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What people are saying - Write a reviewUser Review - Canadian Book Review Annual In this thoroughly researched and well-documented study, MichaelAtkinson presents a sociological approach to tattooing, exploring itssocial importance and surprisingly rich cultural history. It is anapproach that relies heavily on the work of Norbert Elias and hisexposition of “civilising processes.” This is figurationalsociology, which follows trends or behaviours over time and explores howthe shifts affect relationships between people and society in general.Atkinson, who teaches sociology at McMaster University, applies thistheory to the art of tattooing by discussing academic and commercialwritings on tattooing, by looking at various representations of the art,and by talking to tattoo enthusiasts of all ages and from all walks oflife. Although the book is lucidly written, it is geared toward readers whohave some knowledge of sociological terminology and an understanding ofbasic sociological precepts. The list of references is impressive,opening up avenues for personal research. The colour photographs aretasteful and illustrate such tattoo techniques as the Japanese“shirt.” Related books
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Common terms and phrasesactivities American analysis Atkinson and Young become behaviour biological bodily body art body habits body modification body practices body-modification habits body-modification practices Calgary Canadian tattoo enthusiasts clients codes conceptual constructions contemporary tattooing contexts corporeal DeMello deviant discourses display dominant Elias emotions enthusi everyday experience exploring expression family members feel figurational sociology forms of body friends gender guys history of tattooing identity ideologies images individuals integration interaction interdependencies interpretations intersubjectively interviewed involvement in tattooing learned lifestyle look means middle-class motivations narratives normative North America one's ongoing outsider participant observation participation in tattooing peers physical postmodernist reactions redesigning body project relationships role significant sociogenesis sociogenic sociological sociologists sport status subculture symbols tattoo artists tattoo figuration tattoo machine tattoo studios tattoo styles tattooing body projects tattooing in Canada tattooing practices tattooing process tattooing projects tattooing stories theoretical tion Toronto tural understanding Western cultures women working-class Popular passagesPage 98 - Subcultures are therefore expressive forms but what they express is, in the last instance, a fundamental tension between those in power and those condemned to subordinate positions and second class lives. This tension is figuratively expressed in the form of subcultural style Page 129 - ... own or other people's actions on a whole series of links in the social chain. The moderation of spontaneous emotions, the tempering of affects, the extension of mental space beyond the moment into the past and future, the habit of connecting events in terms of chains of cause and effect — all these are different aspects of the same transformation of conduct which necessarily takes place with the monopolization of physical violence, and the lengthening of the chains of social action and interdependence.... Page 129 - The closer the web of interdependence becomes in which the individual is enmeshed with the advancing division of functions, the larger the social spaces over which this network extends and which become integrated into functional or institutional units — the more threatened is the social existence of the individual who gives way to spontaneous \ impulses and emotions, the greater is the social advantage of those able to moderate their affects, and the more strongly is each individual constrained... Page 99 - Together, object and meaning constitute a sign, and, within any one culture, such signs are assembled, repeatedly, into characteristic forms of discourse. However, when the bricoleur re-locates the significant object in a different position within that discourse, using the same overall repertoire of signs, or when that object is placed within a different total ensemble, a new discourse is constituted, a different message conveyed. Page 6 - ... who possesses a greater or lesser degree of relative (but never absolute and total) autonomy vis-a-vis other people and who is, in fact, fundamentally oriented toward and dependent on other people throughout his life. The network of interdependencies among human beings is what binds them together. Such interdependencies are the nexus of what is here called the figuration, a structure of mutually oriented and dependent people. Since people are more or less dependent on each other first by nature... Page 93 - Gangs represent the spontaneous effort of boys to create a society for themselves where none adequate to their needs exists. Page 10 - ... —HABITUS For Elias, the structure and dynamics of social life could only be understood if human beings were conceptualized as interdependent rather than autonomous, comprising what he called figurations rather than social systems or structures, and as characterized by socially and historically specific forms of habitus, or personality-structure. He emphasized seeing human beings in the plural rather than the singular, as part of collectivities, of groups and networks, and stressed that their... Page 9 - He argued against the disciplinary separation of psychology, sociology and history as follows: The structures of the human psyche, the structures of human society and the structures of human history are indissolubly complementary, and can only be studied in conjunction with each other. They do not exist and move in reality with the degree of isolation assumed by current research. They form, with other structures, the subject matter of the single human science. Page 98 - culture', can only indicate, in the most general and abstract way, the large cultural configurations at play in a society at any historical moment. We must move at once to the determining relationships of domination and subordination in which these configurations stand; to the processes of incorporation and resistance which define the cultural dialectic between them; and to the institutions which transmit and reproduce 'the culture' (ie the dominant culture) in its dominant or 'hegemonic References to this bookFrom other books
From Google ScholarExploring Online and Offline Experiences in Canadian Youth SubculturesBRIAN WILSON, MICHAEL ATKINSON - 2005 - Youth & Society Tattooing and Civilizing Processes: Body Modification as Self-control*MICHAEL ATKINSON, MICHAEL ATKINSON - 2004 - Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie Health stories as connectors and subjectifiersArthur W Frank - Health Straightedge Bodies and Civilizing ProcessesMICHAEL ATKINSON - Body & Society References from web pagesJames Foley Worcester State College Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of ... New Page 1 Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art.(Book Review) | Journal ... Tattooed Forever Young Industrial Sunset Body Fascism Science in the City: Professor Michael Atkinson London Free Press: Today Section - Tattos get under your skin si Symbolic Interaction si 0195-6086 1533-8665 University of ... Health: Newsletter of the Norbert Elias Foundation UCL Library Services -- New accessions July 2004 Bibliographic information
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