Agenda

Empowering women for gender equity

ISSN: 1013-0950 (Print) 2158-978X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ragn20

(Monstrous) Beauty (Myths): The commodification

of women's bodies and the potential for tattooed
subversions

Clare Craighead

To cite this article: Clare Craighead (2011) (Monstrous) Beauty (Myths): The commodification
of women's bodies and the potential for tattooed subversions, Agenda, 25:4, 42-49

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Published online: 21 Dec 2011.

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perspective
(Monstrous) Beauty (Myths): The
commodification of women’s bodies and
the potential for tattooed subversions

Clare Craighead

abstract
Women’s bodies are often treated as sites of containment, control and oppression (Grosz, 1994). In
contemporary contexts of tattooing, women’s bodies, and their relationships to their bodies could be challenged
and perhaps even shifted, as there is potential to engage embodiment and its subversive power to elevate
female subjects from ‘object’ to active ‘participant’ within the consumerist-art-financial-embodied-identity
exchange. This is of course contested terrain (Atkinson, 2002) as tattoos and their meanings, and variety of
reasons that women decide on becoming tattooed, vary enormously, however the potential for subversion
through tattooing does nevertheless exist. Within consumerist cultures, the body becomes a great commodity-
bodies are used to sell almost everything, and the use and representation of bodies in this context is always
gendered (Wolf, 1990). Braunberger (2000) engages what she labels ‘monster beauty’ - basically an alternative
‘female aesthetic’ in the context of women who are tattooed, she offers this in relation to existing conventions of
feminine beauty which arguably render female bodies as consumer objects. To this end, Naomi Wolf provides a
core consideration for this Perspective when she argues that beauty is a currency system - in short both
embodied, and commodified - but proceeds to advocate this: ‘‘In response, we must now ask the question about
our place in our bodies that women a generation ago asked about their place in society’’ (1990:270).

keywords
Body, commodity, tattoo, women, subversion

Introduction skin of women. The stories behind sai-

lors’ tattoos are not women’s stories. In a
culture built on women’s silence and bent
‘‘If we are to free ourselves from the dead on maintaining silence as a primary part
weight that has once again been made out of the relationship between women’s
of femaleness, it is not ballots or lobbyists bodies and cultural writing, the rules
or placards that women will need first; it is have been simple. The written body may
a new way to see’’ (Wolf, 1990:19). only speak from a patriarchal script that
tries to limit women’s voices and bodies
‘‘As symbols demanding to be read, to supporting roles and scenery. So on a
tattoos on women produce anxieties of woman’s body any tattoo becomes a
misrecognition. Masculine tattoo conno- symbol of bodily excess’’ (Braunberger,
tations-brave, heroic, macho-slip off the 2000:1).

