‘Flowers are more of a feminine thing than say, a skull’: constructions and representations of women’s tattooed bodies

Abstract

By being tattooed, people are able to express who they are, display what they have overcome and state how they see themselves within their social worlds (Anderson, 2014). As the tattooed female body can be seen as a subversive act against normative hegemonic social constructions of femininity (Atkinson, 2002), tattoos on the bodies of women are often framed negatively, out of traditional representations of what it means to be a feminine woman. This research explores the ways in which tattooed women portray themselves and their identities through their bodies, and the ways in which tattoos can often be mis/interpreted by others. In addition, the consideration for how placement and style of a tattoo can come to embody or rebel against traditional notions of femininity. Using semi-structured interviews, ten women of various ages, gained through convenience sampling, were invited to discuss topics relating to femininity, their tattoos and their identities. The focus of the analysis considered the individual lived experiences of the women, and centred on what factors formed their experiences. The conclusions drawn from the research highlight the importance of the consideration of women’s lived experiences of tattoos, rather than generalising to stereotypical societal representations and constructions of tattooed women