Tattoos and Popular Culture Cultural Representations in Ink : Cultural Representations in Ink

The rise of tattoos into the mainstream has been a defining aspect of 21st century western culture. Tattoos and Popular Culture showcases how tattoos have been catapulted from 'deviant' and 'alternative' subculture, into a popular culture, becoming a potent signifier of 'difference' for the Millennial generation. From tattooed film superheroes such as Harley Quinn, MTV's Just Tattoo of Us , and the extensively tattooed and mediated bodies of celebrities across social media, tattoos are now not only inscribed into increasing numbers of Millennial and Gen Z bodies, but also into mainstream culture. As the entrenched stigmas associated with tattoos are eroded Barron asks, how do subcultural and mainstream tattoo images and practices co-exist? Which cultural expressions are at the forefront of modern tattoo culture? Cover 1 TATTOOS AND POPULAR CULTURE 2 Series Page 3 TATTOOS AND POPULAR CULTURE: Cultural Representations in Ink 6 Copyright 7 CONTENTS 8 Introduction 10 1. Visible Ink: From Subculture to Mainstream Culture 18 Tattoo Beginnings 18 Tattoo Influences and Cultural Markers 21 Tattoo Evolutions: Spectacle, Rebellion, Subculture 23 The Road to Respectability and the ‘Tattoo Community’ 31 Tattoo Subcultures and the Semiotic Self 37 Competing Cultures: Tattoos and the Millennial/Gen Z Body 44 2. Tattoos in Film 48 Tattoos as Subcultural Expressions 49 Tattoos as the Semiotic Communication of Self 61 Tattoos in Fantasy and Horror 65 Tattoos in the Mainstream 74 3. Tattooing and Reality TV 78 Reality TV: A Genre of Many Forms 81 The Tattooist, the Studio and the Client: Televising tattooing and mediating ink stories 83 Competitive Tattoo Reality TV: Ink Master 94 Bad Ink: Tattoos and Televisual Shock Value 98 Tattoo Stories and Subcultural Traces 104 4. Social Media and Digital Tattoo Communities 110 Tattoo Community Revisited 111 The Concept of the Online Community 115 Digital Remediation: The Tattoo Magazine and the Tattoo Studio 119 The Digital Studio 124 Tattoo Fandom and Participatory Digital Cultures 128 The Tattoo Community Speaks: Interacting With Subcultural Tattoo Celebrities 134 5. Tattoos and Popular Personalities: Inked Celebrities 140 Tattoos and Mediated Celebrity Bodies 143 Tattoos, Fashion and the Celebrity Public/Private Body 152 Breaking Boundaries, Changing Stigma: the Celebrity Tattoo Effect 159 From Subculture to the Mainstream: Celebrity and the Tattoo 165 Conclusion 168 BIBLIOGRAPHY 172 FILMS 195