Abstract
Tattooing is an ancient art form,
dating back to Neolithic times and is today widely practiced the world over.
Given tattooing’s popularity and its wide acceptance in the modern world (a
recent survey found that 30 percent of the adult American population has at
least one tattoo), philosophers’ continued silence with respect to tattooing is
mystifying. If philosophers have nothing to say about tattooing, what could be
the reason for such a glaring omission? This disregard is telling: It may be
that philosophers consider tattooing too “low brow”, and hence, not worthy of
their consideration. In what follows, we offer a few reasons why philosophers
of art should take tattooing seriously as an art form. We will also expand on
our contention that tattoos represent one of the most intimate forms of art
known to humanity (indeed, perhaps the
most intimate). Lastly, we will consider tattooing as a representational art
form, and attempt to discern what can be gleaned of the tattoo artist’s
intentions from her work.
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IJAHSS by IPRPD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.