Body Art and Ornamentation

Abstract

Sociology has long sought to understand the cultural meaning behind body art, including both forms considered extreme and forms widely accepted by society, such as female ear piercing. Less than a generation ago, tattoos and many other forms of body ornamentation were widely regarded in the United States and other Western societies as a kind of self-inflicted mutilation, clear indicators of questionable decision-making skills and/or profound deviant psychological issues. As such, they served as potent symbols of identity among certain subcultures, such as sailors and bikers. With the emergence of the millennial generation and gen z, tattoos, piercings, and related body modifications have become far more complex in their social implications. Indeed, an academic sub-discipline in the field of sociology has emerged that now regards body art as a significant element in the structural dynamics of an ever- widening sociological unit.

Overview

Body ornamentation includes practices that range from routine and temporary, such as applying makeup, coloring hair, wearing garments intended to enhance or distort the body's natural curves, and sporting facial hair, to permanent or semi-permanent alterations, usually to the skin. Ear piercing is an ancient form of body art that gained popularity with women in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. Though earrings had long fallen out of favor among men, people of all genders within the punk rock community became interested in alternative forms of ear jewelry—safety pins, for example. Alternative placement followed, with piercings of the nipple, navel, nose, and tongue becoming popular with young people. Ear piercings also became more elaborate and eventually included ear stretching. Scalpel-ling is a technique for creating large body piercings such as those required to accommodate gauge earrings.

Simultaneous with the trend in body piercing, tattoo artists experienced unprecedented growth in their industry. Bold and often intensely personal graphic designs injected into the skin are intended to be a life-long statement. Nevertheless, the availability of increasingly sophisticated surgical procedures designed to remove tattoos suggests that body art acquired at a particular moment early in life carries with it a significance or personal aesthetic that may pall with the passage of time.

Sociologists have traced the evolution of tattoos as another critical element in its manifestation as a significant contemporary social construct (Schildkraut, 2001). Tattoos have a rich and complicated history. Anthropologists have long cited evidence to suggest that applying pigment to the skin dates back more than 30,000 years, that tribes, particularly in the Pacific Rim and on the African subcontinent, used striking and colorful designs on the skin often as a rite of passage into adulthood or as a way to define social status or to single out significant achievement. Body art was looked upon as a sign of distinction as well as an enhancement of the textures and monochromatic makeup of natural skin. Egyptian civilization, more than 5,000 years ago, introduced body art as a strict form of social definition, a way to distinguish slaves from the working class and the working class from the nobility.

British sailors in the mid-seventeenth century frequently returned with tattoos acquired during extensive voyages along the Pacific Rim and the Horn of Africa. The procedure was brutal, bloody, time-consuming, and permanent. Those who underwent the process boasted of the endurance and the discipline necessary to have such work done. Tattooing became extremely popular among sailors and miners, as men involved in each profession often obtained tattoos of anchors or miner's lamps, respectively, on their arms—which served as markers of identity and status. In the United States, tattoos were viewed as ornamentation for men and associated with predominantly male subcultures, especially the military. In the latter half of the twentieth century, as more young men chose college or private employment over joining the military, the association with convicts, bikers, and street gangs in the public's imagination made tattoos taboo in the broader American society.

Contemporary sociologists suggest that body art, more than defying social constructs, actually creates a social construct. Sociologists studying manifestations of body ornamentation in a contemporary society recognize the key elements of a social dynamic: initiation into a subculture through body art, stigmatization by a judgmental collective and compulsion to find within their own social construct a place at once a part and apart, and celebration of a newfound sense of identity and a chosen vehicle of self-expression. Among sociologists, the vocabulary used to define and describe those who have body art echoes larger sociological unions: tradition, inclusivity, private communication, outsiders, secrecy, rituals, levels of status, and even levels of initiation between those who have tattoos but hide them and those who display their tattoos in highly visible areas, such as the neck and the arms.

Despite lingering prejudices, body art such as piercings and tattoos are now commonplace and even fashionable. In September 2014, USA Today reported that approximately 40 percent of millennials have at least one tattoo. According to the website Statistic Brain, an online site that compiles quantitative data on a variety of different topics, a January 2014 study conducted at Northwestern University revealed that 83 percent of Americans have had their ears pierced. With females representing approximately half of the U.S. population, these results indicate that approximately one-third of males in the United States have had at least one ear piercing at some point in their lifetime. This study also found that 14 percent of Americans have at least one body piercing on a location other than their earlobes, with females accounting for 72 percent of this group. In the 2010s and 2020s, tattoos and piercings were common amongst all ages in the United States population as well. In 2021, 9 percent of people had one tattoo, and 17 percent had two or more (Statista, 2023). In 2017, almost half of the population of the United States either had one or multiple piercings or was open to getting one in the future (Statista, 2019). Gen Z has elevated the importance of body art, and modification even higher than previous generations, using the practice as a monument to trials and triumphs in their lives.

