Anchoring the (Postmodern) self? Body modification; fashion and identity
Anchoring the (Postmodern) self? Body modification; fashion and identity
Recent years have seen a considerable resurgence in the popularity of tattooing and piercing, a development that some have dismissed as a fashionable trend. Others have argued that the relative permanence of such forms of body modification militates against their full absorption into the fashion system. Drawing on interviews with a variety of body modifiers, the article examines this debate, and notes that certain tattooees and piercees appear, in some respects, to regard their tattoos and piercings as decorative accessories. At the same time, however, such corporeal artifacts are approached and experienced as distinct from other, more free-floating products in the 'supermarket of style'. Whether or not their meaning is fixed in these terms, tattoos and piercings are employed by some as a form of anti-fashion and as a way of fixing or anchoring the reflexively constructed self. In this sense they share both affinities and differences with other forms of contemporary body project.
51-76
Sweetman, Paul
94a02071-b26f-4ef3-8403-5d13f8cc1029
1999
Sweetman, Paul
94a02071-b26f-4ef3-8403-5d13f8cc1029
Sweetman, Paul
(1999)
Anchoring the (Postmodern) self? Body modification; fashion and identity.
Body & Society, 5 (2/3), .
Abstract
Recent years have seen a considerable resurgence in the popularity of tattooing and piercing, a development that some have dismissed as a fashionable trend. Others have argued that the relative permanence of such forms of body modification militates against their full absorption into the fashion system. Drawing on interviews with a variety of body modifiers, the article examines this debate, and notes that certain tattooees and piercees appear, in some respects, to regard their tattoos and piercings as decorative accessories. At the same time, however, such corporeal artifacts are approached and experienced as distinct from other, more free-floating products in the 'supermarket of style'. Whether or not their meaning is fixed in these terms, tattoos and piercings are employed by some as a form of anti-fashion and as a way of fixing or anchoring the reflexively constructed self. In this sense they share both affinities and differences with other forms of contemporary body project.
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Published date: 1999
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Local EPrints ID: 33974
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/33974
ISSN: 1357-034X
PURE UUID: 57be4770-43bf-4f46-b445-6d5f602ca4e8
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Date deposited: 05 Feb 2008
Last modified: 07 Jan 2022 22:23
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Author:
Paul Sweetman
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