Agenda 90/25.4 2011

ISSN 1013-0950 print/ISSN 2158-978X online
# 2011 C. Craighead
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2011.630530 pp. 42
49
 perspective
In seeking to re-think mainstream contem- of subjects owned by the state (Sanders &
porary conceptions of beauty as a singular Vail, 2008; Atkinson, 2002; Braunberger,
set of constructed (and ultimately feminine) 2000; Mifflin, 1997) the practise has shifted,
ideals, and its linkage to, often, harmful and within contemporary contexts tattoos
practiced and highly policed embodiments exist within the mainstream as a market
of feminine beauty,1 this Perspective situ- commodity (Harlow, 2009; Sanders & Vail,
ates the embodied practice of tattoo 2008, DeMello, 2000). This placement within
collecting (Atkinson, 2002) amongst wo- the mainstream does not deny the complex-
men, as a potential site for the disturbance ities that exist in relation to how tattooed
of, and challenge to cultural conventions of bodies are framed, received and read so-
beauty and mainstream female-body-com- cially, however, it does recognise the sub-
modity relations. While there is a growing versive challenge to often uninscribed
body of scholarly literature and research bodies of authority. Into this a tattooed
relating to tattooing, much of this literature female body has the potential for subver-
exists outside of the realms of gender,2 and sive challenges to normative hegemonic
even less exists in relation to (South) Afri- constructions of passive femininity and
can contexts and experiences. Furthermore, dangerously under challenged ‘beauty
and of great concern, much of the existing myths’ (Atkinson, 2002; Riley, 2002; Braun-
scholarship tends to pathologise the act of berger, 2000; Wolf, 1990). Importantly, as
(women) becoming tattooed, to the extent Riley (2002:542) points out in relation to
that in some cases tattooing is compared Jeffreys’s assertion of the tattoo as inflicted
with the self-mutilating act of cutting (Jef- wound, is that this recognition fails to
freys, 2000), particularly associated with acknowledge that the:
women who have experienced some form
of psychological (and often sexual) trauma. ‘‘[P]lural and contextual meanings of
Jeffreys (2000) goes so far as to claim that body art are part of a complex interaction
the act of (women) becoming tattooed is not of power relationships, in which social
only indicative of, but also supportive of structures both limit our experiences and
oppressive patriarchal regimes that globally provide avenues for resistance. People
and culturally subjugate women. For Jef- can only make sense of themselves
freys, the tattoo is framed as an inflicted through the discourses that are available
wound, rather than, as Sanders and Vail in our society, but there are always
(2008) argue, an artistic exchange. This competing accounts, and while dominant
distinction between the tattoo as inflicted discourses tend to serve the interests of
wound and artistic exchange is arguably an the relatively powerful, their existence
important one to make when engaging the produces the points of resistance.’’
subversive potential of tattoo collecting for
women. To view the tattoo (and the process
of becoming a tattoo collector) negatively, a tattooed female body has the potential for
is to deny recent trends in the tattoo subversive challenges to normative hegemonic
industry that promote bodies as living constructions of passive femininity
canvasses and tattooists as artists (Sanders
& Vail, 2008; Mifflin, 1997). This recognition In this light, I take as my starting point
of the tattoo as art rather than inflicted existing literature specifically related to
wound makes it possible to identify the female (including my own) experiences of
dual process of becoming a tattoo collector tattooing and tattoo collecting in the form of
through the process of becoming tattooed - scholarly articles as well as tattoo narratives
and thereby customising the body - within (Oksanen & Turtiainen, 2005).3 This is done
realms of commodity culture. in order to problematise and ultimately
challenge prevailing practices related
to the commodification of hegemonic
constructions of femininity, through re-
The subversive potential of tattoo
conceiving historical and contemporary
collecting embodiments of female beauty as these
While tattooing has historically been used relate directly to an ‘aesthetics of femininity’
to, amongst other things, mark the bodies (Harlow, 2009; Braunberger, 2000). Of ne-

