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Re: Mutilation and ritual
John H. Relethford (relethjh@ONEONTA.EDU)
Sat, 13 Jul 1996 12:39:03 -0400
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From: Beth E. Kaminow <kaminow@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list ANTHRO-L <ANTHRO-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: Re: Mutilation and ritual
Date: Saturday, July 13, 1996 11:11 AM
Kristian,
I think that this resurgence in tattooing in the West right now actually
helps to blur the line between public and private spaces on the body.
Once one gets tattooed (at least in the beginning) one has a desire to
show everyone (or many people) the new mark. This might come about by a
change in clothing style or in just showing a selected group the new
design. Two examples: my last tattoo is on my lower back. The guy that
did my tattoo tells me that that's becoming a fairly popular place for
woman on account of the cropped shirt coming back in vogue (or actually
those two styles kind of play off each other). I was recently at a party
where one of the guests gleefully went about lifting his shirt to show
his nipple ring.
Charming....I rank this with friends who have insisted on showing their
surgical scars when no one is interested.
John
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