As Viagens E as Cidades No Corpo: Um Estudo Sobre Tatuagens, Representações E Afetos

Abstract

From a communicational perspective and a reading of the anthropology of emotions, this thesis deals with the powers of meaning of the bodies with a special focus on those which are resignified with tattoos. Through the investigation with individuals who have marks about trips and cities exposed on their skins, we discuss their relationships with the places and the effects of these experiences, bringing up reflections on transits, feelings and representations. We explore the resonances of the contacts with urban spaces and the displacement experiences, in order to understand the resignification of the body to an expression of the sensitive, emphasizing the contours of the memory and understanding that tattoos have the power to represent affections. This is also possible through a transformation in the values, which are attributed to the engraved signs on the layers of the dermis. The research is qualitative, descriptive and is based on fieldwork, through which fifteen comprehensive interviews were conducted, all of them recorded in audiovisual format. The contrasts between the theoretical review and the collected materials are elaborated through an interpretative analysis of the content, which is organized into groups and categories. Thus, we observe the meanings currently linked to body changes and, in a special way, how the body becomes a vehicle for the manifestation of the identities and for recording of the affectivities which are linked to the trips and the cities.