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The Tattooed Body as a Vehicle of the Self and Memory

2019; Springer International Publishing; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-030-25189-5_5

2193-7656

Martin Boszorád,

Visual Culture and Art Theory

One of the many books which covers the increasingly popular phenomenon of tattoos and tattoo art in connection with philosophical issues has a well-chosen Descartian title: I ink, therefore I am. The pictures tell the story—as in a song by the Dropkick Murphys—and they tell a story of the person who the transformed body with tattoos belongs to. The story told by a transformed body has essentially two potential recipients: others (skin is, according to James Elkins, always expressive, doubly so tattooed skin) and the carrier him/herself. Within this second sort of “intrapersonal” communication, the transformed body does not just co-create identity, it can also officiate as a prosthesis (Alison Landsberg’s prosthetic memory) or as an extension (Marshall McLuhan) of memory, and this can have a wide range of interpretations. This chapter reflects on the transformed (tattooed) body, referencing also the phenomenology of the body (Merleau Ponty) as it is variously depicted and transposed in selected popcultural works of art. The centre of interest here should be the context in which the tattoo functions as a vehicle of the self and memory of the carrier (Prison break, Memento) and of others (Heroes).