The Body as (Another) Place: Producing Embodied Heterotopias Through Tattooing

Abstract

While previous research has mobilized sociological and psychological readings of the body, this study considers it ontologically as the ultimate place we must live in, with no escape possible. A phenomenological framework and a four-year, multimethod, qualitative study of tattoo recipients and tattooists substantiates the conceptualization of the body as a threefold articulation: an inescapable place (topia), the source of utopias arising from fleeting trajectories between here and elsewhere, and the “embodied heterotopia” that it becomes when people rework their bodies as a better place to inhabit. We show how tattooed bodies are spatially conceived as a topia through their topographies, territories, landscapes, and limits. We then highlight how this creates a dynamic interplay between past, present, and future, resulting in utopian dreams of beautification, escape, conjuration, and immutability. Finally, we show how tattooees produce embodied heterotopias, namely other places that both mirror and compensate for their ontological entrapment. In considering the body as a place, our framework enriches phenomenological and existential approaches to self-transformation in contemporary consumption.

Extending Diderot unities: How cosmetic surgery changes consumption

“…According to Schouten (1991) cosmetic surgery can be seen as a form of extreme symbolic consumption that uses the body as an object to express the self. It is like tattoos in this respect (Roux & Belk, 2018). Our informants stressed that cosmetic surgery enabled them to re‐shape their self and enabled them to obtain a desired self.…”

“…Noteworthy is the fact though that a person's bodily appearance is not static. Rather changes can occur to the body for a variety of reasons such as aging (Twigg, 2007), exercise (Parkinson et al, 2017), nutrition (Ourahmoune, 2017) and even tattoos (Roux & Belk, 2018). The aforementioned reasons lead to a transformation of the body that can vary in its degree of alteration.…”

Defying the Gods and the Odds: On Being a Cyborg

“…As previously done in consumer research, despite in its full stages or not (e.g., Bradford and Sherry, 2015;Floch, 1988;Heilbrunn, 2015;Kessous and Roux, 2008;Kozinets, 2008;Lima et al, 2019;Lima and Pessôa, 2018;Pessôa, 2011;Roux and Belk, 2019;Semprini, 1992), the first approach to code the data was to use an adaptation of the generative trajectory of signification 24 (GTS) (Greimas and Courtes, 1982, p. 134). Table 9 provides an example of the iterative coding process for written texts, starting from the concrete level to the more abstract one.…”

“…Plastic surgery (Kniazeva and Babicheva, 2017;Schouten, 1991a); Botox injections (Giesler, 2012); Tattoos (Patterson and Schroeder, 2010;Roux and Belk, 2019); Body sculpting (Engdahl and Gelang, 2019;Featherstone, 1999); Diets (Gurrieri and Cherrier, 2013;Moore et al, 2017).…”

“…As an example of plurality, Figure 22 shows four pictures of two events as well as different social settings (i.e., Villain Arts x Covered Tattoo & Art Expo and Dark Futures, both in Canada). Even though it is easier to find and meet grinders on the internet given their "online community-based ethos" (Doerksen, 2017;Duarte, 2014;Giger and Gaspar, 2019;Graafstra et al, 2010;Yetisen, 2018), over time, the passage from outsider to insider (Bhattacharyya and Belk, 2019;Goulding et al, 2004;Roux and Belk, 2019;Schouten and McAlexander, 1995) happened mainly after having my own NFC microchip installation, which will be further detailed later. As one of several possible examples of this passage, during the Villain Arts x Covered Tattoo & Art Expo in 2019, I attended a seminar on basically how to do tech-implants, which was led by Russ Foxx, one of "The Creators" often mentioned in grinders' events and online discussions.…”