Tattoos – Philosophy for Everyone: I Ink, Therefore I Am Xiv Robert Arp Acknowledgments Xxvii

Edited by Robert Arp

TATTOOS Series Philosophy for everyone Editor Allhoff It’s about time tattoos got a philosophical treatment like this! Michelle ‘Bombshell’ McGee Tattoos Body art or eyesore, a celebration of individuality, or at very least a Philosophy for everyone conversation piece, tattoos provide fertile ground for philosophical discussion, raising intriguing questions about subjects ranging from aesthetics to feminism and from semiotics to the philosophy of the person. The abundance of tattooed religious symbols also raises questions surrounding the belief in and worship TATTOOs of God, and even the stigma associated with tattoos can initiate discussion on moral and Phil o s op hy f r every political philosophy. Providing a broad arena for philosophical dialogue, essays include: • Tattoos as an expression of freedom • Confessions of a tattooed Buddhist philosopher • Women and tattoos • Tattoos and personal identity Papers, animatedly inked by philosophers (most with tattoos), tattoo artists, and tattoo enthusiasts, offer enlightening insights into the nature of tattoos and the tattooing arts and the rich philosophical analysis that can be drawn from them.

Editor Robert Arp is a philosopher and ontologist who has taught at numerous colleges and universities. He is the author of Scenario Visualization: An Evolutionary Account of Creative Problem Solving (2008) and a co-author of Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Reasoning Well (2011), What’s Good on TV: Understanding Ethics through Television (Wiley- o ne Blackwell, 2011), and Philosophy DeMYSTiFieD (2011); in addition, he is editor of South Park and Philosophy: You Know, I Learned Something Today (Wiley-Blackwell, 2006). Series Editor Fritz Allhoff is an associate professor in the philosophy department at Western Michigan University, as well as a senior research fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. In I I m nk I A addition to editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, he is also the volume editor or co-editor for several titles, , Therefore including Wine and Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Whiskey and Philosophy (with Marcus P. Adams, Wiley, 2009), and Food and Philosophy (with Dave Monroe, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007). His academic research interests engage various facets of applied ethics, ethical theory, and the history and philosophy of science.

Cover image: tattoo heart set © Jozz; Skull, Dagger, Rose, Heart, Edited by Sparrow, Halo, Flame © KeithBishop; retro page decoration Arp © J-sho; ornament totem © visualgo; Wings © EvgeniyDzhulay. I Ink, Therefore I am All at iStockphoto ISBN 978-0-470-67206-8 90000 Cover design and image montage: www.simonlevyassociates.co.uk Foreword by Rocky Rakovic

9 780470 672068 Series Editor: Fritz Allhoff

Tattoo artwork 13.2.12.indd 1 13/2/12 09:45:59 TTattoos_bcontrib.inddattoos_bcontrib.indd 268268 22/2/2012/2/2012 3:50:353:50:35 PMPM VOLUME EDITOR

ROBERT ARP has taught and published in many areas of philosophy and ontology in the information science sense. He also has done a lot of work in the philosophy and popular culture realm, and has regularly flashed his half smiley face, half skull tattoo (located on his right arm, thank goodness!) to make a point about the distinction between appearance and reality in ‘introduction to philosophy’ courses.

SERIES EDITOR

FRITZ ALLHOFF is an associate professor in the philosophy department at Western Michigan University, as well as a senior research fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. In addition to editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, he is also the volume editor or co-editor for several titles, including Wine & Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Whiskey & Philosophy (with Marcus P. Adams, Wiley, 2009), and Food & Philosophy (with Dave Monroe, Wiley- Blackwell, 2007). His academic research interests engage various facets of applied ethics, ethical theory, and the history and philosophy of science.

TTattoos_ffirs.inddattoos_ffirs.indd i 22/2/2012/2/2012 3:53:383:53:38 PMPM PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE Series editor: Fritz Allhoff Not so much a subject matter, philosophy is a way of thinking. Thinking not just about the Big Questions, but about little ones too. This series invites everyone to ponder things they care about, big or small, significant, serious… or just curious.