The commodification of women’s bodies and the potential for tattooed subversions 43
perspective
cessity then, this Perspective seeks to en- Vail, 2008; Oksanen & Turtiainen, 2005),
gage hegemonic constructions of feminine making the emergence of tattoos amongst
beauty and how the tattooed female body the middle class, as consumer products, a
can become a site for challenging existing relatively recent development (DeMello,
codes of conventional femininity. As Atkin- 2000). At this time there was a call to
son (2002:211) asserts: ‘‘we ultimately know recognise tattooists as ‘tattoo artists’, thus
very little about how tattoos are actively shifting understandings of tattoos as sig-
constructed and experienced by women’’, nifiers of cultural ownership or belonging
while Atkinson writes specifically in relation into realms of creative (often critical) ex-
to the Canadian context, it is safe to say that pression:
even less research/knowledge exists within
the South(ern) African context. A survey of ‘‘Many tattoo artists define themselves
the (limited) studies relating to Gender/ as commercial illustrators. Others value
women/Africa and tattoos provides insight the personal artistic expression involved
into enormous gaps within existing re- in tattoo design selection and produc-
search literature on the subject. Thus, I not tion. Tattoo artists make choices. They
only engage existing international literature make value judgements as well as artistic
and narratives relating to processes of judgements. The artists develop a perso-
becoming tattooed, but also provide some nal style that identifies their own indivi-
of my own tattoo narratives alongside some dual tattoo work, which they consider
images of my own tattooed skin. These art’’ (Fedorenko et al., 1999:107).
images and narratives provide my own
‘speaking body’ as a simultaneous sight/ Contemporary standards of beauty still of-
site of the convergence of ideas relating to ten dictate what is acceptable regarding the
the female body as a commodity, as well as inscription of women’s bodies. Often, in the
the tattooed female body as a sight/site for context of body art, women are expected to
potential agency in challenging normative opt for relatively small and discrete tattoos
constructions of feminine beauty. that represent femininity, like flowers, but-
terflies and fairies (Sanders & Vail, 2008;
Neville, 2005; Atkinson, 2002; Braunberger,
Challenging body-commodity 2000; DeMello, 2000). Thus understanding
relations the skin, the surface of the body, as a canvas
is not devoid of social and cultural scripts
Baudrillard (1998), sets out the premise for relating to expectations of gender norms
this section of the paper: that the body is not and constructions of femininity. This said,
merely a biological entity, but a complex many women choose alternative inscrip-
socio-cultural formation that reflects,
tions and it is these alternative practices
through a process of embodiment, the struc-
that arguably have potential to resist ac-
tures that mediate our subjectivities and
cepted normative standards within com-
lived experiences. He continues to argue
modity cultures related to women’s tattoo
that current capital structures of production
collecting.
and consumption prompt subjective under-
standings of a duality of being that place the The following section provides some of
representation of the body as both capital as my own ‘tattoo narratives’ in order to
well as fetish (or consumer object): provide some foundation for the potential
of tattooed women’s bodies to subvert,
‘‘in both cases, it is important that, far revolt and ultimately challenge constructed
from the body being denied or left out of patriarchal ‘beauty myths’. These narra-
account, there is deliberate investment in tives, while ultimately personal are pro-
it (in the two senses, economic and vided within theoretical frameworks
physical, of the term)’’ (Baudrillard, related to ‘the body’ and consumer cultures.
1998 in Fraser & Greco, 2005:277). This is done in order to engage the sub-
versive potential of tattooed women’s skin
Tattooing became part of the mainstream in and to argue for the potential agency of
the 1990s with the advent of what has been tattoo collecting in challenging mainstream
coined ‘the tattoo renaissance’ (Sanders & constructions of feminine beauty.

