Living with s(k)in: An analysis of tattoo removal.

This paper investigates the role of tattoo removal in postmodernity. Specifically, I suggest tattoo removal is a technology of self in which the tattooed person can attain absolution from a "sinful" tattoo. This paper explores the construction of the confessional act in two parts: the construction of the confessing subject and the construction of the medical clinic as the confessor's listener. Using the texts medical offices place on the internet to advertise their services, I investigate the text's interpellation of subjects desiring tattoo removal. I then examine the construction of the clinic's status in the confessional act. Websites and brochures on gang tattoo removal provide a dialogue in which the clinic negotiates and attains its powerful position in the confessional act. The paper concludes by investigating the implications of the tattoo remnant, the material effects of the technology of self, and the benefits of studying the body-skin in rhetoric.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2004

Author dc:creator

• Downing, Emily

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lain, Brian A.
• Allison, John M., Jr.
• Byers, Lori

• Tattooing.
• tattoo removal
• rhetoric
• psychoanalysis
• body-skin
• medical clinic
• Foucault

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Downing, Emily
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 56621169
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4622/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc4622

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc4622