Blood and Lightning : On Becoming a Tattooer / Dustin Kiskaddon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kiskaddon, Dustin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tattoo artists--California--Oakland.

Tattoo artists.

Tattooing--Social aspects--California--Oakland.

Tattooing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (266 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2024]

Summary:

Any tattoo is the outcome of an intimate, often hidden process. The people, bodies, and money that make tattooing what it is blend together and form a heady cocktail, something described by Matt, the owner of Oakland's Premium Tattoo, as "blood and lightning." Faced with the client's anticipation of pain and excitement, the tattooer must carefully perform calm authority to obscure a world of preparation and vigilance. "Blood and lightning, my dude"—the mysterious and intoxicating effect of tattooing done right. Dustin Kiskaddon draws on his own apprenticeship with Matt and takes us behind the scenes into the complex world of professional tattooers. We join people who must routinely manage a messy and carnal type of work. Blood and Lightning brings us through the tattoo shop, where the smell of sterilizing agents, the hum of machines, and the sound of music spill out onto the back patio. It is here that Matt, along with his comrades, reviews the day's wins, bemoans its losses, and prepares for the future. Having tattooed more than five hundred people, Kiskaddon is able to freshly articulate the physical, mental, emotional, and moral life of tattooers. His captivating account explores the challenges they face on the job, including the crushing fear of making mistakes on someone else's body, the role of masculinity in evolving tattoo worlds, appropriate and inappropriate intimacy, and the task of navigating conversations about color and race. Ultimately, the stories in this book teach us about the roles our bodies play in the social world. Both mediums and objects of art, our bodies are purveyors of sociocultural significance, sites of capitalist negotiation, and vivid encapsulations of the human condition. Kiskaddon guides us through a strangely familiar world, inviting each of us to become a tattooer along the way.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Introduction: The Bumblebee Rides a Unicycle

One: Enter the Apprentice

Two: You Should Be Scared

Three: Noticing Bodies

Four: Touching Bodies

Five: The Physical and Cultural Life of Skin

Six: Mispld and Other Mistakes

Seven: How Much for a Face Tattoo

Conclusion: The Unleavable Field

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Moral Conditions of Ethnographic Writing and Research

Notes

References

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781503637412

1503637417

OCLC:

1416189197