Tattooed The Sociogenesis of Body Art by Michael Atkinson

Michael Atkinson had many questions about the stigma that comes with the tattooed body, but not very many answers, so in his book Tattooed: The Sociogenesis Of Body Art, he set out to find why such a large number of Canadians are currently turning to tattooing as an outward appearance of self-expression rather than clothing or free speech and tries to explain why individual habituse ´s, otherwise known as personality structures or second natures, fluctuate over time (Atkinson, 2003: 13). Atkinson outlines his response with the work of Norbert Elias , who is best known for the â€Å"civilizing process† and a hypothesis figurational social science. He gathered information from 27 tattoo artists and 65 tattoo enthusiasts from Toronto and Calgary in a method he called ethnosociology for participant perceptions on tattoos. A figuration is characterized as an accumulation of social performers bound together by chains or networks of interdependency and is a substitute for the idea of social order (Atkinson, 2003: 4). Atkinson contends that we can comprehend a given social behaviour assuming that it is logically inserted into the long-term social processes. He gives a detail of this hypothetical position, and characterizes the terms utilized within his content. Following the development of tattooing from the 1770s, Atkinson shows the onlooker how tattooing has developed to turn into a normal routine in Canada. In Atkinson’s novel, he gathered real life experiences from people inShow MoreRelatedEssay about The Art of Tattoos1110 Words   |  5 Pagestattooing is an ancient one dating back to about 4000 B.C. and is worldwide in its distribution (Roenigk 179). Tattooing has grown to now be considered a mainstream activity and is no longer confined to prison populations, sailors, and gang members. Tattooed bodies now include adolescents, career women, and college students (Millner 425). Throughout all these years, tattoos have been used as protection agai nst danger, as love charms, to restore youth, to ensure good health and long life, to accomplish fertilityRead MoreTattoos : a Permanent Mark on Pop Culture Essay6526 Words   |  27 Pageson the time line. But there are similarities that prevail form the earliest known tattoos to those being performed on people around the world today. Tattoos have always had an important role in ritual and tradition. In Borneo, women tattooed symbols on their forearm indicating their particular skill. If a woman wore a symbol indicating she was a skilled weaver, her status as prime marriageable material was increased. Tattoos around the wrist and fingers were believed to ward awayRead More Tattoos, Body Piercings, and Other Body Modifications Essay2748 Words   |  11 Pagesthan perfection, but each has an unique idea of what that means. Every person on the planet engages in some form of body modification to achieve the look that they can identify with and feel is their own. From cosmetics to cosmetic surgery, a pierced ear to a facial implant, hair styling to tattoos, and everything in between, altering our bodies is part of our way of life. Body painting was likely the first way in which the human animal adorned itself and attempted to express its individual status