Unique in scope and content, this methods-based text draws on the process of creating a digital archive of commemorative tattoos to examine the production and mobilization of knowledge across communities, disciplines, and space. Deborah Davidson’s multidisciplinary collection addresses the cultural history of tattooing and the social meanings and implications of commemorative tattoos—tattoos that hold significant value for their bearer.
A practical resource for those undertaking archival research or collecting and sharing information across disciplines, this text acts as a template for building connections between academic and non-academic communities. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, The Tattoo Project offers critical insights and tools for courses focused on research methodologies and digital humanities, and provides innovative content for those studying the body, visual culture, and commemoration.
FEATURES:
highlights several case studies and personal narratives to contextualize theoretical and methodological approaches
includes photographs of archival participants
features accompanying poetry by award-winning poet Priscila Uppal
The Tattoo Project digital archive provides additional supplementary materials including photos, videos, and narratives
Chapter One: Introducing The Tattoo Project Deborah Davidson
SECTION I. HISTORY, CULTURE, AND APPROACH: AN OVERVIEW
Chapter Two: Memories on the Skin: A Brief Cultural History of Tattooing Margo DeMello
Chapter Three: Commemorative Tattoos as Visual-Material Media Sara Martel
Chapter Four: Between the Inside and the Outside: Commemorative Tattoos and the Externalization of Loss or Trauma Andreas Kitzmann
Chapter Five: Creative Methodologies Gayle Letherby and Deborah Davidson
Chapter Six: Tattooing as Auto/Biographical Method and Practice Gayle Letherby and Deborah Davidson
Chapter Seven: Visual Research Methods: Memorial Tattoos as Memory-Realization Deborah Davidson and Angelina Duhig
Chapter Eight: Inscribing Memory as a Social Process: The Tattoo Artist–Client Relationship Arthur McLuhan, with Wayne Galbraith
SECTION II. WRITTEN IN THE FLESH
Poem. Not a Cliché, by Priscila Uppal
Photos
Two Memories, by Mary Khan
SECTION III. CASE STUDIES AND PERSONAL NARRATIVES
Chapter Nine: “Physical Words”: Scars, Tattoos, and Embodied Mourning Kay Inckle
Chapter Ten: Enshrined in Flesh: Tattoos and Contemporary Women’s Spirituality Gina Snooks
Chapter Eleven: Memorial Tattoos as Connection Andrea Warnick and Lysa Toye
Chapter Twelve: “Ingulule Ayidli Ngamabala”: A Reflection on the Spotted Soloist Siphiwe Ignatius Dube
Chapter Thirteen: I Am Stephanie Pangowish
Chapter Fourteen: Tattoo Memoir Dave Mazierski
Chapter Fifteen: Why I Get Tattoos: A Personal Perspective on Tattoos and Commemoration Craig Roxborough
SECTION IV. THE TATTOO PROJECT: A COMMUNITY UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Chapter Sixteen: What Is an Archive? Creators, Functions, and Value in Archival Practice Lisa Darms
Chapter Seventeen: Public Sociology and Digital Culture Ariane Hanemaayer and Christopher J. Schneider
Chapter Eighteen: Technology Design to Support Commemorative Tattoo Practice Melanie Baljko
Chapter Nineteen: The Coming Together of a Community of Practice: Commemorative Tattoos as Visual Culture for Community Engagement and Identity Formation Anabel Quan-Haase
Chapter Twenty: Knowledge Mobilization: Engaging Beyond the Academy Walls Krista Jensen
Reflection Deborah Davidson
Author Biographies
Index
Biography
Deborah Davidson is an Associate Professor of Sociology at York University.
“The Tattoo Project imaginatively blurs the lines between academic research and embodied narratives, scholarly knowledge and lived experiences. Methodologically ambitious, The Tattoo Project shows the multi-layered meanings behind commemorative tattoos, giving voice and space to the people who embody them. It also challenges us to re-think collaboration and community through the creation of an open digital archive that extends into the public sphere, and how the tattooed body is an inimitable archive in and of itself.” — Mary Kosut, School of Natural and Social Sciences, Purchase College, SUNY
“As a unique form of human expression, tattooing transmits a vast body of information about who we are, where we come from, our desires and fears, and who we aspire to be. It offers one of the most powerful biographical, artistic, and intellectual statements on cultural diversity, visual communication, and commemorative agency. The authors of The Tattoo Project bring these profound perceptions to life, generating a timely interdisciplinary study that provides critical new understandings of body-marking and its role in self-making.” — Lars Krutak, Tattoo Anthropologist, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
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