Research indicates a clear age dimension to the body ornamentation trend in the United States. Nearly three-quarters of Americans get their first tattoo between the ages of 18 and 22. Tattoos have become highly visible in American pop culture, as numerous celebrities—such as actor and professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, NBA basketball players Lebron James, and performers Pink and Travis Barker—all have prominent tattoos. This mainstreaming of tattoos has led sociologists to argue that the shock value and rebellious symbolism once associated with such body art has eroded and people who have body art or modifications are welcomed into an increasingly inclusive society. However, large, prominent tattoos, facial tattoos, and other relatively extreme forms of body modification retain their "outsider" significance for many groups.

Applications

Although sociologists of body art are quick to point out how hackneyed and antiquated most of the stereotypes of those with tattoos are, data has shown certain patterns. For example, the more tattoos a person has, the more likely that person is to engage in reckless, self-destructive, anti-social, and/or illegal behavior, including binge drinking, marijuana use, promiscuity, and a general resistance to employment. Sociologists continued to gather data on the age in which regrets set in, the age at which a second tattoo is added, and how late a person decides to get tattooed. Body art has long been associated with both teenage rebellion and midlife crises.

Sociologists have categorized tattoos into three broad areas:

1. Symbols (often including Greek letters, tribal signs, religious emblems, musical notes, or initials)
2. Images (ranging from flowers to hearts and skulls, bleeding daggers to fire-breathing dragons and flags)
3. Text (often lengthy passages rendered in elaborate scroll, most often from wisdom, literature, songs, or inspirational bromides).

In addition, sociologists have looked into the logic and motivation behind where tattoos are placed, the boldness of the statement, and/or the need to cloak the tattoo as a kind of exhilarating secret. For instance, less than 10 percent of tattoos involve the face, the neck, and the hands—places where concealing the work is virtually impossible.

Body art is, in a sense, a kind of performance art, which may be less about defying society than it is about self-expression. Controlling one's own appearance is important to the creation of personal identity (Wohlrab et al., 2007). If a generation ago tattoos were seen as the result of impulsive decision making or the desperate need to belong to a marginalized group or even a muted cry for help, the body is now being redefined as a kind of blank page upon which a person can inscribe those concepts, elements, and images critical to their emerging sense of identity. While tattooing may be seen as a form of exhibitionism, it operates against a larger social context in which anonymity is a constant threat and where the boldest and most creative individuals may be stymied by a nagging sense of impotence and a catastrophic loss of self.

Regret and Removal. As the number of Americans with tattoos and body piercings increased in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, so too did the number of individuals who later regretted undergoing such body modifications. This is particularly the case with tattoos, given their relatively permanent nature. A 2006 survey conducted by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that 17 percent of persons with tattoos considered removing at least one of their tattoos at a later time. In 2021, 12 percent of those with tattoos regretted their decision (Statista, 2023).

Tattoo removal procedures are expensive (costing several times more than the original price of the tattoo), can be painful, and require an individual to undergo several sessions over an extended period of time (ordinarily 5–12 sessions, with a one-month interval between sessions) before the tattoo is fully removed. Even then, there is no guarantee that the removal procedure will render the tattoo completely invisible, as the general outline of the tattoo may remain on the outer layer of the skin. Tattoos are typically removed through the use of lasers, which break the ink of the tattoo down so it can be removed naturally by the body.

Medical insurance ordinarily does not cover the cost of tattoo removal, as tattoo removal is considered a cosmetic (rather than medically necessary) procedure. Persons are thus required to pay for the cost of tattoo removal out of pocket, and as of 2016, the cost of a single tattoo removal session ranged from about $75 to $300 or more. In February 2015, Alec Falkenham, a student in the Ph.D. program in Pathology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, gained international attention by claiming that he was in the process of developing a tattoo-removal cream that could break down tattoo ink for a fraction of the cost of laser removal. Falkenham told the media that his self-applied topical cream, which he claimed to have successfully tested on a pig's ear, was painless and would be inexpensive (Reynolds, 2015). Several tattoo removal creams were available for purchase in 2023 though their efficacy was still being debated (Jewell).

