Essay! (Draft 1)

The representation of women in the tattoo industry can be seen as extremely negative. The tattoo industry turns women into sexual objects which is extremely dehumanizing and demeaning, one of the main institutions that do this is the magazine 'SkinDeep'. It's front covers often feature scantily clad women in vulnerable positions which obviously attracts the male readers but alienates the female readers. This alienation only emphazizes the clear divide between the sexes in the tattooing community. The show LA Ink also shows examples of the divide in the tattooing community, from it's title sequence which focuses on the 'pin-ups' of the 1950's through to the stereotypical tattoos that they choose to feature on the show.

The covers of the magazine SkinDeep are representative of the attitudes to women with tattoos in the tattooing industry. In the September 2011 issue a woman is pictured in her bathing suit, which is styled extremely vintage in keeping with the 1950's pin-up theme. She is posed in, what could be seen as, an extremely vunerable way as she appears to be attempting to protect herself to an extent this could also been seen as Propp's theory of the fairytale characters being put into place as she could be seen as the princess or damsel in distress. This would also make the camera the villian as this is what she is sheilding herself from. The cover of this issue also uses colours typical of a femme fatalte, the red and black, but this is a binary opposite of the vunerable 'girl next door' image that the girl on the cover appears to be portraying as femme fatales are usually very aware of their sexuality and use it to an advantages rarely showing any signs of weaknesses. This image could also be used for shock value as the girl is wearing very little and in many places where it is sold this magazine is not a 'top shelf' magazine. This could create controversy which is one of the main aims of the institutions that own SkinDeep as if the magazine is being talked about, even in a negative light, it will still increase sales in some way, these sales may even be a result of a 'rebellion' against the normal institutions as the negative stigma created by them suddenly makes it forbidden and more attractive to audiences that so desparately want to rebel against the 'norm'.

The articles in SkinDeep can also reflect the stigma surrounding women with tattoos. In the September 2011 issue they published an article entitled 'Only Women Bleed'. The article was named after an Alice Cooper song which earned him an award from some members of the feminist movement as it talks about how hard women have it. The article discussed a women in Austrailia's mistreatment during a beauty pagent, she was kicked out due to her tattoos. In the article there's a line that discusses womens tattoos 'you can either go down the cute route or the sexy route but don't expect to be taken seriously either way.' This line goes against everything that feminists are working toward as it demonstrates how in a community that practically begs to be accepted in society there are still divides, the sexism displayed in this line would also create controversy as it seems like so much of a backwards step to the people that would be reading it. The feminist movement, which is all about fighting for the rights of every woman even if they choose to be a house wife, would be outraged at this comment as it once again portrays women as a sexual object rather than an equal to men, this means that it is demeaning women as you would never see SkinDeep sexualising a tattooed man in this way. This also give that impression that it's impossible for women to get meaningful tattoos as they'll only be interested and like this if they're 'cutesie' or to use a word from the article 'kawaii' which means cute in Japanese. The use of a Japanese word would also display the attiture to women as in many places in Japan women as still thought of as second class citizens who it's perfectly fine to beat and use as  sexual object. This all links in with the feminist movement as it's what the feminists are trying to abolish.

In the T.V show LA Ink, women with tattoos are shown in a different light, the majority of the time. They are seen as powerful as in the show there are only two male tattoo artists featured and 3 to 4 female artists, however Kat Von D the owner of LA Ink also portrays the tattooed woman stereotype as she is covered in 'pointless' stars even putting them on her face. She also tends to wear clothing much like the models that pose on the front of SkinDeep, such as low cut tops and has the top of her hips exposed constantly this would attract audiences as the male viewers would find this very appealing and female viewers would aspire to be like her. In one episode a tattooed beauty queen was featured, the 3 minute section was entitled 'Zombie beauty queen' and it was centred around the predjudice around tattooed women in the beauty industry, it was mentioned that photographers are horrified by women with tatoos and the thought of having to phographer them, this once again shows the divide between male and female tattooed population as the photographers would have no worries if they were asked to photograph a tattooed male.
In conclusion the representation of tattoed women is extremely poor as all forms of media that portray them, be they print or moving image, show them, to an extent, as being weak creatures in need of protection rather than strong women who can easily defend themselves and think that their tattoos are a form of art rather than something that will make them 'cute', 'kawaii' or 'sexy'. The portrayal of tattooed women is also a major step backward for the feminist movement.

The way women are represented in the tattooing community can be summed up in a phrase from Skindeep, 'The message is often crystal clear, yet tacitly impllied: either go the cute route or the sexy route with your tatooos, but don't expect to be taken seriously either way.' This quote shows that the tattooing community won't take women seriously no matter what they do, this is also highlighted in the way that Skindeep construct their covers, the women are often seen in stereotypically vunerable poses. For example in September 2011 (pictured here: http://www.skindeep.co.uk/sites/default/files/imagecache/2colwidth/attached/sd202.jpg) the woman is shown as being in the vunerable position even though she has her hands up to protect herself it still portrays to a man that they would need to come and save her, which is ridiculous. These attitudes are extremely plain to see in the tattooing community, the attitude towards woman is extremely demeaning and is quite frankly like something you'd expect to see in a documentary about life in the 1950's where women were given two routes to go down and it was a common belief that no one would dare to stray from the route. God forbid that they ever even considered showing a man on the cover in this way, SkinDeep enforces the idea that all men are strong and willing to get meaningful tattoos and all women are fit for are to be scribbled upon by 'cutsie' artists with things such as My Little Pony and Hello Kitty.

