The Changing Face of Attractiveness

Something in the "Beautiful Bodies" article by Donnan and Magowan struck a chord with me on a personal level, and I'll spend this post discussing one particular point in this article and how it relates to me personally, as well as to society at large.

The section of the article entitled "Skin, Tattoos and Sex" talks about the way people use tattoos as an expression of self, and also mentions that in Western society the skin is seen as a barrier, and that sometimes the way it is displayed can be taken as an indication of the individual (ie: showing a lot of skin can imply negative things about someone's moral character.) The article goes on to discuss how tattooing is popular in other cultures, but I want to focus mainly on the changing interpretation of tattooing in our own culture.

The "Beautiful Bodies" article was published in 2010 but cites a lot of 90s era sources, placing the information in the piece firmly between two eras. In the past decade or so, there's been an increasing shift in public perception regarding tattoos, within Western society.

Perhaps it started with Miami Ink. The insanely popular TLC "reality" series focused on the life and work of several men (and later a woman) in a Miami tattoo shop. The series ran six seasons and spawned two spin-offs: "LA Ink" (featuring Kat Von D) and "New York Ink."

The show's formula was a 50/50 split between shop drama and focusing on the tattoo work of the artists. While the show was not a particularly accurate representation of life in a real shop, the show was a runaway success, and suddenly there were a half dozen different tattoo shows on line including "Inked" "Ink Masters" and the aforementioned "Ink" spinoffs. I say they're an unrealistic portrayal based on discussions I've had with two close friends: both professional tattoo artists for over a decade. The most unrealistic aspect has to do with the part of the show that features artists talking to their clients about the "meaning" or story behind their tattoos. Interesting to note: real tattoo artists don't care about the meaning, they just want to make the art.

And this feeds into both the article, and my personal perception as a heavily tattooed individual. The article discusses how the way we decorate our bodies is seen as a reflection of ourselves. Our choice of adornment speaks to how people understand us. Personally, I have tattoos of things I like (Harry Potter, Detroit Tigers baseball, an Alphonse Mucha painting, an apple, and Hawkeye from Marvel comics). There is no deeper meaning to these tattoos. They outright express things I enjoy and care about. They are not open to in depth interpretation. But other tattoos I have are not so straightforward. I have the main character from my book series on my leg, and an elaborate piece with chickadees on my arm that has quite a substantial backstory.

What's interesting to me is that people who approach me as strangers are equally interesting in all my visible tattoos, whether they're obvious or more obscure.

I've made an observation as a culturally immersed anthropologist that would likely be unavailable to me were I not personally tattooed. The reactions I get to my tattoos have changed over the ten years since I started getting them, marking the shift in our cultures perception of tattooing. Once, the first question I was asked it "Aren't you afraid you'll regret it?" or "What if you try to get a job?" There was a perception that being tattooed somehow made you "bad." As though having art on your body implied you were unreliable, or a potential delinquent or criminal. Heavily tattooed people were seen as societal "others" and given a wide berth.

After the emerging popularity of the Miami Ink oeuvre, suddenly people were asking me, "What does it mean?" The new default assumption was that all tattoos had to have a deeper meaning to them. In the case of the chickadees above I would launch into a well-honed story about Norse mythology and thought vs memory. This is a story I've now told so many times I don't even think about it, because SO many people have asked for the tale of the two birds.

Now I've noticed another shift, in the last two or three years. Tattoos are changing the public perception not only of people, but of the skin itself. The "Beautiful Bodies" article talks about skin being a barrier which we an adorn. Lately, that barrier is being stripped away. I'm staggered by how many complete strangers will come up to me in public and physically lift my shirt sleeve to get a better look at my tattoos. People will grab my arm or wrist. They'll ask me to expose myself, as if this is a perfectly normal request. In cases where someone asks to see my tattoos, I will always happily comply (except, perhaps, in the case of my rib tattoo). Where I draw the line is when people overtly lift my clothing without my consent. Somehow, tattoo art is no longer repellent in society. Now instead of pushing people away, it draws them in, and as an extension of this, people have come to believe adornment is the same as consent. The attitude has become "They've decorated their body, it is for my pleasure." and the connection moves directly from "look" to "touch."

This, too, I link to the popularization of tattooing on television and in media. Because of the assumption that all tattoos must tell a story, there is then a further assumption that story wants to be told. Therefore, by extension, the tattooed individual becomes an open book. A book whose pages the reader feels they are entitled to touch in order to absorb the story.


In the US, 14% of Americans now have a tattoo. 36% of Americans 18-25 have at least one, and 40% of those 26-40 do as well. That's a staggering number of people with ink. It has become, if not normal, then socially accepted. And with that acceptance, some problems are sure to arise. Tattooing has not yet found its cultural niche in our society. In some cultures it represents a warrior status, or is meant to be viewed only by a marriage partner. But in our society it is somewhere between a deeper personal meaning, and a fun, popular fad. Because we don't have one specific meaning for the art, it becomes difficult to establish cultural regulations about behaviour. This is why we now have situations developing where people touch or interrogate tattooed individuals without realizing it is inappropriate behaviour. I find this flux of perception to be fascinating, and while it is sometimes frustrating for me as an individual, I look forward to seeing how the culture around tattooing continues to evolve and change.

References:

Tattoo Stats