Navigating Tattooed Women’s Bodies

Intersections of Class and Gender

Charlotte Dann
Emerald
Emerald

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Hardback
9781839098314
01 October 2021
$99.99
eBook (PDF)
9781839098307
01 October 2021
$99.99
eBook (ePub)
9781839098321
01 October 2021
$99.99

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  • Description
  • Contents
  • About
Although tattoos have become increasingly available to us, there are still spaces where they are not accepted, and even 'othered'. Looking at the UK, where media discourses are often unfavourable towards tattooed women discussing their own bodies, this book explores how we understand tattooed women’s bodies in the UK – through the lens of gender and class. Unpacking themes which focus on how femininity is embodied, and how unwritten rules are broken or followed, Charlotte Dann demonstrates how meaning is key to our understanding of female body art.  

Drawing our attention to how traditional constructions of femininity are conformed to and resisted against, Dann positions media discourses of trends, regret, and transformation alongside tattooed women’s own thoughts of their tattoos. The chapters uncover how tattoos relate to the embodiment, or resistance, of femininity where the body plays a complex role – in care, in the community, and in families. Delving into the societal norms about what women should and shouldn’t do with their bodies, and looking specifically at motherhood, employment, and consumption, Dann demonstrates how meaning-making is critical to how women’s tattooed bodies are understood, and how personal narratives take centre stage in the justification for tattoos. Providing a fuller understanding of the nuances particular to tattooed women, this book equips readers to reconstruct how we theorize femininity and the body.

Chapter 1. Introduction

  • Chapter 2. Tattooed bodies in the media
  • Chapter 3. Reading the tattooed feminine body
  • Chapter 4. Following (and breaking) the rules
  • Chapter 5. Meaning is key
  • Chapter 6. Embodying femininity
  • Chapter 7. Conclusions
Charlotte Dann is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Northampton, UK. She specialises in qualitative research, and teaches critical social and developmental psychology. She runs her own website including research blogs and YouTube videos.