Running & Philosophy: A Marathon Serial Killers – Philosophy for for the Mind Everyone: Being and Killing Edited by Michael W. Austin Edited by S. Waller Wine & Philosophy: A Symposium on Dating – Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking and Drinking Flirting With Big Ideas Edited by Fritz Allhoff Edited by Kristie Miller and Marlene Clark Food & Philosophy: Eat, Think and Be Gardening – Philosophy for Everyone: Merry Cultivating Wisdom Edited by Fritz Allhoff and Dave Monroe Edited by Dan O’Brien Beer & Philosophy: The Unexamined Motherhood – Philosophy for Beer Isn’t Worth Drinking Everyone: The Birth of Wisdom Edited by Steven D. Hales Edited by Sheila Lintott Whiskey & Philosophy: A Small Batch Fatherhood – Philosophy for of Spirited Ideas Everyone: The Dao of Daddy Edited by Fritz Allhoff and Marcus P. Adams Edited by Lon S. Nease and Michael W. Austin College Sex – Philosophy for Everyone: Philosophers With Benefits Coffee – Philosophy for Everyone: Edited by Michael Bruce and Grounds for Debate Robert M. Stewart Edited by Scott F. Parker and Michael W. Austin Cycling – Philosophy for Everyone: A Philosophical Tour de Force Fashion – Philosophy for Everyone: Edited by Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza and Thinking with Style Michael W. Austin Edited by Jessica Wolfendale and Jeanette Kennett Climbing – Philosophy for Everyone: Yoga – Philosophy for Everyone: Because It’s There Bending Mind and Body Edited by Stephen E. Schmid Edited by Liz Stillwaggon Swan Hunting – Philosophy for Everyone: Blues – Philosophy for Everyone: In Search of the Wild Life Thinking Deep About Feeling Low Edited by Nathan Kowalsky Edited by Abrol Fairweather and Christmas – Philosophy for Everyone: Jesse Steinberg Better Than a Lump of Coal Tattoos – Philosophy for Everyone: Edited by Scott C. Lowe I Ink, Therefore I Am Cannabis – Philosophy for Everyone: Edited by Robert Arp What Were We Just Talking About? Edited by Dale Jacquette Forthcoming books in the series: Porn – Philosophy for Everyone: Sailing – Philosophy for Everyone: How to Think With Kink Catching the Drift of Why We Sail Edited by Dave Monroe Edited by Patrick Goold

TTattoos_ffirs.inddattoos_ffirs.indd iiii 22/2/2012/2/2012 3:53:383:53:38 PMPM Edited by Robert Arp TATTOOS PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE I Ink, Therefore I Am

Foreword by Rocky Rakovic

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

TTattoos_ffirs.inddattoos_ffirs.indd iiiiii 22/2/2012/2/2012 3:53:383:53:38 PMPM This edition first published 2012 © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Wiley-Blackwell is an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, formed by the merger of Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Robert Arp to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tattoos : philosophy for everyone : I ink, therefore I am / edited by Robert Arp. – 1st ed. p. cm. – (Philosophy for everyone ; 50) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-67206-8 (pbk.) 1. Tattooing. I. Arp, Robert. GN419.3.T375 2012 391.6′5–dc23 2011044950 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12.5pt Plantin by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India

1 2012

TTattoos_ffirs.inddattoos_ffirs.indd iviv 22/2/2012/2/2012 3:53:393:53:39 PMPM This book is dedicated to Susan, Zoe, and Lexi Arp, and Bill Drake.

