Ethnocentric project

Body Art

By: David Marsala

What is a tattoo?

• A marking made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin.

• Tattoos on humans are a type of decorative body modification • Tattooing has been practiced for centuries worldwide.

• Why would someone get a tattoo?• Does it make them different from the world?• Does it help them mourn a death?• Does a tattoo solely describe a person?

• Four interviews took place• One tattoo artist• A person with one small tattoo• A person without a tattoo • A person covered in tattoos• went to a tattoo convention in Radio City

Music hall on May 15, 2011

Tattoo Dave

• Been tattooing over 10 years• Has been in three magazines for his work • Has tattooed over 2,500 people in his career• Owner of Skin Konviction

2011 Tattoo convention

• Took place Roseland Ballroom.• Variety of people, all ages from all over the U.S• Tattoo artists from all over the country

attended.• Contests were conducted for best work• Tattoo Dave received 3rd place out of 250

artists for best color.

Pictures from convention

• Results Interviews helped me out greatly. I thought I

was going to have a problem getting people to help me, but for the most part it wasn’t too bad. They saw that I was serious and I needed their impute to help me out.

By asking all of my questions I have realized that everyone is different and each person has their own unique style.

Results

Anthropological Concepts

• I compared this tattooing assignment to domesticating the French Fri. For a couple different reasons, we did not come up with the idea or concept of tattooing we got the idea from ancient times and different areas throughout the world. Domesticating the French Fri is the same because they did not come up with McDonalds but they embraced it and took it in and made it into something unique and something for them. This is just like tattoos we took in the culture and the art and we kind of twisted it into something special and something we could call our own, but not take credit for the whole thing.

Problems

• I think this paper came out very good, but I did have some roadblocks throughout the experience. I managed to get through them but it was an obstacle. At first when I tried interviewing people they wanted nothing to do with me, but when they saw I was legit and in desperate need of their help they started opening up and was able to help me out a lot in the end. When I first go this assignment I thought it was going be a lot easier than it was. I thought I was going to swing right through it but I was completely wrong.

Successes

• I learned a lot from this assignment, and I really enjoyed doing it as well. I feel one does better on an assignment when he or she actually enjoys the topic they are talking about. It makes them put more effort into their work and makes them take pride in it because it expresses them as a person. This project was awesome for me because I got to write and talk about something I enjoy and something I am apart of. I myself have eight tattoos and do not regret any of them.