Tattooing the world : Pacific designs in print & skin / Juniper Ellis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ellis, Juniper.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnicity.

Identity (Psychology).

Tattooing--Social aspects.

Tattooing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 275 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the 1830s an Irishman named James F. O'Connell acquired a full-body tattoo while living as a castaway in the Pacific. The tattoo featured traditional patterns that, to native Pohnpeians, defined O'Connell's life; they made him wholly human. Yet upon traveling to New York, these markings singled him out as a freak. His tattoos frightened women and children, and ministers warned their congregations that viewing O'Connell's markings would cause the ink to transfer to the skin of their unborn children. In many ways, O'Connell's story exemplifies the unique history of the modern tattoo, which began in the Pacific and then spread throughout the world. No matter what form it has taken, the tattoo has always embodied social standing, aesthetics, ethics, culture, gender, and sexuality. Tattoos are personal and corporate, private and public. They mark the profane and the sacred, the extravagant and the essential, the playful and the political. From the Pacific islands to the world at large, tattoos are a symbolic and often provocative form of expression and communication.Tattooing the World is the first book on tattoo literature and culture. Juniper Ellis traces the origins and significance of modern tattoo in the works of nineteenth- and twentieth-century artists, travelers, missionaries, scientists, and such writers as Herman Melville, Margaret Mead, Albert Wendt, and Sia Figiel. Traditional Pacific tattoo patterns are formed using an array of well-defined motifs. They place the individual in a particular community and often convey genealogy and ideas of the sacred. However, outside of the Pacific, those who wear and view tattoos determine their meaning and interpret their design differently. Reading indigenous historiography alongside Western travelogue and other writings, Ellis paints a surprising portrait of how culture has been etched both on the human form and on a body of literature.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

A Note About Pacific Languages

Introduction: Living Scripts, Texts, Strategies

1. Tatau and Malu: Vital Signs in Contemporary Samoan Literature

2. "The Original Queequeg"? Te Pehi Kupe, Toi Moko, and Moby-Dick

3. Another Aesthetic: Beauty and Morality in Facial Tattoo

4. Marked Ethics: Erasing and Restoring the Tattoo

5. Locating the Sign: Visible Culture

6. Transfer of Desire: Engendering Sexuality

Epilogue: The Question of Belonging

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-259) and index.

Description based upon print version of record.

ISBN:

9780231143684

0231143680

9780231513104

0231513100

OCLC:

818858124