Tattoo: marketplace icon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The tattoo may be considered iconic in terms of its ability to reflect and contribute to consumer culture. It encapsulates contemporary tensions between the paradigm of plasticity that has engulfed the body and skin and a disavowal of that paradigm by marking the body in a permanent fashion. Tattoos also manage to articulate discourses of deviance and the mainstream, difference and sameness. Further, the “invariant processual contour” of tattoo remains the same across cultures and histories while also managing to evidence differences in emphasis. Similarly, the functions of tattoo in terms of decoration, ritual, identification, and protection continue to trace the boundaries of their possibilities. Ultimately, in a culture that values individuality, these coordinates of tattoo offer a clear opportunity to (re)story the self in infinitely customizable ways.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)582-589
Number of pages8
JournalConsumption Markets and Culture
Volume21
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Nov 2018

Keywords

  • body
  • consumption
  • marketplace icon
  • ritual
  • Tattoo

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