TTattoos_ffirs.inddattoos_ffirs.indd v 22/2/2012/2/2012 3:53:393:53:39 PMPM TTattoos_ffirs.inddattoos_ffirs.indd vivi 22/2/2012/2/2012 3:53:393:53:39 PMPM CONTENTS

I Ink, Therefore I Foreword x Rocky Rakovic I Am, Therefore I Ink: An Introduction to Tattoos – Philosophy for Everyone: I Ink, Therefore I Am xiv Robert Arp Acknowledgments xxvii

SHEET I THE HISTORY AND NATURE OF TATTOOS 1

1 Tattoos and the Tattooing Arts in Perspective: An Overview and Some Preliminary Observations 3 Charles Taliaferro and Mark Odden 2 How to Read a Tattoo, and Other Perilous Quests 14 Juniper Ellis

SHEET II TATTOOS AND ART 27

3 Are Tattoos Art? 29 Nicolas Michaud 4 Fleshy Canvas: The Aesthetics of Tattoos from Feminist and Hermeneutical Perspectives 38 Kimberly Baltzer-Jaray and Tanya Rodriguez

TTattoos_ftoc.inddattoos_ftoc.indd viivii 22/2/2012/2/2012 3:53:063:53:06 PMPM SHEET III THE TATTOOED WOMAN 51

5 Female Tattoos and Graffiti 53 Thorsten Botz-Bornstein 6 Painted Fetters: Tattooing as Feminist Liberation 65 Nancy Kang

SHEET IV PERSONAL IDENTITY 81

7 Tattoo You: Personal Identity in Ink 83 Kyle Fruh and Emily Thomas 8 Illusions of Permanence: Tattoos and the Temporary Self 96 Rachel C. Falkenstern 9 My Tattoo May Be Permanent, But My Memory of It Isn’t 109 Clancy Smith

SHEET V EXPRESSIONS OF FREEDOM 121

10 Tattoos are Forever: Bodily Freedom and the (Im)possibility of Change 123 Felipe Carvalho 11 Bearing the Marks: How Tattoos Reveal Our Embodied Freedom 135 Jonathan Heaps

SHEET VI EXPERIENCES AND STORIES SURROUNDING TATTOOS 149

12 Never Merely ‘There’: Tattooing as a Practice of Writing and a Telling of Stories 151 Wendy Lynne Lee 13 Something Terribly Flawed: Philosophy and ‘The Illustrated Man’ 165 Kevin S. Decker

viii CONTENTS

TTattoos_ftoc.inddattoos_ftoc.indd vviiiiii 22/2/2012/2/2012 33:53:07:53:07 PPMM SHEET VII ETHICAL CONCERNS 179

14 The Vice of the Tough Tattoo 181 Jennifer Baker 15 To Ink, or Not To Ink: Tattoos and Bioethics 193 Daniel Miori 16 Writing on the Body: The Modern Morality of the Tattoo 206 Simon Woods

SHEET VIII EASTERN AND RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES 219

17 Is a Tattoo a Sign of Impiety? 221 Adam Barkman 18 Confessions of a Tattooed Buddhist Philosopher 230 Joseph J. Lynch 19 An Atheist and a Theist Discuss a Cross Tattoo and God’s Existence 242 Robert Arp

Notes on Contributors 261

CONTENTS ix

TTattoos_ftoc.inddattoos_ftoc.indd iixx 22/2/2012/2/2012 33:53:07:53:07 PPMM ROCKY RAKOVIC

