Women and tattoos : A new trend?

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1 Women and tattoos : A new trend? A few numbers 47,2% of interviewed women think tattoos cannot tarnish a woman s femininity. For its 8th edition, the Paris Tattoo Convention, which gathers the best tattoo artists from all around the world, has decided to throw light on women. The opportunity for us to take a glimpse into the feminine side of the tattoo world. Whether discrete or visible, popular or personal, colorful, small or imposing, tattoos are having their heyday in many occidental societies, and, according to experts, the trend is still growing bigger. In this flow, women seem to be less impressed by tattoo needles than men. Recently, in the United States, the number of tattooed women was brought above the number of tattooed men. This tendency also reached France and United Kingdom. A lot of female celebrities have encouraged this new trend. Lady Gaga, Rihanna, P!nk, Cara Delevingne, Angelina Jolie, Adele Exarchopoulos, and many others have helped normalize feminine tattoos, sweeping away the well anchored punk, pin up, promiscuous or vulgar stereotypes which used to fall upon tattooed women. Today, tattooing relates as much to the individual s history and choices as to global fashion, it can indeed be considered a major asset in the modeling or in the film industry, and body art can even become fine art. The relation between public opinion and tattooed women has greatly evolved through years, thus leading to an increasing number of women shifting to an inked skin. 56% of interviewed women don t think tattoos are a fashion of the day. 36,1% of interviewed men think tattoos are a fashion of the day. How and why have tattoos become such a phenomenon for women? Have the stereotypes completely vanished away, and are inked women and men accepted the same way in the society? 1

2 The word of the ancient Tattoos history is longer than we may think, as it reaches back to 3000 years ago, with the well-known discovery of Otzi the Ice Man (ca B.C.), whose skin was marked of 57 dots and lines tattoos. Whether they represented ostracization markers, clan enrollment, social allegiance, religious beliefs, a ritual, or an aesthetic choice, feminine tattoos are as old as the general history of tattoo. These body modifications were reflective of the position women had in societies such as in Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece or Polynesia. Female mummies, dating back to the 11th Dynasty of Egypt, show marks of tattoos. Historians found out that these tattoos were part of a ritualistic or therapeutic process, which took place during pregnancy. The most famous tattooed mummy is Amunet, a priestess of the goddess Hathor. She sports numerous tattoos, composed of dots and lines. These designs are very similar to the ones drawn on the Brides of the Dead figurines, which belong to the Middle Kingdom period. These figurines represent exclusively female silhouettes, which suggests that only women could practice tattooing. In Ancient Egypt, women s tattoos were mainly located on their abdomen and breasts. Thus, their linking with maternity leaves no doubt. Geoffrey Tassie in his book Identifying the Practice of Tattooing in Ancient Egypt and Nubia explained that Tattoos on the abdominal part of the female body would have become particularly notable when the woman became pregnant the patterns would expand, forming an even more symbolically interesting pattern, like a web or netting design. In Ancient Rome and Greece, tattoos were associated with barbarians. Indeed, slaves and criminals were marked on the forehead, but this was also the fate of soldiers later on, in order to identify potential deserters. Tattooing was used as a punishment, for its painful and indelible aspect. Simultaneously, Thracian (Maenads) women, who were referred to as Mad women, got tattooed to celebrate Orpheus murder, who had previously presented homosexual interest in their husbands. It was also used as a warning to their husbands, to prevent them from being unfaithful. Polynesia has hosted the most tattoo-focused cultures. Samoan and Maori women were less tattooed than men, but they still had their hands, arms, feet, ears and lips inked. At the age of 12, young girls received their first -and most important- tattoo, called lima. Located on their right hand, it allowed them to prepare meals, narcotic drinks during ceremonial occasions, and participate in rubbing bodies rituals. Beyond this practice, tattoos were also a way to communicate a sexual stage, social rank and status, as for men as for women. Indeed, women also got a pre-marital tattoo after their first menstruation. But tattoos also had a religious dimension, in some regions, they were believed to have been gifted to women by the goddess Luahina. It was then essential for women to have tattoos, without which they would be punished in the afterlife. 2

3 T h e y w e r e t a k i ng control of their bodies when they had little power elsewhere. Tattoos were brought to European culture partly thanks to travels, especially Captain James Cook's travels. The term 'tattoo', derived from the Tahitian word tatau, was first used in Cook's report of his first expedition in Tahiti. One of the most famous tattooed-woman story in the nineteenth century is Olive Oatman s. The Oatman family was attacked by Native Americans, as they were in Arizona. Only Olive and her sister survived, and became captives of the tribe. One year later, they were given to Mojave Indians, who immediately adopted them. As a Mojave tradition, the indians tattooed the girls on their chins to ensure that they would have a good afterlife. Olive's sister died of starvation during the captivity and Olive was returned to the whites when she was 19. She was then blocked between the two cultures as her tattoo marked her as a Mojave. During the Victorian era, feminine tattoos became fashion in the high social classes in England and the United States. Women got tattoos to enhance their beauty and become fascinating. Tattoos were seen as an embellishment of the body, but also as a way to gain control. "Upper class women were making a feminist gesture, explains Margot Mifflin, the author of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo. "They were taking control of their bodies when they had little power elsewhere. Amongst these tattooed upper-class ladies lays Winston Churchill s mother, who was believed to have snakes tattooed on her wrists, which she was hiding under bracelets. This positive movement of the elite towards tattoos however did not last. Circus artists started to get interested in tattoos as part of their art. Tattoos then became associated with low classes and outcasts. Female activity in tattoos thus resumed thanks to female artists. Female circus performers appeared fully tattooed, female tattooists were also exposed. The first known female tattooist in the United States was Maud Stevens Wagner. She first performed as a contortionist and aerialist in a circus. She met her husband in 1904 and agreed to go on a date with him if he taught her the art of tattooing. She then became the apprentice of her husband and the couple specialized into traditional hand-poked tattoos despite the invention of the tattoo machine. Freak Shows, tattooed ladies, via Tattoos then became a masculine practice, as it spread into the military and navy world. Furthermore, with the Great Depression and the Second World War, the popularity of tattoos collapsed. While the tattoo renaissance started in the 1960s, it only reached women in the 1970s. Tattoos were part of a feminist movement. Just as the upper class women from the Victorian era, it was a way for them to regain control on their bodies in a society which was disturbed by issues of abortion rights, contraception and regulations of women s bodies. 3

