Prisoners in Paradise: Subcultural Resistance to the Marketization of Tattooing

Abstract

This study explores the increasingly popular use of brand symbols as imagery for tattooing. Through interviews with tattoo artists and netnographic research in tattoo communities, we capture a perceived boundary between the sacred, non‐commercial sphere of tattooing and the profane, profit maximizing sphere of the commercial world. In the tattoo subculture, brands are generally considered inappropriate for tattooing. Nevertheless, the tattoo artists more or less willingly accept the role of service providers for consumers wishing to embody brand symbols. The commercial sphere hence plays a role in the cultural identity of the tattoo culture as an Otherness, from which the tattoo culture defines itself.

Keywords:

• Tattoos
• Brands
• Subculture
• Videography
• Identity

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Jan Wallanders and Tom Hedelius Foundation and the Nordic Research Board.

Notes

[1] Recent work on brand communities and subcultures of consumption has shown that some consumer groups do find that market‐mediated environments are aptly suited for communal bonding (Schouten and McAlexander 1995; Muniz and O’Guinn 2001; McAlexander, Schouten, and Koenig 2002).