The Symbolic Meaning of Tattoos and Society Today - Coursework Example

Beginning in pre-historic times, the practice of tattooing has been used as a means of decorating the body or denoting information important to the individual. The art has been used on the bodies of tribe members, gang members, military members and other individuals in every culture throughout the world. One of the themes that emerged from this list is the concept of the group and the concept of belonging. Whether executed as a sign of compliance or a sign of defiance, the tattoo has typically been associated with some kind of socially relevant meaning. Originating perhaps as significant identification or ranking systems and evolving through time to take on a variety of meanings and approaches, today’s artistic approach to the tattoo can be as obscure and complex as some of the designs are themselves or as simple as a drunken night on the town coupled with a sudden impulse and an unscrupulous artist. However, only the latter of these two options is typically acknowledged in modern society’s perspective of the art. Samuel M. Steward (1990) indicates there are a variety of reasons why people may choose to get a tattoo including decoration, narcissism, exhibitionism, possession, sadomasochism, rivalry, sexuality and fetishism among a multitude of other possible motivations. Despite any cultural pressures, there remain a variety of reasons why individuals may continue to choose not to be tattooed. These reasons can be based upon physical attributes, such as a general distaste for the practice or more serious health concerns or simply a realization of the eventual breakdown of skin tissue that will render the tattoo less recognizable in later years. Many people dislike the concept of permanence associated with the tattoo. They fear they may grow tired of the image they chose as young people and justify their abstinence upon this concept alone. A more immediate physical concern is the sensation of “hundreds of thousands of pricks over a period of minutes” (Steward, 1990) and the pain of such an experience. There can also be social reasons for tattoo avoidance, such as parental disapproval, a specific social preference or social stereotypes that link tattoos with a blue collar socio-economic class (Kunihiro, 2004). There are individuals who view the art of tattooing as distasteful or associate it with the concept of ‘low-class’ or tasteless. In addition to the personal and social reasons for avoiding tattoos, there may be spiritual reasons for a person to avoid becoming tattooed, such as the tenets of the Jewish tradition that prohibits any kind of marking on the body: According to Rabbi Judah Dardik, “Judaism has always seen our bodies as a gift from God. You should use your body as a house for your soul. It’s given to us on loan, and if you lease a car, you try to keep it in good shape for return … We should treat the body [well] and keep it in as good shape as possible. That’s part of the philosophical idea of it” (cited in Hebshi, 2004). As this continuing cultural taboo illustrates, there are plenty of people in the world today who still feel that tattooing is morally questionable. Despite these objections, there remain many tribes and cultural groups for whom tattooing is a key social and religious tool and the membership numbers continue to grow. Even within the Jewish community, there are many willing to risk the disfavor of their elders and their priests in order to express their personal feelings and/or beliefs in permanent illustration upon their flesh. Elements of Japanese tattoo culture have arguably been among the most influential and ubiquitous influences upon the art of modern western cultures. This impact cannot be solely attributed to theories of ‘cultural pillaging’ in a world with increasingly standardized methods of expression, but instead finds its roots as far back in history as ten thousand years B.C. However, the first known popularization of the art of tattoo is said to have evolved in Japan in what is now known as the Edo period, which spanned almost three hundred years beginning in the early 1600’s. During this period in time, the country was experiencing a period of prosperity and national stability. With the majority of the population having their immediate needs fulfilled through agriculture and trade, these individuals were free to turn their attention to the development of the arts and crafts products of the nation, which also flourished at this time. Increasingly, villages and towns came to rely on these artistic pursuits, quickly establishing early incarnations of cultural and leisure industries even in remote areas. It was during this period of prosperity that tattooing made its way into history. It is important to note that tattooing was not ‘invented’ during this time as it had already existed for centuries among the tribes of the prehistoric ‘cave dwellers’ who traversed the continent prior to ‘civilized’ community organization. Charles Darwin said in his book The Descent of Man, “not one great country can be named, from the polar regions in the north to New Zealand in the south in which the aborigines do not tattoo themselves. This practice was followed by the Jews of old and by the ancient Britons” (Darwin, 2004). Throughout the explosion of economic activity in Japan during the western world’s Age of Exploration, many workers from Europe and America found themselves working in or traveling to Japan. It wasn’t long before they carried with them an array of new possibilities in tattoo design and symbolism. It was through this mechanism, an early form of globalization, that the Japanese influence began to reach Europe and America. “The European sailors already sported tattoos as emblems of passage and talismanic protection, and soon brought the imagery of Irezumi, the traditional large body-area Japanese tattoo, into what was already a rich iconography” (Matti, 2006). What the Europeans and Americans failed to carry over with them, in typical western fashion, was the meaningful ideologies and rich heritage that lay behind Irezumi designs. As a result, Matti suggests that all meaning was in fact lost: “However the complex web of myth, legend and tradition, hundreds of years in the making, was not adopted, and soon the