Today we are living in a society surrounded with many cultural artifacts, the objects created by humans to give clues about cultural values and heritage of their society. There are some artifacts receiving respects and admiration from society, such as Statue of Liberty, IPhone, Washington DC, and so on; in contrast, there are also some artifacts encountering controversies and prejudice. Tattoos, the art of hot needle under the skin, used to be considered as a social deviance in American society. However, although starting as an underground movement against the mainstream culture, this body art has thrived and proven itself as an iconic art for many generations of Americans.
Tattooing has existed for hundreds of years, and its influence still …show more content…
In 1990s, tattoo was a token of Los Angeles gangsters, revealing “gang affiliations, prison background, and personal experiences” (Llyod 114). Gangsters used their body as canvases to indicate their organized group or remind of their own evidences in lives; for instance, a symbol of a black hand with letter M on the palm demonstrates the correlation with Mexican Mafia, or the tombstone with numbers and RIP means the mourning death of a best friend. According to Thomas Ward, an anthropologist at the University of Southern California, gang members also used tattoo as the way to express their expression and challenge the police officers, “To the rest, they’re saying ‘I’m a gang member and I am to be feared. If you don’t respect me, at least you will fear me” (Lloyd 117). In addition, there were some unfounded theories about tattoos, based on scientific proofs at that time, viewing this as “a form of epidemic”. For instance, in 1878, Cesare Lombroso, a famous Italian psychiatrist and criminologist, asserted a relationship between the criminal mind and people having tattoos; in 1907, Professor Friedrich Krauss claimed that “tattoos were found mainly on muscular people with high libidos” (Dinter 44). Such statements and evidences contribute to create biased prejudice about this art of …show more content…
In the ancient time, tattoo used to be a custom conveying the traditional cultures of the ancient Egypt and Libya; for example, they used abstract shapes and pictures to identify their particular groups in tribes or villages. Besides, tattoo reflects their religious beliefs in the connection to the Divine, the world after Death, protections from magic, and sacrifice to Deity (Lloyd ch. 1). Additionally, in Native North American tribes, tattoo was the symbol of courage and honor that just privileged warriors was eligible to have
Tattooing has existed for hundreds of years, and its influence still …show more content…
In 1990s, tattoo was a token of Los Angeles gangsters, revealing “gang affiliations, prison background, and personal experiences” (Llyod 114). Gangsters used their body as canvases to indicate their organized group or remind of their own evidences in lives; for instance, a symbol of a black hand with letter M on the palm demonstrates the correlation with Mexican Mafia, or the tombstone with numbers and RIP means the mourning death of a best friend. According to Thomas Ward, an anthropologist at the University of Southern California, gang members also used tattoo as the way to express their expression and challenge the police officers, “To the rest, they’re saying ‘I’m a gang member and I am to be feared. If you don’t respect me, at least you will fear me” (Lloyd 117). In addition, there were some unfounded theories about tattoos, based on scientific proofs at that time, viewing this as “a form of epidemic”. For instance, in 1878, Cesare Lombroso, a famous Italian psychiatrist and criminologist, asserted a relationship between the criminal mind and people having tattoos; in 1907, Professor Friedrich Krauss claimed that “tattoos were found mainly on muscular people with high libidos” (Dinter 44). Such statements and evidences contribute to create biased prejudice about this art of …show more content…
In the ancient time, tattoo used to be a custom conveying the traditional cultures of the ancient Egypt and Libya; for example, they used abstract shapes and pictures to identify their particular groups in tribes or villages. Besides, tattoo reflects their religious beliefs in the connection to the Divine, the world after Death, protections from magic, and sacrifice to Deity (Lloyd ch. 1). Additionally, in Native North American tribes, tattoo was the symbol of courage and honor that just privileged warriors was eligible to have