattooed people often thought of as “bad news”, “punks”, or “rebels” in our society? Why is the practice looked down upon? What’s the big deal?

At sixteen, I first presented the idea of me getting a tattoo to my parents. My dad was cool with it, he didn’t really care, but my mom was not. I found this interesting because my dad had always been laid back. His thoughts were that I was obviously going to get a tattoo when I turned eighteen so why postpone the inevitable? My mother, on the other hand, has always been a little more conservative. She is somewhat religious and always insisted on her kids going to church and she works in our local elementary school. She’s always the mom to take all of our friends to Six Flags or the city; the safe, fun, supervised places. This is why I wasn't surprised that it took a lot of convincing to get her to agree to let me get a very small tattoo hidden behind my ear. I never thought to question why though. Why was she so hesitant? Why wasn’t I surprised that she was so hesitant?

These questions now prompt an investigation into the history of tattoos. I wonder if maybe the stigma surrounding tattoos goes back to even the earliest of civilizations. When I think about the history of tattoos, I imagine ancient civilizations in far away places where members of tribes covered themselves in markings. Then I think of a show my dad used to watch called “Hell on Wheels”. The show took place around 1866 and was about the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. It told the story of the workers and their families and the little “town” that moved as the construction progressed. One character that really stood out to me was a girl named Eva who had tattoos on her face, given to her by indians who had kidnapped her as a child. She lived with them for so many years that once she was rescued, she had trouble settling back into american culture. She was cast out by many because of the marks on her face which set her apart from others. These physical markings were an outward symbol of her group identity which served as a barrier between her and the town she returned to. She did not fit in and her status within the community was lower than that of a criminal.

Upon researching Eva’s story, I found that her character in the series was based on a real person named Olive Oatman. In 1851, Olive and her pioneer family left Illinois for California in search of gold and a “mormon paradise”. During their journey, they encountered a group of Yavapai Indians who attacked the family, ransacked their supplies, and kidnapped the two daughters, one of which was Olive. For a year, Olive and her sister worked as slaves for the Yavapais who treated them terribly. They were then traded to the Mohave Indians for two horses, three blankets, vegetables, and beads. The Mohaves treated the sisters as their own, although Olive’s sister eventually died of illness. While living with the Mohaves, Olive received a blue chin tattoo very similar to Eva’s tattoo on Hell on Wheels. For Olive, it meant that she was fully assimilated to the Mohave culture in which face tattoos were believed to serve as a form of I.D. in the afterlife. They were an important part of the Mohave belief system and in that specific community, there was no stigma surrounding them.

Whereas these tattoos were a norm in Mohave culture, they had an unfavorable ascribed significance in popular American culture. Upon her return home, one newspaper, The Los Angeles Star, said that Olive was “a pretty girl” who’d been “disfigured by tattooed lines on the chin.” Because they were out of the norm, they were considered a disfiguration. Olive’s tattoos were the marks of a victim in the eyes of the nation.

Although tattoos were a common part of indian culture, the earliest documented evidence for the tattoo was actually found in Egypt. Mummies of women from ancient Egypt often display tattooed patterns around their upper thighs, abdomen, and breasts. Originally, it was believed that these tattoos were the marks of concubines, prostitutes, or dancers in ancient Egypt and excavators tended to dismiss them. Later though, it was found that some of these women were actually of a high status. Although it is hard to state facts about a practice that took place so long ago, one theory on the significance of tattoos in Egyptian culture is that they “had a therapeutic role and functioned as a permanent form of amulet during the very difficult time of pregnancy and birth.” Evidence supporting this theory includes the pattern of distribution and the specific types of designs.

In making assumptions about the tattooed Egyptian women, the excavators displayed the majority of our society’s view of tattoos quite clearly. To many, they are the marks of someone of a low status, someone whose role is beneath that of the majority. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told that if I get a tattoo somewhere visible, like my wrist or forearm, I will have a hard time getting a job in the future. Why is that? Is it because the bosses don't want employees who outwardly express their individuality? Is it that bad to represent yourself in a way that makes you happy?

