Tattoos and Body Modifications as Delinquent Behaviour– Durkheim

Functionalism highlights a societal equilibrium. If an incident were to occur that could potentially disrupt the natural order and flow of the system, society, as a whole, must change and adjust to reach and return to a stable state. According to Durkheim, who focused most of his life on this theory, society should be examined and defined in terms of functions. Society is a made up system of interconnected part, where no one part can function and change without the other. These fragments make up the whole of civilization. If one part changes, it has an impact on society as a whole.

Durkheim took crime and delinquent behavior and viewed is as a natural and necessary event in a social system. He anticipated that crime and delinquent behavior would led to reactions from society about crime and that these collective reactions would be used to create a common agreements of what people believed to  be moral  and ethical norms by  which  to govern their society. These commonly held norms and values led to boundaries and rules for the society.

Body modifications, such as tattoos, can be viewed and analyzed from a functionalist’s point of view. Durkheim’s notion of social facts, which are a part of a functionalist theory can be relate to body modifications. Figurations as part of Durkheim’s social facts: External, General and Coercive. The individual is caught up in, but in some instances, resist society, whether is it unconsciously (by altering the body), or perhaps consciously (by modifying the body). A social fact is any method of acting, whether altered or not, equipped for pushing over the individual an outer imperative. Along these lines, this permits us to ask how do/have social truths characterize what changes are extreme and which ones are standard? Social facts generate a kind of "informal dress code," which body modifications occasionally disrupt and sometimes don’t.

            In today's general public, individuals are fundamentally grasping the style of body modifications. It gives the idea that regardless of where one is on the world, it is very difficult to escape the reality of body art; the presence of tattoos. It has turned into a major piece of our general public. In a society with appearance standards, where every tries to look similar and appeal to others, many people will break away from the norms, break the rules and violate appearance expectations. Some of these deviants form deviant groups. These groups are determined by the need to accomplish social attachment and incorporation. There are many within society who argue regarding why individuals change, control and ravage their bodies including tattoos.

            There are two principle reasons that a functionalist would approach to comprehend this deviant behaviour. First of all, tattoos give individuals a group membership in a deviant groups, helping advertise self-distinguishing proof. Second, tattoos likewise serve as a limit line to what is satisfactory and what is not in our general public. In spite of the fact that tattoos expand an individual's acknowledgement into a deviant group, it additionally, builds dismissal in a traditional group.

            Tattoos have always been associated with specific groups, mainly deviance groups, and their members. Tattoos have a level of set importance. For example, if a group of people have the same tattoo, or a specific arrangement of tattoos, it suggests that these people are in a common or the same group that share a commitment to a certain set of values. For this situation, the Hells Angels, make for a prime example. All Hells Angels, wear similar jackets for show when they are on their bikes, and when they are in the bar, they all have the same or similar tattoos, so everyone around them knows exactly who they are.

Tattoos deconstruct as meaningful practices that intentionally acknowledges and shows images of otherness, not like everyone else, or who society wants them to be. This is known as a homology of deviant style, a gathering of works on meeting up around an imparted set of belief systems, exercises and inclination. Tattoos are planned to suggest that adolescent needs to be connected with a trial, risk taking group.

How Alienation has Increased the Popularity of Tattoos

So as discussed in our last blog Marx developed a theory of Alienation that was used to demonstrate what so many people in today’s society are getting tattoos even though it is seen as an intense body modification. As a recap Marx’s theory of alienation, states that an individual that has been alienated do not expand freely upon his bodily and psychological energy but instead modifies and mortifies his body and mind. Tattooing can be seen as one such embarrassment of the body. Additionally alienated people no more end up; worth through their occupations, tattooing might be seen as an inventive outlet used to build a feeling of character.

Although tattoos can still be seen as mutilating the body by some, other believe that getting tattoos and being alienated is a way of life. People make careers from being a tattoo artist, and ever becoming famous by the tattoos and cover ups they do. Social media has created an entirely new pop culture surrounding tattoos. Books are being published, TV shows are being aired and images are being circulated to help increase the popularity of tattoos and to help people better understand why so many individuals are getting tattoo when it could potentially alienate them from society.

Tattoos used to have emotional meaning to the clients and some tattoo artists even become emotional over the stories that their clients told them. However, now a days more and more tattoo artists are becoming alienated from their work,  just going through the motions of tattooing, and tattoo enthusiast are headed down  the same road, no longer caring how they modify their bodies. There was a recent article release in the Toronto Star about a Tattoo parlor in Toronto where the client buy and $80 token that they  then place into a gumball machine and . It spits out the tattoo that you are going to get… all by the “stroke of luck”.  It is completely by chance which in turn means there was no forethought.

The same goes for all the new TV shows that are on, having competitions to find out who can be the best tattoo artists by tattooing random “canvases” as they are called, who are giving their bodies over as a commodity, as if they has no attachment to it whatsoever. Ink master is one of the top rated TV shows about tattoos where there is only Alienation and a Fetishism of Commodities. No one cares or has any attachment to their finished product, or to the “canvases” they are indefinitely inking. There is also the TV show Tattoo Nightmares where the artists are covering up old tattoos with new ones instead of just telling them to go get it surgically removed, because social media has created a market for tattoo cover-ups. In this market of Fetishism of Commodities, the people or “canvases” are the products while the work and labour is the actually process of tattooing.

            The book “Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art” shed a lot of light on numerous aspects of the tattoo world. Michael Atkinson, the author, dives into the world of tattoo enthusiasts to better understand why so  many people are willing to Alienated themselves and their body from society and made themselves part of the commercial market. Atkinson went out into society to interview a total of 92 artists and clients to see what they thought about being Alienated and looked at as a delinquent. Most replied that they didn’t care or that people should stop judging others based on their appearance. Atkinson describes a “flesh journey”, in which tattoos were meant as a pursuit of meaningful forms of body expression rather than an alignment of one’s identity without right deviance. Basically what he is saying is that tattooing is mainly used as a form of emotional expression for that specific person and not for everyone around them.

Once you get a tattoo you receive numerous labels from those who do not have them or do not agree with the ideas of tattoos, but what those people do not understand is that by not want people they know to get tattoos, they are actually giving them a reason to get one. They are giving value to tattoos.  So called “rebels” are always wanting to deviate from the social norm, and purposely alienate themselves to find some else who actually understands them.

All in all, social media has created a bigger market for tattoo artists and enthusiasts, who want nothing more than to display their products to the world, and create more commodities and demands for tattoo artists. As the market increases and expands the does the Alienation, although people are less likely to care what others think or care that there is a stigma attached to them and what their tattoos represent.