Tattoos In Today's Society

History will continue to evolve into what we as a society shun or accept. Society is the keeper of past events in our human affairs is always tracking what is going on and it is certain that one can predict what will change in our history. As tattoos continue to be introduced to cultures around the world, it will become popular with some but not many. A society has begun to recognize tattooing it is different for female and males. The feminine form of tattooing has caused misrecognition, whereas male form of tattooing is viewed as connotations of heroic displays on the skin.

As stated by Naomi Wolf, “Unlike plastic surgery and diets that speak, in simple and complex ways, about desires for normalcy, beauty, and control, tattoos in American culture are not normal” (as citied in Braunberger, 2000, p. 2). Many people will continue to oppose visible tattoos at school or at work places. Tattoos have evolved but the journey is still long in order to fully accept it as norm in society. I believe that as a society, we can accept tattooing but it is a frontier that we are slowly approaching.

Women have shown interest in tattoos in the early 1880’s to present day, in the attempts to rewrite acceptable beauty in their self-expression.

Tattoos for males have been exclusive to groups of sailors, military, and unique communities, this method of branding was to bond males together and exclude females or those that are different. Society has accepted labelling females according to their tattoos. As described by Braunberger (2000), of the case in 1933 that turned in favor of the rapists, instead of the victim. The judge and jury blamed her for her tattoo on her leg arguing that her tattoo was a brand for free sexual experiences. The gap that society places between the two and the double standard will remain. I hope for a time in which that gap is closed and that double standard does not

exist.
As time evolved women from different social classes have accepted to place works of art on their bodies as a way to tell their story or to simply be desirable. In today’s world there are different forms of expression and events that we deem appropriate for females to participate in; freak shows, beauty pageants, and tattoo contests. Freak Shows have been designed to display the scandalous, the beautiful, and the possible combination of both.
As the tattooed women began to draw attention from criminal anthropologists during the 1880’s, it was not until 1958 that Cesare Lombroso published his study of 13 years consisting of 7,000 tattooed participants. During this study, it was concluded that tattooed people were instinctively criminals, as if it was in the persons DNA. More specifically, tattooed women were considered to be prostitutes and tattoos served as a branding; the more degraded the woman the more tattoos she possessed on her body. This study was concluded on an image and background basis the participants were not asked what their tattoos meant, it was until after the study that the more accurate conclusion of the tattooed women was that their tattoos displayed a personal story that would characterize them as good girls vs being characterized as bad girls. This goes to show that image does not accurately detail a person but society’s perception will not change. The explanation of the reason for the tattoos does not matter, public image is all that society is worried about.
As freak shows continued to remain as a popular attraction this allowed for women that were employed with the show to be independent, having their own income, with opportunities to travel. Other women during this time were not so fortunate. Women in these profession, were professionals that did not care for social respectability or their social status.