For my seventeenth birthday, I asked my parents for another tattoo. As with the first one, the immediate response from my mother was "no". I was soon able to find a design that was both significant to me and that she liked and was able to talk her into letting my dad take me to get it. The image I chose was a flower that was on the cover of one of my all time favorite albums. The band was one that was very important to me, that I had listened to throughout my childhood. I knew that they would always represent a time in my life because I had devoted years to attending their concerts and events, buying their songs and videos, and waiting outside in the cold to meet them. Even if I ever stopped listening to them, that tattoo would represent my childhood.

The experience of getting a tattoo has always been very exciting for me. I love walking into the tattoo parlor, showing an artist my design, and laying on the table. For both of my tattoos, I brought along a good friend of mine for support. Before she left her house to come with me, her parents made sure to tell her not to bother coming back if she ever got a tattoo. The thought of this was strange to me; did they really care that much that they would disown their daughter over a tattoo? They definitely sounded serious. They really had no reason for this other than that they didn't want their daughter to mark up her body. This they had in common with my mother who had, on multiple occasions, expressed that she was worried that I would continue getting tattoos until I was completely marked up. To her, that was ugly.

Maybe that's the problem with tattoos in our society. They are not viewed as pretty or attractive and our nation places so much importance on physical appearance. Harsh, strong lines on small, fragile women are typically seen as ugly whereas on men they are seen as strong and intimidating. This may be because typical gender roles depict men as strong, powerful, and intelligent and women as fragile, helpless, and weak. A woman who chose to represent herself as strong through tattoos would be seen as a threat to the roles our civilization is so comfortable with. People want to live in comfort, they prefer the familiar. According to Joel Best’s “Social Progress and Social Problems”, this is called the paradox of paranoia. The paradox of paranoia is “when social progress fosters fears of social collapse.” In other words, new things tend to scare people because change could potentially lead to the downfall of a society (although this is a highly unlikely possibility) and therefore people who challenge those traditional views are looked down upon and cast out in order to inhibit the spread of their subculture.

It would be wrong, though, to say that social progress in the area of tattoos is not occurring. It is indeed occurring at a slow rate in America. In December of 2008, Pew Research Center released a “Daily Number” of 36%. 36% represented the proportion of young Americans (18-25 years old) of both sexes who had been tattooed. That is more than one in three young Americans. This statistic is an all time high which is so significant, it has become a mark of a generation. One of the things “NextGens” (people currently between the ages of 18 and 25) are known for is their tattoos. Tattoos have become a symbol of their group identity and a norm within their culture. What was originally seen as a symbol of resistance to popular culture has now broken into the mainstream. This concept is highlighted in Kurt Borchard’s, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”, which is an ethnographic account of one man’s trip into the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel.

The hotel was highly advertised by popular stations and companies such as MTV and there was talk of many celebrities attending the grand opening which included a big concert. After waiting online in the rain for a tremendous amount of time, a man came out of the building and picked a few people who, “looked the part,” and let them in. Once Borchard finally entered the hotel, he began to observe the many symbols of popular American culture inside which included slot machines titled “Anarchy in Vegas” which were decorated with images of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. For those who don’t know, the Sex Pistols were part of the English punk movement in the late 1970’s. They were looked down upon by most at the time, people were scared, people didn’t want change, and people didn't agree with them. They did have a small following of punks who expressed their “refusal” of the dominant culture through their behavior, music, and clothing. They did, said, and wore things that were outside of the norm to gain attention for their cause and express their “differentness”. Because their subculture was based on being different, their downfall came when mass media began putting emphasis on differentness. Differentness had become mainstream and therefore there was no longer stigma and attention surrounding it; it was meaningless.

Much like the punks in England, tattoos are beginning to break into the mainstream here. There has even been a boom in celebrities getting tattoos. Open any copy of “People”, or “Us Weekly”, and you’re almost guaranteed to see one celebrity dawning a tattoo. Anybody who keeps up with the latest celebrity gossip would be able to recognize fashion model Cara Delevingne’s lion tattoo or One Direction’s Harry Styles’ butterfly tattoo. Anne M. Velliquette also discussed this boom of tattoos in popular culture in her article, “The New Tattoo Subculture”. She pointed out the presence of tattooed people in ads for big brands such as Gap and Polo and even the release of a new tattooed Barbie Doll from Mattel.

