Article

Meaning-making in women's tattooed bodies

Details

Citation

Dann C & Callaghan J (2019) Meaning-making in women's tattooed bodies. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2019, Art. No.: e12438. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12438

Abstract
Tattooed women's practices of resistance and conformity are constituted within social, cultural, and historical contexts that produce normative values around “good” and “bad” tattoos. Tattoos enable the performance of multiple femininities, constructing the female body in a way that is personal and meaningful to that individual and opening an agentic space in which they can do so. The vast majority of research that is available on tattoos concerns mostly men or, at least, does not fully understand the implications of specific gendered discourses that regulate the (feminine) body. In this paper, we argue that meaning-making for women's tattoos serves to function as legitimating, producing tattooed feminine bodies as more acceptable. We argue for a closer examination of the regulatory discourses that feed into the choices that women make in relation to their tattooed bodies

Journal
Social and Personality Psychology Compass: Volume 2019

StatusPublished
Publication date06/03/2019
Publication date online19/02/2019
Date accepted by journal09/01/2019

People (1)

Professor Jane Callaghan

Professor Jane Callaghan

Director Child Wellbeing & Protection, Social Work