Somatexts: Tattoos as Technology, Bodies as Text
Whereas most people employ more temporary “sign vehicles” (Goffman 1959) such as haircuts, make-up, and clothing as forms of signification that can be revised in relation to cultural shifts, the relative permanence of tattoos as a technology of body modification complicates the mobility needed by tattooed bodies to negotiate their significatory space, even as such tattoos have the potential to “speak” multiple meanings across various modes of non-verbal transmission, or become the impetus for queer or non-normative kinship.