Velliquette goes on to suggest that this rise in tattooing as a popular culture may be due to increased efforts to legitimize tattooing as an art form by tattoo artists. Most people who get tattoos are doing so in order to control other peoples’ perceptions and impressions of them. This is called impression management. Tattoo artists are doing the same thing when they try to prove to clients that their shop is a studio, that their work is art, and that they are artists and it seems that so far they have succeeded. Artist who carry out this impression management often converse with their customers about their training and experience. their use of sanitary tools, and the significance of tattoos in self expression. This is their way of legitimizing themselves in the eyes of the customer which both gains them respects and customers. By making customers believe that tattoos “aren’t just for bikers anymore,” they are supporting tattooing as a popular culture and addressing stigma that was once surrounding the topic but also reassuring the customer that that stigma no longer exists.

Another big factor which is making people more comfortable with getting tattoos is the government’s regulation of tattooing facilities. This is where government as an institution comes in. There is a bit of a hierarchy here where the government holds an authoritative position; they are able to control the tattoo artists in a way. Although rules and regulations regarding tattooing procedures, policies, and sanitation vary state to state, they do exist and most of them are strictly enforced. In order to legally tattoo, you need to obtain a tattooing licence. In order to obtain a tattooing licence, you must successfully complete a three hour Infection Control Course and an Infection Control Examination conducted by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) Health Academy. This course involves a written examination which must be passed in order for one to be considered for a license. For tattooing, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene requires that the work area must be kept clean and hygienic, needles and other objects for penetrating the skin must be sterile, tattooists and their clothing must be clean (no cuts, infections, dermatitis or wounds on the skin can be kept exposed), and needles and other objects, which have touched blood or body fluids, must be disposed of appropriately. These regulations are strictly enforced and if broken, can result in jail time for an artist. Most states’ regulations are similar to these. This would definitely make people more comfortable being tattooed because there is much less fear of complications afterwards.

Infections, of course, are possible with any tattoo but are very rare when the tattoo is done in a sterile, clean facility and people really only have to worry when the tattoo is done by amateurs like the ones in prisons or by “scratchers” (someone who does tattoos at home). In the United States, the Red Cross prohibits a person who has received a tattoo from donating blood for 12 months (FDA 2000), unless the procedure was done in a state-regulated and licensed studio, using sterile technique. Infections that can be transmitted by the use of unsterilised tattoo equipment or contaminated ink include surface infections of the skin, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, tuberculosis, and HIV however no person in the United States is reported to have contracted HIV via a commercially-applied tattooing process. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of 13,387 hepatitis cases in the USA in 1995, 12 cases (0.09%) were associated with tattoo parlours; by comparison, 43 cases (0.32%) were associated with dentists' offices. These numbers indicate that there is little worry to be had over tattoos that are done by licensed artists.

Another regulation on tattoos in all states is an age requirement. In most, a minor must be either accompanied by a parent or given written permission from a parent before they are tattooed. This shows the role of family as a social institution. In the family institution, parents have very specific roles and obligations. They must socialize and stratify their children, providing them with a sense of identity. It is their job to teach their children the norms and values of society as well as their individual cultures. When they sign for their child to get a tattoo, the parent is showing their child that tattoos are accepted in their institution and allowing their child to permanently change their individual identity as well as how they are perceived by others by marking their skin.

Although tattoos were a common part of many ancient civilizations, they were never really valued in the American culture until recently. In fact, those with tattoos representing their culture were generally cast out in the past. Some were assumed to be prostitutes, others were considered disfigured, and none were thought highly of. This may be why in today’s society there is so much stigma surrounding the tattoo subculture. The ideas and importance of beauty also play a key role in this. Strange isn’t beautiful to us, it’s uncomfortable. We like to be blissfully unaware of the ideals of others, especially if they are conflicting with ours but now, all of that is changing. Thirty years ago, if my mom had asked her parents if she could get a tattoo, she probably would have been kicked out because at the time, most people believed that tattoos were marks of good-for-nothing, troubled drug addicts or criminals. Nowadays, it may take some convincing, but many parents would allow it. I walk into school and see peers and teachers with tattoos and think nothing of it whereas a decade ago, it would have been considered inappropriate for one, especially a teacher, to present tattoos in the workplace. Our society is moving forward, towards acceptance. This isn’t just about tattoos; it’s about who we are. We, as a society, are moving towards acceptance of all people with all kinds of beliefs, ideas, and ways of life. We are opening our minds to all different ideas because, hell, maybe they’re right, maybe we’ll be better for it.