Margo DeMello
Autor von Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community
Über den Autor
Margo DeMello is a Lecturer in the Department of Communications, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Central Now Mexico Community College. Her books include Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community, Encyclopedia of Body Adornment, Feet and Footwear, and Faces Around mehr anzeigen the World. weniger anzeigen
Werke von Margo DeMello
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Wissenswertes
- Geburtstag
- 20th century
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- USA
- Wohnorte
- Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
- Ausbildung
- University of California, Davis (PhD - Cultural Anthropology)
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Rezensionen
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Statistikseite
- Werke
- 16
- Mitglieder
- 168
- Beliebtheit
- #126,679
- Bewertung
- 4.3
- Rezensionen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 42
1. the tattooed person's difference from "the type of person who usually gets tattooed" (inmates, sailors, bikers, gang members, etc.--basically, coded ways of talking about lower socioeconomic classes),
2. the amount of thought and consideration that went into choosing a design (reflecting middle-class values of independence and discipline, and the idea of the body as a temple that should be decorated thoughtfully, not desecrated with something lame like Yosemite Sam or Calvin peeing on a Ford logo), and
3. personally symbolic, often spirituality-inflected, readings of the tattoo itself (often involving something about a personal struggle or crisis, or imbued with other meanings that seem, whether or not the tattooed person is aware of it, to be taken from various self-help movements from the '70s and '80s).
I got a tattoo over the summer, and I will confess that I'm totally guilty of creating this kind of narrative. Reading DeMello's book, I felt a bit sheepish, to say the least, when I started thinking about how my narrative--while completely in keeping with the ones we've all come to expect from TV, the mainstream (and even niche, pro-tattoo) media, etc.--is inherently classist, inherently oppositional, and...well, kind of stupid. When I was getting my tattoo, gawkers in the shop would come over to the counter and ask, "What does your tattoo mean?" and at the time all I could think was, "Dudes, this is not Miami Ink or my therapist's office; I am not interesting in sharing with you." But what I was seeing as an unfortunate side effect of reality TV may actually have roots deeper in middle class American culture: "What does your tattoo mean?" could also have meant, "Tell us why someone like you would choose to get a tattoo."
There's more to the book than my own feelings of class guilt, obviously. DeMello does a solid job of grounding her study in scholarship about class and the body, and this is interesting both as a history of tattooing in the West (primarily in the U.S.) and as an anthropological study of contemporary American tattoo culture, the tensions within it, and how that plays out in stories and on skin.… (mehr)