44 AGENDA 90/25.4 2011

 perspective
Written on, through and with the was something that I had access to. Admit-
tedly, no one in my immediate family or
Body: My tattoo narratives social circles had tattoos, in fact tattoos,
Miriam Fraser and Monica Greco (2005:4) in when they did come up in conversation
their introduction to The Body: A Reader (which was rarely), were considered the
identify the body in the following ways: domain of criminals, and definitely not
suitable for girls and women. Despite this,
‘‘[The body is] something we have (the I developed a strong interest and fascina-
body as object), [it is] something we are tion in/with tattoos/tattooing.
(the body as subject), and [it is] some- Thirteen years ago I collected my first
thing we become (the body as process tattoo. Like many young women who are
and performativity).’’4 tattooed, my first tattoo was small, placed
in a discrete location, my left hip, where it
Through understanding the body as ‘inter-
can/could be easily concealed.5 This first
corporeal’ (Weiss in Jones, 2004:135), si- tattoo is a small Chinese symbol which
multaneously occupying competing spaces translates to mean happiness. I have
of object, subject and process; practices of always been fascinated in/with text (and
the commodification of the body and em- extending understandings of it to include
bodied subversion become complex sites ‘the body’) and have steadily also devel-
for the re/negotiation of femininities and oped an interest in ‘writing on, with and
constructed feminine beauty standards. through the body’ using tattooed inscrip-
Furthermore, to locate these ‘intercorporeal’ tions, understanding these as permanent
modes of embodiment (the body we have, flesh markings. So this first tattoo, for me
the body we are and the body we become), is symbolic of many things, not least of all
within contested identity constructions like a journey into marking my own body with
gender (and in this instance constructions images and symbols that challenge notions
of femininity and feminine beauty), renders of femininity and feminine beauty, but
the body an important site for the re/ which also signify personal milestones in
negotiation of personal/political discourses my life and which I see as part of who I am
and practices. The collecting of tattoos, and how I identify myself. Thus, this first
inscribed into female flesh could become tattoo, while not at all ‘monstrous’, is for
one mode through which such re/negotia- me, the beginnings of my own personal
tions could/can occur. and embodied ‘revolt’ against patriarchal
I will provide here images and my own meanings attached to my female form, and
personal narratives relating to three of my in this way it is important to include this
most recent tattoos, one still in process. It is narrative here.
however important to provide, initially, the The three tattoos which I will engage
beginnings of my own interactions with here are selected for their potentially
tattoos that have influenced my current subversive qualities-both in terms of their
practices related to tattoo collecting, visual aesthetics, but also in terms of what
through understanding my body as a they symbolise (personally) and also how
sight/site-as simultaneously subject/object they might commonly be read (socially/
as well as in process (hence the choice to politically).
include my latest tattoo-in-process). In 2006, after more than two years of
I have been collecting tattoos since 1998; planning and consulting with the tattoo
currently I have 11 tattoos, with the 12th still artist, I began the first part of what would
in process. Being a teenager through the be a total of 15 hours of tattooing. The
1990s, I grew up during what has been artwork was a pair of bat/dragon wings,
dubbed in literature relating to tattoos decidedly gothic in style and taking up the
and tattooing, ‘the tattoo renaissance’ greater part of my upper-back region as
(Saunders & Vail, 2008). While this renais- seen in outline (the initial phase of tattoo-
sance has predominantly been identified, ing) in Figure 1. These wings, while occupy-
researched and written about in the prover- ing a concealable part of my body (being on
bial ‘West’; in South Africa, with our heavily my back), do not conform to tattoo-expecta-
western influenced social and cultural prac- tions relating to common designs that
tices, tattooing as it had become popular, ‘women commonly go for’. In fact the own-

The commodification of women’s bodies and the potential for tattooed subversions 45
perspective
er of the tattoo shop proclaimed ‘‘you’re the customising my body. Furthermore the reac-
first honest woman I know, getting dragon tions that I experience in relation to my
instead of angel wings’’. Alongside this, the tattoos, both positive and negative, always
size of the artwork has also been the subject re-affirm for me, the power of my own
of many conversations where inevitably ‘speaking body’, which operates within de-
comments are made relating to the wings signated intercorporeal frames discussed
being unusually big ‘‘for a woman’’, thus below. As Weiss (in Jones, 2004:135) explains:
rendering them unfeminine, arguably mon-
strous. For me, not only is the size neces- ‘‘To describe embodiment as intercor-
sary, in terms of the practicality of providing poreality is to emphasise that the experi-
enough body-canvas-space for the artist to ence of being embodied is never a private
complete the detail of the artwork (see affair, but is always already mediated.’’
Figure 2), but also in terms of my own
aesthetic sensibilities in treating these In this way intercorporeality is a social
wings as a part of how I choose to custo- practice mediated through political dis-
mise my own body. course and potentially subjective subver-
sions actively resist and oppose normative
corporeal structures (Riley, 2002). The art of
tattooing and the collection of tattoos in-
scribed into the skin, specifically by/on
women, is thus one way through which
embodiment as intercorporeality can be
engaged. By recognising embodiment as
‘always already mediated’ it is important to
acknowledge the sites of this mediation,
and the social-political-power practices
that operate in relation to various modes
of feminine embodiment:

‘‘Through the pursuit of an ever-chan-

ging, homogenising, elusive ideal of
femininity
a pursuit without a terminus,
a resting point, requiring that women
Figure 1. Upper-back-wings outline Photograph by constantly attend to minute and often
Val Adamson
whimsical changes in fashion-bodies be-
come what Foucault calls ‘docile bodies’-
bodies whose forces and energies are
habituated to external regulation, subjec-
tion, transformation, and improvement’
(Bordo, 1989:14).

