Description
Book SynopsisSince the 1980s, tattooing has emerged anew in the United States as a widely appealing cultural, artistic, and social form. This title explains how elite tattooists, magazine editors, and leaders of tattoo organizations have downplayed the working-class roots of tattooing in order to make it more palatable for middle-class consumption.
Trade Review“A fascinating book bursting with penetrating description. DeMello makes a very useful contribution to the literature on these increasingly salient voluntary communities of passion, interest, and identity.”—Gayle Rubin
“The histories of tattoo traditions presented in this book are fascinating and rich. DeMello has many insights into tattoos’ complexity of meaning, brought out in precise ethnographic and historical fashion.”—Kathleen Stewart, author of
A Space on the Side of the Road: Cultural Poetics in an “Other” AmericaTable of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
1. Finding Community
Shops, Conventions, Magazines, and Cyberspace
2. Cultural Roots
The History of Tattooing in the West
3. Appropriation and Transformation
The Origins of the Renaissance
4. Discourse and Differentiation
Media Representation and Tattoo Organizations
5. The Creation of Meaning I
The New Text
6. The Creation of Meaning II
The Tattoo Narratives
Conclusion: The Future of a Movement
Notes
Bibliography
Index