I INK, THEREFORE I FOREWORD

Tattoos were a harbinger of Twitter. If I were to tweet that message, it wouldn’t reach the right audience. Twitterers have opinions (lots!), but for someone to see my tweet they would have to follow me, and you mostly follow people whose opinions you share. Also, there are those who don’t get tattoos or tweets; for instance, my mother is not on Twitter. ‘You’re what?’ was my mom’s response when I told her I was leaving my job at a major publication to take editorial control of Inked – a tattoo lifestyle magazine. If this were a sitcom I would have just repeated myself, but it wasn’t, so I paused to give her a moment to reflect on my decision. ‘I don’t like tattoos,’ she continued (though that phrase could use an exclamation point, my mother doesn’t exclaim; at times like this her voice inflects a loving worry and there’s no punctuation mark for that). ‘Do you have tattoos?’ When I told my former journalism professor, Amy Kiste Nyberg, she mused, ‘What can you write about tattoos?’ Indeed, tattoos evoke questions that can be mundane, or even deeply philosophical. When I was in college, that same professor hammered home the journalistic maxim, ‘in a city of eight million people there are eight million stories.’ So, the simplistic response to her question was that in a city of eight million people who each have two tattoos there are sixteen million stories. Ink is that important to the wearer. The marks on their skin signify an important time in their life – even if someone just got a tattoo on a whim because they were ‘young and crazy,’ that’s an entry point into talking about what else they did when they were reckless.

TTattoos_flast.inddattoos_flast.indd x 22/7/2012/7/2012 55:09:32:09:32 PPMM To answer my mother’s first question, the timing was right for both myself and for tattooing. She was born in the first half of the twentieth century – a time when the only people who got inked were sailors and scofflaws. Now we see tattoos on a few doctors, mayors, priests, and even academics such as those who have contributed to this book. For older generations, the American Dream was to conform. The goal in life included a nine-to-five job, khakis, two-point-five kids, a golden retriever, and ambrosia salad. Anyone who deviated – the hipsters, hip- pies, mods, punks, and then a different iteration of hipsters – was labeled as weird. But suburban fatigue set in, and, when a younger generation was told that they could be anything they wanted to be when they grow up, they no longer aspired to be businessmen or lawyers – they wanted to be themselves. At that time, the tattoo landscape was dangerous, filthy, and devoid of talent. Most shops were strategically located a beer-bottle’s throw from the skeeviest dive bars, the insides resembled Soviet-era doctors’ offices, and the purveyors either looked like or were the kind of guys you’d meet in prison. The tattoo parlor was a hangout for the usual suspects, where you could easily score drugs or a girl for hire. Naturally, in the tear- down-the-picket-fence era, this lifestyle attracted throngs of young talent. Creative teenagers who before had the choice of being a starving artist or selling their soul by going into advertising now had a third choice: become a tattoo artist. Akin to being a commissioned painter, tattooing offered a variety in projects, though it is arguable that ink has a steadier stream of customers. But, most importantly, tattooing was lucra- tive: it was, and still is, a cash-in-hand business (i.e., ‘If the IRS wants their money they can come down here and try to take it from us’). This new crop was not interested in tracing stencils of staid hearts and hula girls – they wanted to create their own designs. With their deft hands, they perfected composition, color schemes, and shading in the medium. Before, tattooists were people who could operate a piece of machinery – mere craftsmen. Now they were artisans. Maybe it was the new guard, or perhaps it was the AIDS hysteria, but tattoo shops started cleaning up their act. Back in the day, your crude skull tattoo might have come with a bonus of hepatitis or something else off dirty needles. Now, hygiene was as much a crusade as the movement to progress the art form, with the buzz around the autoclave being that they would never expand their clientele if it weren’t safe to get inked. One shop gets a customer sick and the rest of the shops in the city lose. Some tattoo artists even implored their local governments to enact health

