The Tattoo Subculture in America

One of the most popular subcultures in America is the tattoo subculture. Over the span of roughly half a century, tattooing emerged from being a trend among sailors, circus performers and side show freaks to being body ink sported by bikers, convicts, professional athletes, actors, musicians, Millennials, hipsters, Moms, Dads, and just about everyone in between. Thanks to trend setters in popular media, tattooing broke out into the mainstream in the 21st century. What was once a shocking display of body ink meant to symbolize one’s difference from others has now become so common among people today that to see a tattooed person, or a dozen of them, in a restaurant is nothing out of the ordinary. Yet, for all its popularity, tattooing is still part of a subculture: professionals in the business world tend to avoid them or at least hide the one or two they have, and many parents still discourage the practice—such as the father of NBA player Lonzo Ball and actor Mark Whalberg, who has had his own tattoos surgically removed. So what do tattoos represent for people and why are they appealing to some? The fact is that many of today’s tattooed persons do not realize the significance of the tattoo subculture of days gone by. According to Tefts, “a subculture consists of a group of individuals who distinguish themselves from the overriding culture in some way, whether it be ethnically, morally, visually, attitudinally, etc.” (3). Yet many today get tattoos not to stand out but to fit in: Justin Bieber is a perfect example of an artist who suddenly needed to “prove” himself as an authentic artist by getting sleeves up his arms. Today, tattooing serves as a visual way for people to express themselves differently from the status quo. This paper will describe how tattooing came to America, how it led to a subculture, how the subculture is misrepresented today, how it became mainstream, what the outcomes for society from this subculture have been in America, and what a sociologist has said about this subculture. 
Tattooing came to America in the 1860s, when the first tattoo studio opened in New York City (Vanishing Tattoo). Owned by Hildebrandt, the studio was a favorite stop of circus performers and carnival acts, whose full-body tattoos served as “freakish” attractions used to drum up business in carnival industry. Hildebrandt’s own daughter was one such sideshow attraction with a full-body set of tattoos given her by her dad (Vanishing Tattoo). Overseas, the tattooing fever had caught on when the Prince of Wales tattooed a cross on himself. In the States, tattooing was mainly linked to similarly patriotic gestures: soldiers, especially in the Navy, got tattoos as mementos—ink to remember their unit, their home, a loved one. From the Civil War on up to WWI and WWII, tattooing was popular among those in the military. Tattoo artists in the 20th century began to arrive on the scene in earnest for WWII soldiers, putting eagles or buxom blondes on the arms of sailors, though circus per (Vanishing Tattoo). The first half of the 20th century was mostly spent getting sweethearts’ names covered up or indecent tattoos inked over with clothing: popular artist Charles Wagner was interviewed in 1944 after 50 years of tattooing and “he estimated that next to covering up the names of former sweethearts, the work which brought him the most money over the years had been complying to the Naval order of 1908,” which had forbade men from serving in the Navy so long as they had indecent ink (Vanishing Tattoo).
America has been at war since the Spanish-American War which began at the end of the 19th century, and so war was pretty much what was going on in America when the tattoo subculture got going. America was still fairly traditional in terms of values and roles up to WWII, and after the War, social revolution took off, and the second half of the 20th century was radically different from the first half. Tattooing in the second half stopped being tied to patriotic acts of valor (like going to war) and began being taken up by subculture artists—like musicians in punk rock and later hip hop artists: both viewed tattoos as a way of expressing their street credibility and their status as an “other” in society (Rapp 1). Tattooing in America became a real art once tattoo artists began creating more complete works of ink—as Rapp notes:
The American tattoo did not begin to enter this realm until the tattooists of the late 20th century made contact with tattooists in Polynesia and Japan and began creating custom and large?scale tattoos rather than the small and independent flash designs which had been the standard. The increasing skill and creativity expected from a tattooist has resulted in “tattoo artists,” most of whom have had formal art training in the same way a painter or other traditional artist would. The effects of this change were that tattoos became more legitimate as art because of the technical prowess exhibited and the expense involved in acquiring one. (18)
With the arrival of real tattoo artists who could style elaborate designs, the “other” in society could express his otherness with a proper aesthetic. But once this could be achieved, the “other” took on a significance of its own and ceased to be defined by its separation from the mainstream: tattooed people began to be an in-group of its own.
Today, the tattoo subgroup has been misrepresented in a variety of ways: tattoos have been associated with deviance and crime as people in prisons, punks and African Americans in hop hop and gangsta rap have sported tattoos as a sign of toughness (Rapp). Or as Tabassum puts it, “the dominant cultural view of tattooing holds that tattoos and the individuals who bear them are inherently criminal, deviant, and pathological” (4). Yet, this was never really the case for the tattooing subculture in the first half of the 20th century. Tattoos were signs of identity—for sailors and performers. They were a way of signifying in a visual manner one’s difference. Over time, as more and more people from lower classes began getting tattoos to signify their membership to gangs and violent organizations in the streets and urban areas, people lost sight of the tattoo as an individualistic expression and began viewing it as a form of collective symbolization. Followers from suburban communities have sought to emulate their stars by getting tattoos to show their unity with the artists they admire. The original intention of the tattoo as being a sign of identity has thus been lost as ritual has replaced originality. What was once a sign of uniqueness has become misrepresented in media and popular culture as a symbol of organized deviance.
