Inked Careers: Tattooing Professional Paths

Abstract

The concept of career has an interdisciplinary and historical constitution, which includes persons, groups, organizations and society. Given that, we aim to deepen the interactionist notion of career from the understanding of a deviant path, supported by a theory and a method appropriated to the cited call for interdisciplinary approaches. Dilemmas (Hughes, 1958) and conflicts (Hughes, 1937) emerged as important analytical categories. Although necessary, these two concepts were not sufficient to contemplate analyses in their entirety. For this reason we conceptualized a third possibility of controversy during a career: the inquiries. The study followed the Narrative method to analyze objective and subjective changes during a tattoo artist's career through interviews and informal conversations carried out over 22 months. The discussion presents three main contributions. Theoretically, a new understanding of the concept of careers, linking past, present and future and the idea of non-linearity of experienced and envisioned careers. Methodologically, suggesting orientations for future career studies such as the use of turning points as a methodological tool and the investigation of deviant fields. Finally, our defense of the interactionist perspective as suitable for career studies, since it allows the investigation of deviant elements.

Perspectivas de carreira da geração Z

“…No contexto empresarial atual, em um ambiente de negócios dinâmico e competitivo das organizações, há uma mudança da responsabilidade de controlar e de direcionar a carreira para o indivíduo, que passou a se adequar continuamente às transformações do mercado de trabalho e assumiu um papel de protagonista da construção de seu percurso profissional (DELUCA et al, 2016). Bravo et al (2015) asseveram que as constantes mudanças, em termos de comércio e de tecnologias, têm alterado sobremaneira as relações trabalhistas e o relacionamento entre os colaboradores e as empresas, modificando a visão de carreira mais tradicional, com estabilidade e progressão linear e ascendente.…”

The Construction of Knowledge in the Work of a Tattoo Artist: A Look from the Perspective of Aesthetics

“…Emphasis on artisanal forms of work, such as tattooing, thus emerges as a rich empirical field. This is especially due to the artisanal nature of tattooing and its brand of outsider activity (Becker, 2008;DeLuca & Rocha, 2016) attributed by society, which does not recognize it as a profession (DeLuca, 2015). As much as professionals who carry out activities of greater social prestige (considered elitist activities), jobs recognized as common require knowledge and techniques.…”

“…Some studies in the field of administration seek to understand jobs labeled as common and simplistic by society, which sometimes do not require specific training or higher education. Some of these jobs involve work knowledge that does not follow social conventions, such as the activities of bakers and cooks (Figueiredo & Cavedon, 2015;Soares, 2015), housemaids and cleaners (Caeiro, Neto, & Guimaraes, 2016;Cardoso, Silva, & Zimath, 2017), artisanal fishermen (Rodrigues, 2012), airport agents (Bitencourt, 2015), cameramen (Ferrazza, 2015), bioconstruction workers (Camillis, 2016), gravediggers and cemetery workers / morgue and crematorium workers (Batista & Codo, 2018;Jagannathan, Selvaraj, & Joseph, 2016;Monteiro, Pereira, Oliveira, Lima, & Carrieri, 2017;Silva, Souza, Araújo, & Pinto, 2016), prostitutes and transvestites (Arruda, Moraes, Colling, & Goldoni, 2017;Carrieri, Souza, & Aguiar, 2015;Magno, Dourado, & Silva, 2018), exotic dancers (Mavin & Grandy, 2013), prison guards (Rudnicki, Schäfer, & Silva, 2017;Tracy, 2004), street artists (Chiesa, Gois, De Luca, & Cavedon, 2015), informal parking attendants (Gómez, 2017), street sweepers (Costa, 2008), elderly caregivers (Ostaszkiewicz, O'Connell, & Dunning, 2016), and tattoo artists (Adams, 2012;DeLuca & Rocha, 2016;French, Mortensen, & Timming, 2018;Machado, 2018;Silva & Saraiva, 2014;Simpson & Pullen, 2018;Souza, 2015;Wright, 2017). Some studies relied on organizational aesthetics to understand the constitution of knowledge within the practice of different professions.…”

“…These studies rarely address tattooing as a form of craft work in which workers create and recreate their knowing in practice of their own daily work. Of the few studies on tattoo artists and their profession, those by DeLuca (2015), DeLuca and Rocha (2016), Machado (2018), and Simpson and Pullen (2018) stand out.…”

A Construção de Saberes no Trabalho do Tatuador: um Olhar sob a Perspectiva da Abordagem Estética

“…No campo da administração é possível identificar estudos que se dedicam a compreender trabalhos rotulados como comuns e simplistas pela sociedade, os quais, por vezes, não exigem formação específica ou maior grau de instrução. Dentre eles há alguns que envolvem saberes laborais que não estão em conformidade com as convenções sociais, tais como as atividades de doceiras e cozinheiras (Figueiredo & Cavedon, 2015;Soares, 2015), domésticas e faxineiras (Caeiro, Neto, & Guimaraes, 2016;Cardoso, Silva, & Zimath, 2017), pescadores artesanais (Rodrigues, 2012), agentes aeroportuários (Bitencourt, 2015), cinegrafistas (Ferrazza, 2015), trabalhadores da bioconstrução (Camillis, 2016), coveiros e trabalhadores de cemitério, necrotério ou crematório (Batista & Codo, 2018;Jagannathan, Selvaraj, & Joseph, 2016;Monteiro, Pereira, Oliveira, Lima, & Carrieri, 2017;Silva, Souza, Araújo, & Pinto, 2016), prostitutas e travestis (Arruda, Moraes, Colling, & Goldoni, 2017;Carrieri, Souza, & Aguiar, 2015;Magno, Dourado, & Silva, 2018), bailarinos de danças exóticas (Mavin & Grandy, 2013), agentes penitenciários (Rudnicki, Schäfer, & Silva, 2017;Tracy, 2004), artistas de rua (Chiesa, Gois, De Luca, & Cavedon, 2015), guardadores de carro (Gómez, 2017), garis (Costa, 2008), cuidadores de idosos (Ostaszkiewicz, O'Connell, & Dunning, 2016), tatuadores (Adams, 2012;DeLuca & Rocha, 2016;French, Mortensen, & Timming, 2018;Machado, 2018;Silva & Saraiva, 2014;Simpson & Pullen, 2018;Souza, 2015;Wright, 2017).…”