GIRLS WITH TATTOOS

My daughter wrote a paper about tattoos in Grade 12 Sociology a couple of years ago.  Part of it addressed women and tattoos, which I thought was really interesting. Here’s an excerpt from her paper:

Despite how strong the tattoo culture in North America has grown, both tattooed and un-tattooed people still place boundaries within the tattooed culture. The widely held belief is that tattooing is a masculine practice. It seems that women get tattooed for two reasons, according to McMaster sociologist Michael Atkinson. He says that women get tattooed either in submission to or rejection of feminine norms.

Some women get tattooed to break down gender roles by adopting a masculine trait. In these cases, the tattoos are generally large, greater in number, of a different variety than purely aesthetic tattoos, and in areas that are easily seen. This affects society in that tattooing is a means to challenge and change boundaries.

On the flip side of the coin, many women get aesthetic tattoos in submission to feminine roles. Aesthetic tattoos are usually few in number and placed somewhere not easily seen or immediately obvious. Placement of aesthetic tattoos can be viewed as in submission to feminine norms.

Well, I can safely report that my daughter falls in the former category of challenging the gender roles. By anyone’s standards, she is heavily tattooed, and she loves it. I must admit I wasn’t too thrilled when she started down this path, but the whole business of tattoos has become so mainstream so fast, I barely turn a hair these days. Here’s a picture of her Koi.

As for me, I’m not sure which camp I fall in. I don’t have any tattoos myself, but I do love looking at other people’s body art. On the other hand, Heather and I made a bit of a pact that when we sell our first YA, we’re each going to get a tattoo. I always thought I’d get something small, maybe on my foot, but now I’m going to be ultra conscious that if I make that choice, I’d be submitting to feminine norms. Crap!

Regardless of what I choose to do, though, my attitudes about tattoos have changed radically over the last decade. I used to look at dudes with sleeves and think, “Yuck!”. Actually, now that I think about it, my change of opinion might have coincided with the release of that Robbie Williams video about eight years ago.... I’ll leave you with that lovely view.