200 words discussing what I intend to put in my essay.

The main topic of my essay will be representation, I intend to pick apart some covers of the magazine SkinDeep. Through this I will be able to explore ideas in topics such as feminism as the magazine covers are often extremely sexualised thus making women appear to be sex objects rather than human beings. I will also look at the language used in articles about tattooed women in SkinDeep such as the title ‘Only women bleed’ for an article in September 2011’s issue. I will also be including information from the shows LA Ink and Miami Ink. Miami Ink has featured some very sexist sections such as Chris Nunez kissing a clients neck whilst he was ‘working’. LA Ink has featured a tattooed women describing the stereotypes of the tattooing community. Tomorrow I’ll post a complete list of what I intend to include in each paragraph for my draft that needs to be handed in next week.

Painted Ladies.

In preparation for my practical work. I'll be putting some information from this article, to assist me in answering my question. This information will all revolve around the painted lady attraction of the old American sideshows, commonly known as freak shows. It is my belief that this is where the negative feelings towards heavily tattooed women originated.



Irene Woodward (1862-1915)
Irene was tattooed by Martin Hildebrandt after being inspired by a tattooed man named Captain Constentenus in Denver. At the age of 20 she was hired by dime museum owner George B Bunnell, where her debut show was published in the New York time due to the hype that surrounded it. From 1883-1898 she performed in circuses including 'The Greatest Show on Earth'.





Nora Hildebrandt (1857-1893)


Nora was a painted lady from London and it's probable that she emigrated to the US to become a servant. She was inked by Martin Hildebrandt with whom she had a common-law marriage and decided to take his name, she worked for Forepaugh shows during the 1880s.





Artoria Gibbons (1893-1985)


Gibbons was inked by her husband who chose to cover her in religious symbols, she was working as a tattooed lady by the 1920s. In the 1970s she became the finale of the Hall&Christ sideshow in which she was branded a 'Man-made monstrosity'.


Annie Howard [Picture unavailable] (Dates Unknown)


Annie became 'famous' in 1882 when she was arrested on a ferry for punching a man who insulted her tattooed arms. She was hired by Bunnell (see above) after this and toured the dime museums. Her whereabouts after the tour of the dime museums are unknown.

Analysis of a collection of 'Skin Deep' magazine covers.

Skin Deep is a the UK's largest selling tattoo magazine, it was created in 1994. According to the data on it's website only 38% of it's readers are female. This, apparently, makes it okay for them to represent women in the way they do.

This is the January 2010 edition, it creates an idea of how women with tattoos are represented in this magazine. These women are often barely clothed or in extremely revealing clothes, this may be to target their male readers but to an extent it also alienates their female audience. This is common in tattoo magazines where women with tattoos are seen as sex objects rather than the works of art men with tattoos are made out to be. The stereotypically female tattoos on this woman are one of the focal points of the cover, they feature jewels and a 50's style drawing. Most of the covers used by this magazine have a 1950's 'feel' as the rockabilly style, in which women typically wear 1950's fashion such as doing their hair in a victory curl (Pictured here) and imitating style icons such as Bettie Page (Again pictured here) 

An article entitled 'Only Women Bleed' was featured in the September 2011 issue. The article was to highlight the difficulty of being a woman with tattoos, however, it began with them talking about a beauty contest although it is the first for tattooed women. Throughout the article women's tattoos were repeatedly called kawaii (A Japanese adjective meaning pretty or cute) which in my opinion is derogatory as this makes women's tattoos appear to have no meaning or thought behind them and as though they were done on a whim instead of planned for many years.

In conclusion, through my analysis of the Skin Deep magazine covers I have developed a basic idea of how women are represented in the media, as sex objects rather than taken seriously, and how they are sterotyped as mindless drones who are attracted to cute things rather than anything with an actual meaning behind it.

Opinions.

For the past few days I've been collecting the opinions of people, I plan on continuing this so I'll have a wider view of the way the media influences the way people think about tattooed women. I will be updating this list daily as I get more opinions.

'I think to the 'older generation' it's like a taboo. But in todays culture it's much more accepted'- Female 18.

'It depends! its normally

·         Say they’ve ruined their body

·         Patronise them by calling them ‘Strong and Fierce’

Its becoming more popular with pop culture, but with meaningless tattoos simply for attention purposes'- Male 18

'I think more contemporary jobs are much more lenient on people - in this case, women - with tattoos. Places like hair salons, ‘hip’ clothing stores, or places where a lot of young people tend to hang out seem to be much more casual about that kind of thing. As for women in particular, I don’t think it differs all that greatly from their male counterparts who also have tattoos. If they’re getting a more professional job, they both would have to cover their tattoos somehow. Older generations definitely still have the mindset that tattoos are ugly or what have you, but it seems that it’s generally more acceptable for a man to have tattoos because it’s not a ‘feminine’ thing to do.'- Female 21

I've finally decided on a topic for my project.

Why do the media choose to portray women with tattoos (tattooed women?) in the way they do? At the moment this is just my working title it will probably be edited throughout my project.

To look at:
http://www.sodahead.com/living/women-with-tattoos-trashy-or-beautiful/blog-296522/
http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-are-tattoos-on-women-gasp-trashy/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-rubaumkeller-/tattoos-on-women-yes-or-n_b_259700.html
http://jezebel.com/5511021/painted-ladies-on-tats-and-trashiness

I will be adding to these links and editing them once I've analysed things.

Thanks for reading!