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.