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Customizing The Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing |  | Author: Clinton R. Sanders
Publisher: Temple University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy Used: $0.63
as of 9/5/2010 19:06 CDT details
You Save: $27.32 (98%)
New (5) Used (23) Collectible (1) from $0.63
Seller: hippo_books
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 1634762
Media: Paperback
Pages: 229
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0877227640
Dewey Decimal Number: 745
EAN: 9780877227649
ASIN: 0877227640
Publication Date: May 11, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
'After looking at the sizable collection of tattoo memorabilia, I entered the tattoo studio adjacent to the museum and, like many first-time visitors to tattoo establishments, impulsively decided to join the ranks of the tattooed. After choosing a small scarab design from the wall 'flash,' I submitted to the unexpectedly painful tattoo experience'. So began sociologist Clinton Sanders' seven-year involvement in the world of tattoo culture. "Customizing the Body" discusses tattooing as a highly social act as a manipulation of self-image, as a symbolically meaningful form of body alteration in contemporary society. A tattoo changes 'how the person experiences his or her self and, in turn, how he or she will be defined and treated by others'.Tattoos continue to be a mark of alienation from the mainstream, but they also have an affiliative effect, identifying one as a member of a select group. Common wisdom associates tattoos with life-long regret, but Sanders introduces passionate collectors those who cannot resist the desire to 'get more ink' and tattoos who are very content with modest coverage. 'In the future when I'm sitting around and bored with my life and I wonder if I was ever young once and did exciting things, I can look at the tattoo and remember'.Sanders' immersion in this hidden social world his years of hanging out in tattoo parlors and participating in conventions of enthusiasts enable him to draw compelling portraits of tattoo collectors and artists. His interviews and observations reveal the ways in which artists are drawn into the work, their concerns in building their careers, and the nature of commercial exchange in tattoo studios. He juxtaposes an institutional view of art with the work done by highly skilled tattoo artists who are dedicated to erasing the negative stereotypes of their production and earning recognition for this marginally accepted form of body decoration. Clinton R. Sanders is Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Very informative book May 8, 2002
kevnm (Costa Mesa, CA United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I first read this book several years ago, and although its academic tone may be dry in spots for some readers, it's full of valuable information on tattooing. Sanders' studies show that many people getting their first tattoo have never even been in a studio before. A book like this can provide a lot of background on how the transactions works, how not to embarrass oneself and how to be an informed consumer. I started collecting several years after having read this book, and found the information I gleaned from it invaluable.
 Clean-skinned reviewer enjoys tattoo book. January 31, 2001
jeff (New York City, NY, USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you have ever considered getting tattooed, have ever wondered what possesses someone to get one, what kind of people get them, how your life would change after getting one, why so many people are getting them these days, and why very few of them today look like the ones your grandfather or his war buddies had, this book addresses all these questions and many more in a most thorough and mostly unbiased way. The book is actually an academic study written by a university professor who, during the course of researching and writing the book, became a tattooed person. It contains plenty of statistics as you would expect in an academic study, but also lots of colorful anecdotes: tattooists talking about the types of tattoos or customers they refuse, women who explain why they got their first tattoo, various customers on pride and regret. There are so many interesting facts in this book, it really does read like an anthropological study, which it is, and I believe it would make interesting reading for nearly anyone who's ever found themselves looking at an inked armed and muttering "Why?!" or especially those who might look and say, "Hey, why not?!" A few interesting facts from the book . . . Some classically trained fine artists are gaining acceptance in tattooing doing custom, commissioned, one-of-a-kind pieces . . . Women often get tattooed after a breakup . . . Most tattoo regret comes from getting one with poor craftsmanship . . . Men's first tattoos tend to be on the arm, women's on the breast . . . your social life will change if you get one . . . They really do hurt. This book is unique in that nearly every other book on the subject falls under the rubric of tattoo fandom. I read the book several years ago, and I'm still "clean skinned".
Interestinginly Informative July 21, 2000
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Customizing the Body is an academic study of tattooing and the whole culture that surrounds it. For most people the best part of the book is its introduction, which provides an excellent mini-history of tattooing and how it found it's way into western society. The rest of the book covers modern tattoo culture -- Becoming tattooed, tattooing as a career, and other issues surrounding tattooing and tattooists. The study is complete on an academic and informative level, yet is also easy and impelling reading that should appeal to anyone with a serious and non-voyeuristic interest in tattooing -- this is not a picture book.
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