Japanese tattoo

This article examines tattooing as an ancient and contemporary form of body inscription and modification. It frames the
popularity of tattooing in the Western World in relation to other modern body modifications and within the landscape of
consumer culture. Showing parallels between the motivations and meanings of contemporary tattoo practices, a historical
overview of tattoos in premodern and non-Western cultures is presented. The divergent ways in which scholars have
approached tattooing is examined, juxtaposing research in the behavioral sciences that links tattoos to deviant and antisocial
behaviors with ethnographic and social–scientific studies that place tattoos within cultural, symbolic, esthetic, and prosocial
frameworks.

This book charts the history of tattooing as an artistic practice in Europe and America, from its beginnings in seafaring and religious communities in the 16th and 17th centuries, through its period as an elaborate and fashionable preserve of aristocrats in the 19th century to its seeming ubiquity at the beginning of the 21st. By focussing on tattooing’s status as an art form, by considering the role of key tattoo artists, and by examining developments in form, genre, style and technology, the book presents a unique art historical perspective on a fascinating method of art making which has for so long been misunderstood.