Body Modification is an ever-expanding form of expression with the skin being a canvas for a more artistic form of personal expression and revolution.

Clients in everyday life explore a variety of topics in the counselling room – grief and mourning; transition; examining Self and identity. Tattooed people in everyday life talk about similar topics, but through non-verbal embodied semiotics.

If our identity Narrative (story) is informed by our Sense of Self, a tattoo could be explained as a visual presentation of this.

Twenty years in America ago tattoos were mostly worn by the lower-class, deviant, sailors or tribes but the nineties saw a cultural shift to mainstream middle-class America. Tattoos became a symbol for counter-culture or resistance to middle-class values with the skin becoming a canvas for a more artistic form of personal expression and revolution.

Four Tattoo Narratives

Individualism – Tattoos are individual especially if it is unique. Although an individual may get a sense of belonging by having a tattoo and becoming part of the tattoo community.

Spirituality – Some describe the experience of being tattooed as spiritualistic or ritualistic and in some cases call it an erotic experience as their skin is penetrated by the needle.

Personal Growth – Tattoos are often seen as an expression of personal growth: empowerment, spiritual growth, overcoming adversity or trauma.

Memorial Tattoos – Memorial tattoos has seen a massive influx over the last 10 years and can represent a myriad of things including celebration and reminders.

In a post-modern culture, the body has become a “body project” – space for self-expression and transformation.

Meaning can be found in all elements of tattoos – from design, to location. Meaning is connected to the permanence of the image and serves a meaningful purpose.

What does all this mean? For some a tattoo gives us a way to express our self in a way that gives us meaning. Having meaning is important as it leads to purpose – without purpose and meaning one does not have a reason to live. For others … well they find other ways to do this.

This article was based on a Masters Dissertation: The tattooed client – a phenomenological exploration of symbolic representations in Self-concept http://chesterrep.openrepository.com/cdr/bitstream/10034/314611/6/leana%20hughes.pdf