Foucault’s concept of ‘docile bodies’ is an

important point of recognition here as it
renders bodies subject to external regula-
tory structures. Such regulatory structures
include, amongst others, cultural and finan-
cial sanctions placed upon bodies, and how
these are represented through mainstream
contemporary images of feminine beauty as
Figure 2. Bat-wings completed an active/passive and always mediated aes-
thetic marker. The paradox of the activity/
passivity within feminine beauty as an
This interplay between expectation and aesthetic marker relates to daily acts of
practice in relation to my own processes and conventional beautification that women
practices of tattoo collection are often quite are encouraged to undertake and the pas-
tense, and always reveal, for me, the agency sivity with which a vast majority of women
that I have in the choices that I make in accept the mainstream beauty industry

46 AGENDA 90/25.4 2011

 perspective
(Atkinson, 2002; Braunberger, 2000; Wolf, indicates its potential for the active subver-
1990). Subversive tattooing amongst sion of hegemonic standards of feminine
women could challenge such mainstream beauty. For the purposes of this Perspective,
ideals. My own bodily inscriptions provide a this ‘becoming’ can be used to promote a
point of engagement here: ‘‘revolutionary aesthetic for women’’ (Braun-
In 2007, I decided to get my ninth tattoo. berger, 2000:1) through the art of tattooing
As shown in Figure 3, it is a composite of a and the act of permanently inscribing and
representation of the Celtic goddess Morga- altering women’s flesh. Such alterations of
na,6 resting on/holding an iconic symbol of the flesh exist within symbolic and visual
the (western) feminist movement with the communicative fields, and thus tattooed
iconic feminist slogan: ‘The Personal is women arguably possess the capacity to
Political’, beneath it. As a feminist, much engage tattoo narratives by ‘‘narrating with
their body and of their body’’ (Oksanen &
of my own body art reflects my personal
Turtiainen, 2005:112), it is in this duality that
subjectivities - many of my more recent
tattooed women are able to occupy spaces of
body art works also drawing from icons,
revolt in challenging how their/our bodies
symbols and images associated with femin-
are conceived and perceived and indeed too
ism. My active engagements relating to
how they/we choose to customise their/our
feminism as a practice have thus been
own embodied beauty aesthetics. Thus,
included on my ever evolving, custom-de-
body art in the form of tattooing becomes a
signed body. While not as monstrous in size
mechanism to re/in/scribe women’s bodies,
as the wings on my upper-back (seen in
and in the context of this discussion, re-visit
Figures 1 and 2), this inscription with its
contemporary aesthetics related to hegemo-
‘cracked stone’7 style and overtly political
nic feminine beauty standards.
sloganage, situated within realms of femin-
ism (itself critical of constructions of femi- To this end, my most recent tattoo, still
ninity), provide an overt challenge to in process, is a full-arm sleeve, the begin-
mainstream and conventional expectations nings of which can be seen in Figure 4 (as
relating to the embodied inscription and the an outline) and Figure 5 (shading com-
commodification of women’s bodies. pleted). For this recent addition to my
growing collection of tattoos, I have opted
for ‘traditionally feminine’ artwork in the
form of cherry blossom flowers. This said
the choice of a full-arm sleeve, with its size
and ultimately visible placement renders it
un-feminine within realms of conventional
femininity. Perhaps it is this contradictory
impulse towards using images convention-
ally understood as ‘feminine’, within
spheres of tattoo collecting, and con-
sciously subverting them by engaging
them with an intention towards monster

Figure 3. Middle-back composition

It is here that Fraser and Greco’s third

understanding of the body as ‘‘something we
become’’ (2005:4) is useful, as it provides
embodiment as an active process which Figure 4. Beginning of full-arm sleeve-outline

The commodification of women’s bodies and the potential for tattooed subversions 47
perspective
beauty that provide the most fruitful con- an understanding of embodiment as a
nections in challenging conventional ideals process of becoming is what Braunberger
related to feminine beauty. (2000:1) refers to as ‘‘monster beauty’’. This
challenge to the beauty myth correlates
with Bakhtin’s (1984:92) conception of

‘‘the grotesque body [which] is a body in

the act of becoming. It is never finished,
never completed; it is continually built,
created, and builds and creates another
body. More-over, the body swallows the
world and is itself swallowed by the
world.’’