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5 Thus, tattoos took part in a counter culture which was growing from the 1970s. It lasted until the 2000s: tattoos became more and more mainstream amongst women. This democratization movement was lead by numerous celebrities, until being completely common and even fashionable today. Today, what leads a woman to permanent inking? This question is a very broad and complex question. Indeed, women get tattoos for various reasons. Thus, we can wonder: Is the perception of the bond between women and tattoos not biased by social, sexual and psychological perspective and vision of life? So, I am going to try to explain why some women are ready to scar themselves on a permanent basis and what are the conclusions or explanations possible. It is true that, in our collective psyche, a woman with many tattoos wants to show to the world that she is tough and hard. Sometimes, people will consider a heavily-tattooed woman a non-feminine woman. In my opinion, tattoos for women, in this respect, show the world that they believe in their own strength and power which is a very different psychological aspect of the issue. Indeed, it implies a very personal, introspective reflexion upon one s body and mind. The psychology behind the process of tattooing one s body is also complex and accept many different motives. It implies that the customer wants to scar her body to improve its appearance. It also implies acceptance and awareness of women s body and it participates to the emancipation of women, that s to say, they gain back control of their bodies. But in the other hand, many articles on the internet believe that women tattoo their body the same way they use makeup or plastic surgery. We can consider the following example as a social fact because it is likely to happen in everyday life: a 4-year-old girl will find it hard to say, sorry mom but I don t want to have my ears pierced. Some psychologists believe that the body alteration for women is something usual and almost natural in nowadays society. Furthermore, these male authors and journalists consider tattoos on women as an attractive and sexual sign used for mating with male counterparts. It s interesting because we c a n a n a l y s e t h i s w i t h t w o d i ff e re n t perspectives. On the one hand, we can consider that some men see tattooed women as women of loose morals but, one the other hand, we can consider that this kind of articles shows that women are, indeed, emancipating and gaining back control of their bodies. Besides, in our opinion poll, it is clear that women mind their own business about their bodies and are not getting tattooed to appear more attractive. According to Doctor Nicolas Guéguen, a French psychologist, men tend to overestimate women s sexual intentions which is clearly the case here. But what is forgotten is that the tattoo is permanent but the image and symbol behind it is fluid: it depends on the owner of the tattoo. To understand the issue, it is important to understand the symbolic language, used by women, that refers to their own experience. Each tattooed person uses hidden messages on their body. Some inked people would regard tattoos as an anchor or a mask. Sometimes people are getting tattooed to externalize grief or change that happens in their life. Moreover, it is a way for some to keep control over their lives because they re controlling their body through 5

6 symbols, shapes and metaphor. Being a tattooed person implies that this person belongs now to a minority and escapes traditions and the mainstream society. But can we use this pattern for women? The psychology behind tattoos raises many questions about social matters. W h a t d o t h e y mean? What does a tattoo imply? W h a t i s t h e p s y c h o l o g y o f tattooing? T o b e i n k e d means that one i m m o r t a l i s e s one s experience a n d o n e s e l f. Many tattooed people confess that they counter the aging process and cheat death. F o r i n s t a n c e, someone with a skull tattooed on his back will send a m e s s a g e : I don t fear my own death. But to s e n d t h a t message you must see pain as an initiative rite. Afterwards, it is evident that human beings are social animals but, recently, individualism is rising considerably. In our consumerist society it is important to draw attention from other human beings which can be translated by fear, disgust or envy. But you exist through the eyes of other humans. In fact, some modern psychologists consider the self as an event; that s to say, humans exist besides other humans. When one sleeps, the self disappears. So, tattoos can be a part of this process of acknowledgment and self-fulfillment. With a tattoo full of meaning which externalizes many things about someone s life can be regarded as a shell, an armor or a protection against the outside world. This psychological approach of tattoos is a passive aggressive protest to defy injustice and abuse. This last process is likely to be anchored in every tattooed woman. But after the psychological scar, what can we say about physical scars? Society doesn t consider tattooed women the same way when it is about micropigmentation. Micropigmentation is used for covering a scar following a surgery, accident, breast removal, etc. Here, tattoos i m p r o v e g r e a t l y t h e a p p e a r a n c e o f t h e customers and an opinion poll showed that people, in average, before the micropigmentation rated their look 4/10 and after it they rated their look 7,8/10. It is a great example of a reason why women get tattooed. It is clear that different and c o m p l e x p r o c e s s e s accompany tattoos for women (as well as for men) and it is hard to give a precise answer to the question. But can t we just say that it is Body Art? 6