Reviews for Written on the Body: The Tattoo in European and American History

The average rating for Written on the Body: The Tattoo in European and American History based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-10-25 00:00:00 David Stoll This collection of essays offers an impressive history/historiography of the tattoo in America and Europe. It contains a wealth of information: the word 'stigma', whose root means 'to stick', was used to refer to tattoos in ancient Greek and Roman texts; medieval astrologers attempted to harness the power of the universe on & in their bodies; and tattoos reproduced divisions of class and status on the body in Victorian Britain. There's also great food for thought: Are some people disgusted by tattoos because they cannot understand how a person willfully pays for a mark on his/her body that cannot be exchanged as a commodity in the capitalist system? I asked this of my aunt, who disapproves of tattoos. She looked me as if I was a lunatic for subscribing to such a hare-brained idea. In addition to European and American examples, there are two articles about colonial tattoos (convicts shipped to Australia and practices among India castes), which are fascinating. One small issue with this book is how little it addresses issues of gender. Even when authors cited documents that called tattooed women depraved prostitutes and ensnaring she-devils, they did not fully engage with gendered notions of propriety, decency, respectability (although Alan Govenar kept referring to the modest gowns and demure poses of heavily-tattooed Betty Broadbent and Artoria Gibbons in photographs), sexuality and ownership of the body. I kept thinking, 'Please expand on that. Please write about tattooed women in a serious way, not as a footnote or to illustrate a larger, "universal" point.'

Review # 2 was written on 2008-01-25 00:00:00 Douglas Coupland Read this years ago and just decided to read it again last year when I found it in a box of stuff. Details the history of the tattoo, and specifically, women who have tattoos.