In this way, the act of becoming through

tattooed inscriptions into women’s flesh
provides possible shifting points for the
Figure 5. Beginning of full-arm sleeve-with shading de/stabilisation and re/configuration of the
aesthetics of feminine beauty that can exist
Importantly too, these images, represent ‘outside’ of ‘established’ aesthetic ideals
(Atkinson, 2002). It is this acknowledgement
one way of engaging ‘the body in process’.
of the tattooed body and its communicative
As indicated previously tattooing and the
potential that arguably allow for an under-
process of becoming a tattoo collector
standing of the subversive potential of
provide ways of understanding the body
tattooed bodies, and potentially provide a
as an ever evolving canvas. While the new way of seeing-as Wolf (1990) suggests
tattoos themselves are permanent mark- is necessary in order to free women from
ings, their meanings both personal and contemporary forms of bondage.
political are in an evolving relationship
with social expectations and connotations
attached to them; and how each embodied
Notes
inscription relates to others contained on/ 1. There is a vast body of literature encompassing a
within the same site/sight (see Figure 6). range of harmful practices of feminine beauty
that engages both industries of beauty in the
form of cosmetic surgeries (Kathy Davis, 1995;
Naomi Wolf, 1990) as well as the prevalence of
eating disorders amongst women (Susan Bordo,
1997; Susie Orbach, 1978 & 2002). While many of
these studies focus on Euro-American contexts,
the impact of globalisation and the prevalence of
pervasive Western cultural ideals render this a
useful point of departure here.
2. Most scholarly writing on tattoos/tattooing exists
within the disciplines of Sociology (Sanders &
Vail, 2008; Kosut, 2000), Psychology (Jeffreys,
2000; Riley, 2002) and Anthropology (Schildkrout,
2004).
3. In this context, a ‘tattoo narrative’ is a personal
engagement with and telling of a ‘tattoo story’
this is an open categorisation and basically
alludes to any story or narrative related to the
Figure 6. Composition tattoo(s) and recounted by its/their owner/
wearer.
4. Emphasis is the author’s.
5. There is a fair amount of literature supporting the
In closing common trend for women and girls to acquire
Atkinson (2002) offers the dualism of ‘estab- what have come to be called ‘feminine’ tattoos, in
discrete, often fetishised places of the female
lished’ and ‘outsider’ femininities in order body. For further discussion see: Neville, 2005;
to acknowledge tattooed women who ac- Schildkrout, 2004; van Wolputte, 2004; Atkinson,
tively identify as ‘outsiders’. This alongside 2002; Braunberger, 2000; Kosut, 2000.

48 AGENDA 90/25.4 2011

 perspective
6. My family tree is steeped in Celtic heritage, as a Harlow MJ (2009) ‘Suicide girls: Tattooing as radical
young child I became familiar with Celtic mythol- feminist agency’ Advances in Communication
ogy, and while Morgana’s location within this Theory and Research, 2, (Fall 2008 and Spring
mythology is contested, she has always been a 2009).
symbol of great strength for me. Jeffreys S (2000) ‘‘‘Body Art’’ and social status:
7. A conscious allusion to a South African feminist Cutting, tattooing and piercing from a feminist
slogan ‘Wathint’ abafazi wathint’imbokodo’/ ‘You perspective’ Feminism and Psychology, 10 (4):
strike the woman, you strike the rock’. 409
429.
Jones A (2004) ‘Working the flesh: A meditation in
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and Performance (p.135), Milbank, London: Tate
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CLARE CRAIGHEAD is Company Manager to Durban-based Flatfoot Dance

Company. She also acts as Festival Manager for the Jomba! Contemporary
Dance Experience and is a contract lecturer/tutor in Gender Studies and
Drama and Performance Studies Programmes (University of KwaZulu-
Natal, Howard College). Email: [email protected]

The commodification of women’s bodies and the potential for tattooed subversions 49