I was five and it was the end of the eighties. While her mother attempted to shield her from the sight of a heavily tattooed woman when she was a child, Renee was similarly mesmerized: Such was the experience of the Florida tattooist Renee Little. Other women I talked with had parents who attempted to shield their children from the idea of tattooing, yet it backfired. Family influence is an extremely important aspect in developing perspective on tattooing, but children do not always follow their parents’ perspective.
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Later, she had these tattoos covered up with higher-quality work by another artist, which is referred to as a “cover-up tattoo.” Since her family members were very much interested in alternative cultures, Sparkillicious was exposed early on. Later on, when Sparkillicious began her own tattoo collection, it was her stepfather who first tattooed her. Oh my God, I thought it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.Īs a friend of her mother’s, Tattoo Julie brought the possibility of becoming tattooed into the realm of her family life. I’m looking up at this lady and she is just fully tattooed. and there was this woman named Tattoo Julie. For Sparkill-icious, the first heavily tattooed woman she saw was a family friend as a child: A studded belt hinted to her punk rock, subcultural style. She wore eye shadow, a lip ring, and a black tank top that showed off the extensive tattoo work on her arms and chest. Her chest-length brown and blond hair cascaded over her shoulders, hiding the tattoos on her neck. In Spokane, Washington, I met Sparkillicious, a thirty-one-year-old mother of a toddler, a student, and a participant in Roller Derby (hence her use of her Roller Derby name). When interviewing participants, I asked them about this initial moment of exposure to the world of tattooing. To become heavily tattooed, one must first be exposed to the idea by seeing a tattooed individual in the media or in her personal life. Lesbians and bisexual women may face additional stigma if their tattooing reinforces a butch appearance, but less so for a feminine one. While White women may be given more space to experiment with their body modification, women of color, lesbians, disabled people, and other already-marked bodies will be interpreted more harshly, as multiply “deviant.” People of color’s bodies are often criminalized and discriminated against with the addition of heavy tattooing, these pressures can become magnified. With the addition of becoming heavily tattooed, their embodiment identities intersect with these other factors. They have developed an identity based upon their gender performance, sexuality, race, nationality, age, and ability.
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Excerpted from "Covered in Ink: Tattoos, Women and the Politics of the Body"īefore women are ever exposed to the world of alternative body modification, they have been overexposed to the beauty culture through their personal interactions as well as the media.