Tattooing Research Paper

For thousands of years tattooing has been a major part of communities and cultures. Whether it be for a religious reason or to mark a person in a group, tattoos have made their way through history. Nowadays most of the older generations see tattooing as harmful and not acceptable for society, but much of the younger generations see tattooing as a way of self-expression and extremely common. Getting tattoos has changed over time; in the past it was mainly used for religious reasons, but in more modern times tattooing has become more of a thing to do to expression oneself. Tattooing has a lot of background information discussing when and where it originated, how tattoos were made, who was involved, and why it was done. Most people think that …show more content…
According to Sarah Sawyer in her book, Body piercing and Tattooing, many different people get tattoos for many different reasons. One example is war soldiers; a large number of American soldiers obtain tattoos as a personal memories to their experience in combat. Also Sawyer points out, some soldiers get tattoos to remember fallen friends or their loved ones when away (pg. 46). Prison tattoos are another type of tattoo that Sawyer talks about in her book. Prison tattooing is the practice of creating and displaying tattoos in a prison environment (pg. 47). Since tattooing in prison is illegal in the United States, the inmates do not have the proper equipment necessary for the practice. The law against tattooing in prison forces inmates to find ways to create their own tattooing devices out of their belongings (pg. 48). Improvised tattooing equipment has been assembled from materials such as mechanical pencils, magnets, radio transistors, staples, paper clips or guitar strings (pg. 48). The ink used also needs to be improvised, either taken from pens or made using melted plastic, soot mixed with shampoo, or melted Styrofoam (pg. 49). Prison tattoos are not generally applied free of charge, and the tattooists are normally paid with anything from stamps and cigarettes to actual cash (pg. 49). Criminal tattoos are a type of tattoos associated with criminals to show gang membership and record the wearer's personal history—such as their skills, specialties, accomplishments, incarceration, world view and/or means of personal expression (pg. 45). Tattoos are strongly empirically associated with deviance, personality disorders, and criminality when associated with gangs (pg. 45). Some will get gang tattoos to represent their allegiance to a certain gang (pg. 47). Many gang tattoos can be seen with a negative connotation, but to most of the members in the gangs have a personal connection with their gang