The other side of the needle: continuity and change among tattoo workers

Abstract

This dissertation examines the work and organization of tattooists. It answers the question `how do marginal occupations organize in advanced capitalism'? It examines how tattooists organize their labor and create a distinct occupational social world. As an occupation, tattooing is in the margins of formal institutions, it lacks comprehensive state or federal oversight and regulation, and there are no centralized bodies of socialization into the occupation. While the occupation lacks standardization, practitioners have created a cultural system in which the occupation is able to self-regulate. The craft of guild organization preferred by tattooists is a model of work organization that is increasingly anachronistic in late capitalism.

This research focuses on tattoo workers in Baltimore, Maryland. Data were gathered on every taxpaying tattoo shop in the United States for the year 2010. These data were merged with demographic and structural measures derived from the U.S. census. This method provided generalizability between Baltimore and the nation of tattoo shops, and a sampling frame to choose shops for participation in interviews. Thirty-one, in-depth interviews with tattooists working in 12 of the 59 shops in the Baltimore were conducted. Interviews were loosely structured and allowed for the freedom to explore additional topics as needed, including probing interviewees for additional information on key topics. After transcription and rewriting field notes, data were coded by their content, and the types of information they contained. Later, coded data were analyzed to find key themes. In this case, the theme of traditional action was evident in many of the ways tattooists discussed their work.

Findings from this research challenge the common conception that capitalism and modernity are increasingly unbearable social forces. As evidenced, members of the occupation are resilient as they create a social world deeply rooted in respect and honor for traditions. Tattooists are able to limit the intrusion of capitalism on their craft. Traditional action (Weber 1978: 25-26) is the strategy used by tattooists to maintain their way of life. It is evidenced in the sets of conventions (Becker 1982) in the occupation, which include the preferred methods of socialization, choices to adopt new machines or materials, control over the distribution of tools and knowledge, marginalization of deviants, and folklore. Theses traditions and shared culture allow for complex forms of routine collective action to emerge. They not only allow tattooists to carry out their work on a daily basis, but they also protect the entire occupation as a whole from rapid social change. While conventions facilitate complex action they also have allowed tattooists to define the bounds of the occupation, and the types of behavior that are acceptable.