What the tattooed body tells: the gender aspect in the experience of visual sociology

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the gender aspect of modern tattooing performed by the visual method. The object of the analysis is tattooing of men and women, the subject is the representation of one’s own gender and the perception of the opposite gender representation through the tattoo. It is shown that modern tattooing mostly reproduces the cultural discourse of normative femininity and masculinity. However, some tattoo consumers challenge this norm. Three types of tattoos for both sexes are identified and interpreted: (1) tattoos that emphasize the gender of their wearers, (2) gender-neutral tattoos and (3) gender perversion tattoos. The visual analysis of tattoos is supplemented by a set of examples from interviews with tattooed respondents previously conducted by the author.