Tattooing with Gender, Race and Class

My research had started on the Scholar Commons of the University of South Florida. I had found this very well put together research publication of a graduate students thesis work by the name of Jocelyn N. Camacho. His article thesis was trying to tell me that most criminals who are men commonly have tattoos and the majority of the men in his survey did indeed have a tattoo.

However I believe that surveys and research like this one are very ignorant and judgmental towards people who have tattoos. I didn't apprehend most of these thoughts until after reading these articles that most of the research is judging people who have tattoos. The writers are almost targeting people who have problems and just so happen to have a tattoo and to me that just doesn't seem very right or fair. The reason I feel this way is because the best woman I know who is really good friend of mine has many tattoos that are very neat and artistic, the point is she is a very good person with a huge heart and not to mention she is a very smart young lady who I love a lot. What I am trying to say is the person that I know who has the biggest heart in the world has many tattoos and it doesn't matter what gender or race she is. It makes me feel very uncomfortable to be talking about someone's financial class. Upper class, middle class, or lower class; a tattoo will not make a difference on behalf of how good or bad they are. It seems like he was just targeting the male inmates and felons with tattoos and to me it really doesn't make much of a difference.

The research from this graduate student was extremely impressive because the student focused on the topic of tattoos specifically on men because the research had found that tattoos today in American culture are without a doubt much more commonly found on men compared to woman which lead him to research and figure out what race of men is tattooing more consistent. I have no idea how this person was able to gather so much data and information but they had used files of people who were in prison which in this case the independent variables in the graduate students first analysis of the effects of a visible tattoo arrestees were male, black, Hispanic, and visible tattoo with felony charge as the dependent variable. Independent variables for this analysis of the tattoo location included three demographic variables such as male, black, and Hispanic; the student looked for visible tattooshead, neck, arm, hand, and all over with felony charges as the dependent variable. Independent variables of this analysis of tattoo types included the three demographic variables of male, black, and Hispanic.

While the student observed for the visible tattoos of the four location variables such as religious, patriotic, personal, gang, and other unknowns with felony charge as the dependent variable. The research from this article was just so over whelming to me that I practically couldn't even construe it and fully understand how he got all this information. It all just blew my mind but this research tells me that it somewhat kind of associates with Wendy Heywood's article and research by that tattoos really are more commonly found on men compared to woman and also tattooing is associated a lot more with the lower class of social deviance individuals such as people who break the law and go to jail. I don't know what exactly the researcher was trying to prove with the difference between men with tattoos that are exposed or not showing. To me it really doesn't matter if a male or female have tattoos on their body.

I personally don't like to magistrate people who have tattoos because it's none of my business and it should have nothing to do with race, gender, or class. Even though I don't have a tattoo on my body, I'm never going to judge someone for having one or get one because everybody else has one. This research project has put me in a somewhat awkward and uncomfortable position because it's almost forcing me to judge people and I'm not that type of person.Pfeifer, Gail M. News Director, Attitudes toward Piercings and Tattoos, AJN, American Journal of Nursing: May 2012, Volume 112, Issue 5, Page 15.Does body modification suggest a lack of professionalism, or is it simply freedom of expression? (Pfeifer, Gail M. 2012, Page 15)

I felt that this quote makes an excellent point and about women rights and everybody freedom. Men and woman have the right to whatever we want. I believe in freedom of expression and I can't believe that men would talk down to a woman all over a tattoo. The article was written by Gail Pfeifer in the American Journal of Nursing and it talks precisely about the research from a survey that got responses from about hundred and fifty patients. In the survey the respondents would look or stare at an image on a computer screen of a female or male dressed like a nurse in their scrub uniforms. In this particular research the respondents were given a number of terms with which they must describe the practitioners. This author and researcher tried to show that those men with tattoos never really perceive positively in relation to anything on this topic by relation to these terms.

Findings also showed that women with tattoos were just about never perceived anymore positively. The practitioners in this research were surprisingly very reliable, professional, efficient, approachable, and confidence. No proof or evidence in this article had showed men with tattoos were rarely perceived more positively in relation to these terms. Women with tattoos were never perceived more positively versus to comparison to men and women without tattoos. I think that the whole argument against women with a simple tattoo is just plain wrong and I can't believe that men have treated women this way in our past. It's just so silly that people would judge a woman all because she has a tattoo on her arm. I just don't have that mentality and it blows me away that it's even a discussion and was a reality. I believe that we humans are living in an extremely judgmental world and I deeply dislike how my fellow men feel that they have the right to just boss woman around the way they do.Hawkes, Diana, Senn, Charlene Y, Thorn, Chantal. Factors That Influence Attitudes toward Women with Tattoos, May 2010, Volume 50, Issue 9“10, pp 593“604

After my own interpretation of this article I can figure out that the independent variables were the size of the tattoo and the placement or visibility of the tattoo which of course were manipulated. In this researchers sample it had said that around twenty three percent of womenand only twelve percent of men had tattoos. These percentages lean towards the entitlements that women may be more than fifty percent of the individuals currently obtaining tattoos but both men and women both had a more negative attitude toward a woman with a visible tattoo versus a woman with an opposite description.

According to this analysis and research, participants with more conservative gender attitudes had valued all women more negatively. I feel that future research directions on gender differences need to be offered and researched a little more however I am not sexist against the opposite gender and all these differences don't matter to me in any way shape or form. From what I have read in this article, it indicates that men with tattoos have experienced lots of negative judgments but in the long run still receive a better social acceptance versus woman with tattoos. I would not want to be part of an effort that would control the tattooing of women because I believe in woman's rights and I think it's very silly to even talk like that and let alone talk about the subject because woman are human beings just like men and they can do whatever they want and whatever they please to do because it's a free country. It blows my mind that there was once a no tolerance of women with tattoos and the growing trend of tattooing for women. The author of this article feels that it is extremely essential to study the possible guidance of tattooing on people's perceptions of women with tattoos but I honorably think that those days are over and I believe woman can do what they want neither because I respect their rights nor would I ever look down on them for it.

To the three author's understanding, there has been absolutely no empirical research on attitudes in the route of women with tattoos. Why would the general shame of tattoos for women remain even as numerous women went out of their way to acquire tattoos? Tattoos and tattooing have been considered primarily a man's activity and would, therefore, likely be deliberated a gender role violation for women. (Hawkes, Senn, and Thorn. 2010, Page 594) I am not really sure what exactly this assessment from the article means but when I read things like a gender defilement for woman, I just say to myself while nodding my head, How can a man say something like that and how in the first place did we come to the decision of a woman getting a tattoo a gender violation. All I can say is that I think the way this topic was handled was very injudicious and pointless.

Discussion:

At what age group or class dose tattooing specifically target and why is tattooing so popular for that age group or class? My second research question will be What race or skin color seems to be the dominant group that gets tattoos and what can I find to prove that why this is? Which Gender group do I think based on the scholarly articles dose tattooing seem to be most popular, a man or a Woman? Between the lower, middle, and upper class, which class dose tattooing happen more commonly and based on my research why is it more common in that class?

I exceedingly feel that I answered all my research questions by writing this paper and reading the articles but at the same time I really don't feel the same way about the whole topic anymore considering the whole gender thing. I also feel like the two reading from class and the three articles that I found on tattooing with gender, race, and class were all very condemnatory about people with tattoos and just were simply trying to pick out all the bad qualities in a person with tattoos such as being part of the lower class, transsexual diseases, felons and prisoners, and last but not least the gender thing really got me because I can't suppose my fellow humans are so unconscious and would displeasure their own women like they did. In the two article class readings that we went over class, they provided a very straight forward survey of who and what type of people associate themselves with tattoos however I felt that Heywood's survey was a little too judgmental and perhaps a little on the controversial and ignorant side. I know way too many good people who have tattoos on their body and I feel like Heywood's survey was trying to make people with tattoos like their some kind of dirty people who are criminals, potheads, and etc.; I didn't really appreciate that even if she was right and such.

I think research like this is just wrong and very inconclusive because what exactly does her or anyone gain from this besides telling a bunch of people who tattoos that they have problems. I didn't see really any positive information that anyone would benefit off of based on what they got from their surveys. I just feel like they did all their research for nothing because just because you have a tattoo on your body doesn't mean you're in grounds to be a bad person and have problems. I would like to see Wendy Heywood and Audrey Porcella do research and surveys on people that don't have any tattoos on their body and see what the results from that would be which I think wouldn't mean anything either.

Conclusion:

The existing research specifies that there is no one crowd, no one age or gender, no one occupation type, no one personality, and no particular level of social status that get tattoos. In present society where everything is so fast and forwarded, tattoo shapes one's individuality in a bit different way and could be described as a form of self-expression. Tattoo conveys an implication, a story, which is very own and very individualistic. That's why a completely same image of a tattoo can hold a different implication to its owner and sometime to an audience. The public have their very own motivations for their tattoo, and altered perceptions are attached with it. People are seen to be provoked by something that they individually feel close, or by someone whom they admire or sometime just because of fashion.

Several studies over the last couple of years show there is an escalating rate of getting tattoo among the people from all types of ages, occupations, social classes, masculinity and major demonstrations were from high schooladolescents and college undergraduates. Over half 53.4% of those who accompanied the subjects also obtained tattoos. Nearly equal proportions of 96.4% females and 93.8 % of males acquired tattoos prior to age 21. I feel like I learned that these people who were doing these surveys weren't really the best people. I didn't really understand the whole point of Heywood's survey and what exactly she was intending on trying to prove. I personally was not blown away or surprised by any of the research that I did or from the two original class readings. I believe that there is so much that is still very unclear to me in this whole research project but most importantly, it's very unclear to me that what exactly was the objective of these surveys and what exactly where they trying to prove to me and their audience.

My new question is did the author like Wendy Heywood do this survey to specifically try to discredit people with tattoos? My second question would be dose Wendy Heywood have a tattoo?

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