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ABSTRACT
This research began to understand why people choose to get tattoos. The reason was to find out if getting a tattoo was a novelty or if there was more to it than just what we can see inked on their skin. The interest of this research lies in the feeling, emotion, human awareness of expression, and the deeper meaning on the inside that coincides with what is seen only as skin deep on the outside.
Open-ended interviews were conducted, over a period of six months, with four tattoo artists and thirteen people that have tattoos. Time was spent in a local tattoo studio talking with people who were getting a tattoo or who had already been tattooed.
The reasons and the meaning behind getting a tattoo were found to vary as much as the number of people getting tattoos. The similar thread running through the reasons for getting a tattoo, however, was that tattooing is a form of self-expression.
INTRODUCTION
The subject of tattooing has been of interest to this researcher for many years, toying with the idea of getting one on every milestone year that was celebrated. However, enough nerve was never conjured up to go through with it. Then, a few years ago, a talented young artist, who does tattooing for a living, entered the scene. Several of her paintings, done in different media, promoted a certain energy in their presence that was magnetic. It was not known, to the researcher, that she was also a tattoo artist. The researcher's ingrained image of a tattoo artist was extremely the opposite of what was found in her. Her talent, her almost shy, meditative energy, and her knowledge gave a reason to question an unfounded opinion of the art of tattooing. Beginning to relate to it with a new awareness, the desire to acquire a tattoo rose to a new level. One no longer wanted just a cute little ladybug on the foot. The tattoo had to have meaning, to resonate with the spirit within, and portray the intent from which one lives their life.
The research of symbols, sayings, meanings of colors, and different types of tattoos, began while thinking of the places on ones body that one would comfortably wear a...