meaning behind the imagery became lost” (Matti 2006). Without the significance of the traditions, myths and beliefs to reinforce the designs, those of western descent adopting the various images offered in Japan managed to present conflicting concepts to their observers and reinforced the basis upon which some in the west still consider the tattoo to be meaningless and frivolous rather than abundant with multiple layers of significance. It was not until the 1970’s that the west finally began to interpret these designs of the east and re-work them, integrating concepts of Western tastes and ideas. By the 1990’s, this refinement had coalesced into a ‘Euro-Japanese’ hybrid style. Although the west drew inspiration from it and re-interpreted it in their own unique way, it took them many years to fully appreciate the depth of significance and cultural connections the tattoo represented. As a result, the west’s reinterpretation of the tattoo designs occurred over a period of approximately one hundred and fifty years rather than becoming a natural evolution of already socially ingrained symbolism and meaning. Part of the stigma of the tattoo harks back to the custom of the evil samurai and his gang affiliations and thus its subsequent use still today among gang members and in prisons. Tattoos are used in these cases as a means of displaying one’s allegiance to a particular gang or crime syndicate, and in prisons to represent murders committed or the length of time the person has spent in incarceration. Tattoos were worn for similar reasons in Japan, such as to denote membership in the Japanese Kabukimono or the Otokade gangs, during the latter part of the 19th century. Gangs tend to have a definitive symbol to represent membership. Members may also have the name of the gang tattooed in large letters visible on the arms, face or chest. Criminal gang members may also opt to get tattoos that have less obvious or clear-cut yet still generally understood connotations. As a reaction to this loss of self, attempt to find self and to the technology that has produced such a state, many in the modern world are turning to the wisdom of the ancients. “Industrial consumerist cultures are becoming more interested in what they might call primitive societies. That’s not wholly new – it’s a fascination that’s centuries old. The romantic idea of the exotic ethnic dates back to colonial times” (Pitts cited in Guynup, 2004). It is from these cultures that the concept of scarification originates. Scarification involves the cutting of the skin, leaving open wounds, in which ink or ash are placed to leave dark colored scars. “Until the 1870s, Maori men of New Zealand etched deep tattoos over their entire faces. Patterns were chiseled into the skin to create parallel ridges and grooves, much like designs cut into wood. This painful process created raised tattoos that made Maori men look fierce in battle and attractive to women. Since no two patterns were alike, the raised facial tattoos also marked identity” (Guynup 2004). It is an extremely painful process which probably explains its subservience to tattoos across most cultures. As the above quotes suggest though, scarification is becoming more and more popular in the modern world, perhaps because most of the stigma has disappeared around tattoos, with an estimated 36 percent of 25-29 year olds having one or more tattoos in America (Guynup 2004), and the reduced permanence of tattoos as compared to the permanence of scarification Scarification, then, has, in many ways, replaced tattoos in terms of reputation. In a time when tattoo removal is becoming more affordable and possible, with scarification, marking becomes permanent in the same way tattoos were once considered permanent. In some tribes such as in Nigeria for example, children receive scarification at ages as young as just five or six to denote family membership (Ruben 1992). To inflict such pain on an infant shows the level to which this technique is engrained in certain cultures and the depth of meaning that must be related to the practice. However, as has been seen with the tattoo, scarification in the developed world has also taken on the characteristic of a fashion accessory despite its permanence. The postmodern world has created a situation in which most young people have grown up learning their lessons from the television and films that they watch rather than from their elders or culture. For this reason, it is necessary to take a glimpse into what popular culture is saying about the process of scarification. There are several aspects of popular culture that encourages scarification as the new tattoo. Examples of films that use scarification as a means of creating ‘cool’ characters include X-Men, Daredevil and Blade: Trinity. The message that scarification is cool is sent through the identities of characters such as Night crawler, an X-Men mutant that can teleport. That it can be associated with the counter-culture is portrayed in Daredevil’s archrival Bulls eye, who has the image of a bulls-eye scared into his head and the ever-popular and dramatic Dracula figure in Blade, who has scarring appearing on his chest. Thus, in a society where the tattoo has become ‘the norm’, scarification is reclaimed as the most reliable means of declaring rebellion and non-conformance References Darwin, Charles. (2004). Descent of Man. New York: Penguin Classics. Guynup, Sharon. (2004). “Scarification: Ancient Body Art Leaving New Marks.” (July, 28). National Geographic. Available December 30, 2008 from Hebshi, Shoshana. (January 19, 2004). “Riqi Kosovske did it to Mark a Life of Transition.” Something Jewish. Jewish.co.uk. Available December 30, 2008 from < http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/777_tattoo_jews.htm> Kunihiro, Shimada. (2004). “Brief History of the Japanese Tattoo.” Adam Guy (Trans.). Available December 30, 2008 from < http://keibunsha.com/hst_jt.html> Matti. (2006). “The Japanese Tradition.” Tattoo Life. (July/August). Rubin, Arnold (ed). (1992). Marks of Civilization. CA: Museum of Cultural History. Steward, Samuel M. (1990). Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos: A Social History of the Tattoo with Gangs, Sailors, and Street Corner Punks, 1950-1965. New York and London: Harrington Park Press. Read More