At the same time, the tattoo subculture has entered into the mainstream, perhaps precisely because deviance has gone mainstream in the latter half of the 20th century and first half of the 21st century. After all, the social and sexual revolutions of the 60s and 70s led the way to a redefinition of what it meant to have an identity in America. Formerly marginalized groups began to see more mainstream support. Gays and lesbians, formerly never portrayed in popular media, now have their own TV shows, are major characters on sitcoms and TV dramas, are depicted positively in films and culture, and so on. The social mores have changed: deviance has become accepted even though some still view it as deviance.
For that reason, it makes sense that sociologist Mark Taylor has been described by Jody Fisher as viewing the tattoo as “the symbol of the ‘postmodern primitive’”—a sign of “cultural abandonment of the centuries of resistance to ‘primitive desires’ and ‘savage impulses’” (102). The tattoo is now no longer just a memento or something to make one stand out in a circus; now, it is also a sign of one’s rejection of traditional mores. But it is more than that as well: it is a sign of one’s membership to a group. NBA basketball players get tattoos on their arms. Baseball players do as well to a lesser extent. Musicians get them. Actors get them. It is something that performers and entertainers still do—just not so much in the circus. It is now more of a form of fashion—a way to decorate oneself permanently. People use tattoos to make political statements or to show their devotion to someone special in their life. And, yes, gang members on the streets and in prisons also get them. Tattoos mean different things for different people. There is no uniform way in which they can be viewed. Sociologists have adopted different perspectives on the tattoo subculture to explain its origins, its meanings, and its place in society—yet in modern America, the tattoo has multiple meanings, multiple origins, and multiple places in society. Therefore, it cannot easily be defined.
The outcomes for society from this subculture being in America is that the nation is now at least more decorated. The people of America have more ink than ever before in the country’s history. Tattooing has become mainstream and though some people may have just one tattoo, others have full sleeves up and down both arms; still others have neck tattoos and face tattoos. Still others have full-body tattoos. There is a lot of range both in the style of tattooing in today’s America and in the demographics of people who get them. Tattoos have allowed people to express their inner “punk” or “gangsta”—they have allowed people to express their love by getting a child’s name or a loved one’s reminder inked on their body. They have allowed people to cope with trauma and heal by getting a tattoo of some meaningful verse that has given them hope. They have allowed people to distinguish themselves artistically by getting a unique decoration on their bodies. Society in America has become more accepting of tattoos and this has coincided with its acceptance of things that were formerly considered taboo in American society. Sex outside of marriage, single-parent homes, divorce, drug use, rap—all of these things were once sign as taboo in American society. The tattoo is the sign that America is no longer traditional in its culture; it symbolizes the disappearance of traditional moors and in a sense the proliferation of tattooing has helped to increase the disappearance of these moors.
In conclusion, the subculture of the tattoo emerged in America in the 19th century, primarily among soldiers and performers in the circus or in carnivals. It was initially tied to the patriotism of military men and to the uniqueness of performance art. In the latter half of the 20th century, it began to eke into the mainstream as more and more mainstream attention was given to performers—musicians, artists, actors and so on. Tattoos also began to symbolize aggression and angst towards the traditional culture. Punks and rappers used tattoos to signify their difference from the status quo. As the status quo began to lease its appeal for many people in society, tattooing was seen as a way to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with popular culture. Yet, in the end, tattooing became part of popular culture as pop culture phenoms like Justin Bieber jumped on the tattoo train. Today, tattooing is very accepted in most circles, though it is still not quite welcome in the professional world of business. Nonetheless, Moms, Dads, teens, performers, athletes and artists all have tattoos in America. In some sense, the tattoo is the new American way.
Works Cited
Fisher, Jill A. "Tattooing the body, marking culture." Body & Society 8.4 (2002): 91-107.
Rapp, Elizabeth. Stigmatization or Decoration: Tattoo as Deviance, a Cross-Cultural
Study. Senior Thesis, Williamette University.
Tabassum, Naomi Joy. Tattoo Subculture: Creating a personal identity in the context of
social stigma. Diss. North Dakota State University, 2013.
Teffs, Erin. "From Cellblocks to Suburbia: Tattoos as Subcultural Style, Commodity and
Self-expression." (2010). https://digitalcommons.bryant.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1003&context=honors_english
Vanishing Tattoo. United States.
http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoo_museum/united_states_tattoos.html