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Inked Bodies: Tattooing between Discipline and Deviance on the Basis of Foucault´s Inscription of Bodies
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Resumo(s)
In the recent decades a transformation of tattooing has been witnessed in contemporary
Western societies: from a formerly working-class and frowned upon practice to a
phenomenon that now reaches far into middle class and can be found on bodies in almost all
parts of society - visibly. The development of tattooing in the modern Western societies poses
several questions and this thesis is dedicated to finding answers assuming that there must be
mechanisms of power and social domination and control underlying it. The conceptual basis
will be the notion of the inscription of bodies with recourse to French philosopher Michel
Foucault. On the basis of his analysis of disciplinary power and its coercive mechanisms this
thesis will provide a philosophical account on how it was possible that tattoos could pass
from the bodies of sailors, soldiers, convicts and the most outcasts of society onto the bodies
of teachers, students, artists and other members of society that are considered respectable by
the mainstream. Thus, the aim is to show why tattooing was rapidly embraced by the working
class as a popular practice while it was strongly rejected and stigmatized by the middle class,
but also how tattooing could ultimately be adopted by the middle class nevertheless. The
analysis against the theoretical background of the inscription of bodies will reveal the
practice as an illustrative example of how thoroughly we are embedded within in disciplinary
structure that constitutes both the way we relate to ourselves and our own bodies and the way
we relate to others and their bodies.
Moreover, this thesis takes into account that tattooing has been practised as a means of
expressing subversion and resistance in several contexts and therefore aims to comprehend if
and how, in this oppressing disciplinary structure, it is possible for individuals to develop
agency over their bodies, escape the disciplining mechanism and overwrite the externally
imposed inscriptions with a counterinscription. In this context, I will also examine with
recourse to the late thought of Foucault how tattooing as a creative activity and practice of
freedom can qualify as a technology of the self. The overall aim of the work is to show that
tattooing as a practice has served several functions between discipline and deviance in our
modern Western societies.
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Palavras-chave
Michel Foucault Power relations Inscription of bodies Tattooing Docility Discipline Deviance Class Resistance Counterinscription Freedom Technology of the self