Alvaro Fuerte .

English 1121 .

Prof. Kim Liao .

March 28th, 2019.

Publication: Buzzfeed.com

TATTOOS AND PROFESSIONALISM

Tattoos, a form of art that consists of permanently plasming the piece to ones body by   inserting pigment (ink) by punctures made with a needle. In certain cultures it was practiced by cutting a pattern design in to the body, some  people still do it this way to connect in a more direct way to their ancestors.  The word originated in the mid 17th century (originally as tap-toe) from the Dutch ‘taptoe’  literally ‘close the tap (of the cask)’. Whereas in the U.K. meant a rhythmic tapping or drumming.

Being a form of art, representation of culture, love and other symbolic meaning,  people around the world have more and more pieces in their skin. For most people, it’s taking art to the next level since you can a have an artist’s work in your skin for  as long as you live. But tattoos haven’t always been a form of art, at some point in time the only people that would have this permanent ink pieces would be a sailor, a prison convict and/or gang member. Groups developed a form of symbolism that to today’s date still represents what a couple hundred years back did; the most remarkable example is, prison convicts and/or gang members whom own a death would get a ‘tear’ under their left eye showing that they had already taken a life or numerous lives depending on the size or number of tears.

Even though not most of the symbols and design  that are are used in today’s tattoos are a representation of a crime committed by the inked person (someone with an ink tattoo) people still judge this individuals as if they were. Most of people’s tattoos are meaningful representation of their persona, of their individual creativity, of people whom they love, miss, about their individual believes and how it all affects the way the live and portrait themselves done by placing them on their skin forever.

But how this did happen? How did tattoos evolved from something that in a sense was a representation of criminalism or any sort of bad life to a much more popular culture?  In the article “How Tattoos Went From Subculture to Pop Culture” co-authored by Victor Chateaubriand states that “Today, 36 percent of Americans aged 18-25 have at least one tattoo, according to a report done by the Pew Research Center,”  this being  “more than one third America’s young adults.”  This implies that tattoos are getting more and more popular within younger groups and not necessarily because of gang relationship.  More and more younger generations realize the art and deep meaning that can come with giving or getting a tattoo, which is also a  hope for people that are sometimes rejected or judge by the ink in their body, that in a future not so far away there will be no stigma whatsoever about a person with tattoos all over their body.

Even though in today’s society is pretty normal to see people with a huge part of their body cover in tattoos everywhere we go, doing their jobs, having a normal life, there is still a lot of prejudices and/or tabus around tattoos. How many of us haven’t heard the lines along “Don’t ruin your body like that!” some religious people might even say “Your body is a temple!” and yes it is, but is ours. For example certain “professional’’ careers and job sites, for example, layers, doctors, artitechs, teacher or professors, politics, etc. because it is not “appropriate” nor “professional” for the title, because tattoos are for “uneducated” individuals. And the truth is that although most people understand that this is not the case, many that work on these fields have been a target for this kind of comments.

Norma Fuerte, Mexican radiologist, couple of tattoos and piercings on her body. Kids, teenages, adults, and elders see them all the time but say nothing, only a times some elderly lady would tell her that she’s “too young to that kind of damage to her body,” said Norma when asked about how tattoos and perforation affect her job, but, Antonieta Padilla, a Mexican pediatric odontologist have a very different experience. For Antonieta the case is somewhat different, her patients do not even notice she has a small perforation on her nose, but the parents do, “often I have to stop doing my job when the child’s  mom or dad see my perforation, some might never come back after since I am ‘not capable of doing my job’ for the fact of having a perforation.” Even though she is one of the best odontologist in town. Two years ago my internship teacher in high school told me she had eighteen tattoos and three perforation at the moment of conversation, but she also said that she had to cover them every single day because the principal said “it is not professional,” upon hiring; but the gym teacher had two full sleeves (arm cover of tattoos) and was perfectly fine for him to show them on school grounds.

Why some people think that is okay for some people to have tattoos and no okay for others? Why doctors cannot show them but radiologist can? Some people might argue that the level of education is not the same, therefore the presentation of themselves is not as important. Some argue that ink and perforations are not to a certain standard of health that a health service worker should have, which is very valid, but studies have confirmed that these perforations and tattoos do not affect the health of the individual if done properly, when  vegetable oil based ink will only affect your capability of donating blood for a time period of time of about eight to sixteen months depending as well on the body. No brain damage or anything that could cause a reason for a person with these type of modifications to do not do an appropriate job of a professional.

People with these tattoos prejudices do not understand that the nature of the action is not always the same, that more than a body modification is a form of art representing on a creative way a feeling. These representations do not make a “professional” less, in fact we could argue that it makes them bolder, and more unique, and it help us remember that more than a professional of an area of work or study, people are much more. A traveler, a passionate individual, a creative one, one that is not afraid of change, one that is human and learns to love their body on a very different way, putting your body as a canvas for someone’s art and your own meaning of things.

(Image: Keith Tsuji/Getty Images News/Getty Images)

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mik-thobocarlsen/how-tattoos-went-from-sub_b_6053588.html