Tattoo as an object of sociological interest: Some functional features in the contemporary society

Abstract

Even with the most “naked” eye it is difficult not to notice the growing prevalence of tattoos in the Russian society (beyond any generational, gender, professional or social boundaries), which makes tattooing an important object of sociological analysis and requires identifying its subject field, since tattooing is such an ancient social phenomenon that it has long been the focus of interdisciplinary research (historical, anthropological, philosophical, art-historical, cultural studies, etc.). The article outlines this subject field as consisting of several thematic blocks. First, these are reasons for the popularization of tattooing in the social history of recent centuries: the results of the colonial era; interest in other cultures; “labeling” of subcultures; expansion of the listed “niche” reasons beyond certain social/professional groups and subcultures (mass distribution of tattoos in the contemporary consumer culture). Second, the conceptual foundations of the sociological study of the functionalsymbolic features of tattooing: the “critical theory”; theories of subcultures; identity theories; gender approach within identity research; sociological theories of the body. Undoubtedly, the specificity of the sociological analysis of tattooing is the focus on its functions in a given social context, which today is set by the mass consumer culture of the information society and, in part, by various subcultural and “elite”-reference groups. Third, the possibility of empirical study of tattooing outside the socialanthropological (historical-visual or semiotic-symbolic) field - in the perspective of highlighting existing/sustainable social representations about tattooing. Sociologists have two main methodological tools: mass representative surveys and semi-formalized (expert in the broad sense of the word) interviews. The article presents the results of the all-Russian survey conducted by WCIOM in 2019 and of the small online survey supplemented by semi-structured interviews, which showed a clearly expressed trend of social ‘normalization’ of tattooing in the Russian society as mainly a widespread and a generally neutrally perceived method of (aesthetic and decorative) self-expression.

Keywords

• tattoo
• sociological analysis
• mass culture
• subculture
• tattoo functions
• self-expression
• social-cultural context
• survey
• interview
• social normalization
• social representations