Viewpoints

Workplace Acceptance. The tremendous surge in the popularity of tattoos and body piercing in American society has shifted social norms and workplace culture. Visible displays of tattoos and body piercings, including earrings worn by men, were formerly considered unprofessional and, consequently, inappropriate for employees within a business setting. Federal and state laws generally allow employers to openly discriminate against hiring applicants, as well as firing employees, for their tattoos and/or piercings unless this bodily ornamentation is a fundamental component of an employee's ethnic or religious heritage and identity. Many employers, however, are growing tolerant of body art among employees as the number of highly qualified job applicants with body art and ornamentation increases.

The U.S. military has strict guidelines regarding tattooing. The National Guard, for example, does not permit enlisted personnel to have tattoos on their face, neck, head, or hands. "Sleeve" tattoos on arms or legs are forbidden (Rivera, 2014). However, the U.S. Army announced in the summer of 2014 that it was relaxing its policy preventing soldiers with large or extensive tattooing from being promoted to officer rank. In 2016 the U.S. Navy updated its rules to allow tattoos anywhere except the head, with some limitations, and allow members with visible tattoos to serve in previously restricted positions. Soldiers often get tattoos to commemorate fellow soldiers who have been killed in combat.

Health Risks. Aside from debates regarding the professional image of tattoos and body piercings, serious questions as to the health risks of body ornamentation also abound. Potential risks include the transmission of blood-borne diseases through dirty and contaminated needles and the development of infections in tattooed or pierced areas, as well as unanticipated pain stemming from botched piercings. Hepatitis and HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) can both be easily spread from one person to another through infected needles used during the tattooing process.

Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established federal standards to regulate the contents of ink used in tattoo parlors across the nation, no federal guidelines regarding the actual practice of tattooing itself have ever been implemented. As a result, the safety of tattooing rests squarely on the judgment of the individual tattoo artist and the vigilance of the individual receiving the tattoo.

Tattoos and the Major Religions. Religious views regarding tattoos and body piercings vary considerably. Within Judaism, for example, tattooing has long been a controversial subject. Orthodox Judaism generally opposes tattoos, while Reform Judaism is divided over its interpretation of tattoos and other body piercings. In 2012 the New York Times reported that a growing number of Israeli millennials whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors were obtaining tattoos of their grandparents' concentration camp numbers, which were tattooed on the inside of an individual's left forearm. Young Israelis who seek these tattoos do so in an effort to honor and commemorate their grandparents' sacrifice and perseverance during the Holocaust.

Within Islam, henna tattoos, which are temporary, are generally permitted, but permanent tattoos generate considerably more controversy. Among Christians, both Catholics and Protestants, tattoos and body piercings are sometimes viewed as defiling one's body. Nevertheless, Christian-themed tattoos, such as depictions of the Virgin Mary, the crucifixion, praying hands, crosses, and Bible verses, are some of the most common types of tattoos found in contemporary American society. Hinduism and Buddhism appear to exhibit relatively fewer cultural and religious prohibitions against tattoos and body piercings, generally speaking, than the three Abrahamic religions.

Terms & Concepts

Body modification: Any one of numerous processes, both permanent and temporary, by which and through which an individual can alter the appearance of their skin, their body shape, their height and/or weight, and hairstyle and/or hair color.

Ethnography: The academic discipline that investigates, traces, and defines cultures and races.

Henna tattoo: A temporary tattoo made by applying the paste extracted from the henna plant to skin which typically lasts one to two weeks before fading.

"Sleeve": A popular type of tattoo consisting of a large design that covers all or most of an entire arm (from shoulder to wrist) or leg (from upper thigh to ankle).

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Suggested Reading

Irvin, S. (2016). Body aesthetics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Klem Osterud, A. (2014). The tattooed lady: A history. Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade Publishing.

Merrill, J., & Filstrup, C. (2014). I love those earrings: A popular history from ancient to modern. Atglen, PA: Schiffer.

Mifflin, M. (2013). Bodies of subversion: A secret history of women and tattoo. Brooklyn, NY: PowerHouse.

Pitts, V. (2013). In the flesh: The cultural politics of body modification. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Romanienko, L. A. (2011). Body piercing and identity construction: A comparative perspective. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Thomas, N. (2014). Body art. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson.