Tattooing: a rhizomatic map of a research theme

Abstract

To understand the dispersed interdisciplinary production on the topic of tattoos, we conducted a survey of the language of 35 articles published in Brazilian interdisciplinary journals from 1990 to 2020. From these articles, we developed four axes of analysis: tattoo as an inscription of the self, a creative and emancipatory power; the “B” side of tattoo; the interface between public health, dermatology and tattoo; and, lastly, the new generation of tattoo artists. We then present some considerations that apprehending tattoo as a discursive practice opens the doors of a labyrinth, whose exits do not exist and do not assure us a more liberated and emancipated contemporary subjectivity.