The skin is always and already a serietl of planes which signify race, gender, age and such. Tattooing creates a new surface of potential significance upon the body. Tattooing can call into question concepts of volition in reference to the power to inscribe and define one's subjectivity through one's own skin, and the social defining of the subject. Skin is the involution or event between subject and object, will and cultural inscription, the social and the self. Feminists, particularly corporeal feminists, have attempted to think ways in which the female flesh may be recognized and self-defined without risking essentialism through reification of the meaning of ‘woman's body’. Thinking a tattooed female body thus resonates with some of the risks and benefits feminism has found in theorizing a marginalized body. Using Deleuze, Guattari, Lyotard and other major influences on corporeal feminists, this article explores ways in which significance is sought in skin, and possible configurations of skin and world, which challenge the desire to read the flesh as a legible incarnation of subjectivity.
And in single HD-Stream on: (OmeU) 'the great ephemeral skin' had been screened at the.
Keywords Deleuze and Guattari, feminism, Lyotard, materiality, tattoo
Atkinson, M.(2003)‘The Civilizing of Resistance: Straightedge Tattooing’, Deviant Behavior 24(3):197–220. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
Bella Online: The Voice of Women. Bellaonline.com Google Scholar |
Bergson, H.(1992) The Creative Mind: An Introduction toMetaphysics, trans. M.L. Anderson.New York: Citadel. Google Scholar |
Braidotti, R.(1994) Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference inContemporary Feminist Theory.New York: Columbia University Press. Google Scholar |
Braithwaite, R.,A. Robillard,T. Woodring,T. StephensandK.J. Arriola(2001)‘Tattooing and Body Piercing among Adolescent Detainees– Relationship to Alcohol and Other Drug Use’, Journal of Substance Abuse 13(1):5–16. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline |
Claes, L.,W. VandereyckenandH. Vertommen(2005)‘Self-care versus Self-harm: Piercing, Tattooing, andSelf-injuring in Eating Disorders’, European Eating Disorders Review 13(1):11–18. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
Cummings, W.(2001)‘Modern Primitivism: The Recent History ofCivilization's Discontents’, Critical Studies 15(1):297–316. Google Scholar |
Deleuze, G.(1988) Foucault, trans. S. Hand.Minnesota: University of Minneapolis Press. Google Scholar |
Deleuze, G.(1993) The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, trans. T.Conley.Minnesota: University of Minneapolis Press. Google Scholar |
Deleuze, G.andF. Guattari(1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism andSchizophrenia, trans. B. Massumi.Minnesota: University of Minneapolis Press. Google Scholar |
Deleuze, G.andF. Guattari(1996) Anti-Oedipus, trans. R. Hurley, M. Seem and H.R.Lane.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar |
Fisher, J.(2002)‘Tattooing the Body: Marking Culture’, Body & Society 8(4):91–107. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals |
Foucault, M.(1987) ‘Maurice Blanchot: The Thought fromOutside’, trans. B. Massumi, in Foucault/Blanchot.New York: Zone Books. Google Scholar |
Fraenkel-Rietti, I. Manifesto. www.tattooed-lady.co.uk Google Scholar |
Guattari, F.(1996) ‘In Order to End the Massacre of theBody’, trans. J. Becker, pp.29–36 in F. Guattari, Soft Subversions,edited byS. Lotringer.New York: Semiotext(e). Google Scholar |
Grosz, E.(1999) ‘Merleau-Ponty and Irigaray in theFlesh’, inD. OlkowskiandJ. Morley(eds) Merleau-Ponty, Interiority and Exteriority, Psychic Life and theWorld.Albany: SUNY. Google Scholar |
Hardt, M.andA. Negri(2000) Empire.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar |
Irigaray, L.(1985) Speculum of the Other Woman, trans. G. Gill.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Google Scholar |
Irwin, K.(2003)‘Saints and Sinners: Elite Tattoo Collectors and Tattooists asPositive and Negative Deviants’, Sociological Spectrum 23(1):27–57. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
Juno, A.andV. Vale(1989) Modern Primitives: An Investigation of ContemporaryAdornment and Ritual.San Francisco: V/Search. Google Scholar |
Koch, J.,Z. Zhu,J. Cannon,M. ArmstrongandD. Owen(2005)‘College Students, Tattooing, and the Health Belief Model:Extending Social Psychological Perspectives on Youth Culture and Deviance’, Sociological Spectrum 25(1):79–102. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
Lingis, A.(1994) The Community of Those who Have Nothing in Common.Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Google Scholar |
Lyotard, J.-F.(1991) The Inhuman, trans. G. Bennington and R. Bowlby.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Google Scholar |
Lyotard, J.-F.(1993) Libidinal Economy, trans. I. Hamilton-Grant.Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Google Scholar |
MacCormack, P.(2004)‘Facial Futures and Probe Heads: From Australia Post to Pluto’, Journal of Australian Studies 81:135–143. Google Scholar | Crossref |
Olkowski, D.(1999) Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin of Representation.Berkeley and Los Angeles: University ofCalifornia Press. Google Scholar |
Pitts, V.(1999)‘Body Modification, Self-mutilation and Agency in Media Accountsof a Subculture’, Body & Society 5(2–3):291–303. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals |
Putnin, A.(2002)‘Young Offenders, Tattoos and Recidivism’, Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 9(1):62–68. Google Scholar | Crossref |
Salecl, R.(1998)‘Cut in the Body: From Clitoridectomy to Body Art’,Special Issue on the Ethics of Violence, New Formations 35(autumn):28–42. Google Scholar |
Sanders, C.R.(1989) Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture ofTattooing.Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Google Scholar |
Sweetman, P.(1999)‘Anchoring the (Post-modern) Self’, Body & Society 5(2–3):51–76. Google Scholar |
Vail, D.A.(1999)‘Tattoos are like Potato Chips... You Can’t Have JustOne: The Process of Becoming and Being a Collector’, Deviant Behavior 20(3):253–273. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
Williams, J.(2000) Lyotard and the Political.London and New York: Routledge. Google Scholar |