I INK, THEREFORE I FOREWORD xi

TTattoos_flast.inddattoos_flast.indd xxii 22/7/2012/7/2012 55:09:32:09:32 PPMM codes and inspections, and because, as you remember, the government didn’t often step foot into shops, some tattooers even helped write the codes. With new, interesting art and a sterile environment, the free-from-con- formity youth at large began exploring the idea of getting tattoos. One of the pillars of individualism is fashion; when prisoners are stripped of almost all of their rights and freedoms, the moment they are able to make a free decision, they pick out their own clothes. In the new ‘be yourself’ environment, what was Dockers’ loss became tattoos’ gain. Fundamentally, ink is fashion: you pick it out, it’s worn on you, and it tells people something about you. At first, a brazen few started altering their look with tattoos; those early adopters were looked at with envy by their peers, as well as with flippant distain by the mainstream. The style went through the same periods of cultural introduction and acceptance that women’s makeup and then hair dye had earlier in the century, only tattoos seemed stranger and more severe due to their permanence (confounding those who see it as a passing fad). And, though tattoos weren’t alone in the brave new world of body alteration thanks to the rise in nose jobs, face lifts, tummy tucks, and breast implants, those procedures were meant to make a person fit in (well, maybe not in the case of some extreme breast implants), while the only purpose of tattoos was to make one stand out. Again, at first it was the edgy, bombastic youth who tried out tattoos; but then Kat Von D, the face that launched a thousand tramp stamps, became Middle America’s liaison to the tattoo world. Kat’s shows – TLC’s Miami Ink and LA Ink – took the tattoo shop experience and beamed it into the homes of soccer moms in Ohio. The nuclear family that would have never dared peek into the window of a tattoo parlor could safely play a fly on the wall thanks to reality television. Not only did they like what they saw, they wanted in – they wanted ink. The pro- ducers of the Ink programs made shrewd choices in casting not only charming, personable tattooers but also some of the best working artists. Had they gone with the scary, crusty old guard of workman-like inkers, tattooing would have never embedded itself into the skin of the mainstream. I don’t believe that tattooing is underground – it’s not even a subculture any more. Numbers vary, but most of the hard data agree with a 2006 Pew Research poll that found that forty percent of Americans between the ages of twenty-six and forty are tattooed. That means that there are more people with tattoos then there are blondes in the United States. Let that sink in. And, speaking of the popularity of tattoo art, in a highly

xii ROCKY RAKOVIC

TTattoos_flast.inddattoos_flast.indd xxiiii 22/7/2012/7/2012 55:09:32:09:32 PPMM unscientific study, conducted by yours truly, I cold called a bunch of phone numbers in Lebanon, Kansas, the geographic center of mainland America. I asked the person who picked up on the other end if they could identify any of the following artists: Jeff Koons, Shepard Fairey, and Kat Von D. Guess which name they knew? Tattoos and reality television – two celebrations of everyman individualism – have helped each other grow to prominence. The rise of these two have occurred thanks to people who were told they were special, told they could be themselves: the ‘me generation.’ The people of our generation wanted to scream their identity on their skin and shout their opinions from the rooftops. When the craft of tattooing bettered itself through aesthetics, safety, and public relations, we went under the tattoo gun. Then, when technology finally caught up with our need to self-express, we logged onto Twitter. When Robert Arp, the editor of this book, contacted me about the project, I was a little shaky about the idea, despite the fact that the book is loaded with readable and thought-provoking chapters. I know that Joe Sixpack likes tattoos and will pick up a publication to read about them, but it wasn’t clear to me that the philosophers, academics, and more ‘thoughtful’ people would appreciate, or even want, ink on ink. These thinkers seem to float above pop culture, not in it: do they perceive tattoos to be nothing more than the mark of a deviant? During my mulling-over period, I received an email from my old professor, who wanted to send me one her brightest students to intern at Inked. Well, this indicated to me that, by her sending a future bright light of journalism to cover tattoos, a part of the intellectual elite was investing in the culture’s relevance. In order to reach a more highbrow audience about my belief that tattooing is the new modern art, as well as an important symbol of my generation, I concluded that the message should be in this heady book rather than tweeted to my circle. The only other question I had was whether I was right person to write this Foreword. I wasn’t sure whether my immersion in the tattoo scene had tainted my perspective of the current acceptance of ink. Damn the Pew numbers – were tattoos still perceived as scary and weird? Then my mother called. She started, ‘You should see this woman at my job, she has the niftiest tattoo.’

I INK, THEREFORE I FOREWORD xiii

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