I can’t really find any other way of explaining this to you than by saying I felt numb. I was out of my body for almost two years. “I can’t believe it, even now when I’m sitting here talking to you. The tattooing ritual helped them to overcome these traumatic experiences and locate their bodies once again. A gay pride tattooįor instance, many of Pitts’ interviewees were women who had been sexually abused at one point in their lives. Whether it’s a desire for self-affirmation, the need to overcome personal tragedy, battling with poverty, or finding voice in a hostile society, these individuals all find solace in the act of modifying their bodies. Her interviews with members of the LGBT community, working class tattoo enthusiasts, female tattoo collectors, and “modern primitives” reveal that each of these groups uses body modification as a means of coping with stress resulting from various forms of oppression (gender, sexuality, race, class, etc). Victoria Pitts (2003) has also argued that body modification serves as a means of stress management for the disenfranchised, the marginalized, and the subordinated. She states, “I went to get a new tattoo to symbolise my freedom and the new chapter in my life.” And later, “I love seeing my body change every time Curly tattoos me…It’s an incredible journey of self-discovery.” So whereas one might interpret Jacqui Moore’s dramatic post-divorce body modification as a sign of mental pathology or instability, we might also interpret her behavior as a rational attempt at self-empowerment, self-actualization, and change. Atkinson argues that by publicly confronting especially negative emotions, tattooing acts as a cathartic valve that prevents more self-destructive or harmful behaviors.
The result is that they can avoid the potentially negative psychological costs of keeping these sorts of stressors inside them. In this way, individuals can confront their fears, their worries, their hopes, and their dreams. In a similar vein, Michael Atkinson (2004) argues that tattooing allows individuals to express emotions that would normally be displaced, subverted, and pushed away from public view.
Because they violate gender norms, body modifications like tattoos and piercings serve as a declaration of autonomy and a means of resistance to traditional notions of femininity. She draws parallels between the First Wave and tattooed women of the carnival circuit, the Second Wave and female tattoo artists of the Tattoo Renaissance (60s and 70s), and the Third Wave and the contemporary proliferation of tattooed female bodies (many with widely different political agendas). For instance, Margot Mifflin’s Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo (1997) argues that women’s role in the tattooing coincides directly with the three waves of feminism.
Much has been written about body modification as a form of self empowerment for women (Atkinson 2004 Braunberger 2001 Pitts 1999 2003). Bearing the rather exploitative tagline (which states “A respectable mother celebrated her divorce by asking her new boyfriend to cover her entire body – with a single TATTOO”), which makes her sound not only impulsive but pathological, what does this case reveal about contemporary body modification practices? What is the relationship between gender, patriarchy, and body modification? And what are the costs of using indigenous iconography and rituals in one’s body modification practices?
Recently I stumbled across this interview with Jacqui Moore, a rather well-known and visible member of the body modification community for her extensive black and grey full body suit.