Tattoos – Philosophy for Everyone: I Ink, Therefore I Am

Body art or eyesore, a celebration of individuality, or at veryleast a conversation piece, tattoos provide fertile ground forphilosophical discussion, raising intriguing questions aboutsubjects ranging from aesthetics to feminism and from semiotics tothe philosophy of the person. The abundance of tattooed religioussymbols also raises questions surrounding the belief in and worshipof God, and even the stigma associated with tattoos can initiatediscussion on moral and political philosophy. Providing a broadarena for philosophical dialogue, essays include:

Tattoos as an expression of freedom Confessions of a tattooed Buddhist philosopher Women and tattoos Tattoos and personal identity Papers, animatedly inked by philosophers (most with tattoos),tattoo artists, and tattoo enthusiasts, offer enlightening insightsinto the nature of tattoos and the tattooing arts and the richphilosophical analysis that can be drawn from them.

I Ink, Therefore I Foreword x
Rocky Rakovic

I Am, Therefore I Ink: An Introduction to Tattoos Philosophy for Everyone: I Ink, Therefore I Am xiv
Robert Arp

Acknowledgments xxvii

SHEET I THE HISTORY AND NATURE OF TATTOOS 1

1 Tattoos and the Tattooing Arts in Perspective: An Overviewand Some Preliminary Observations 3
Charles Taliaferro and Mark Odden

2 How to Read a Tattoo, and Other Perilous Quests 14
Juniper Ellis

SHEET II TATTOOS AND ART 27

3 Are Tattoos Art? 29
Nicolas Michaud

4 Fleshy Canvas: The Aesthetics of Tattoos from Feminist andHermeneutical Perspectives 38
Kimberly Baltzer–Jaray and Tanya Rodriguez

SHEET III THE TATTOOED WOMAN 51

5 Female Tattoos and Graffiti 53
Thorsten Botz–Bornstein

6 Painted Fetters: Tattooing as Feminist Liberation65
Nancy Kang

SHEET IV PERSONAL IDENTITY 81

7 Tattoo You: Personal Identity in Ink 83
Kyle Fruh and Emily Thomas

8 Illusions of Permanence: Tattoos and the Temporary Self96
Rachel C. Falkenstern

9 My Tattoo May Be Permanent, But My Memory of It Isn′t109
Clancy Smith

SHEET V EXPRESSIONS OF FREEDOM 121

10 Tattoos are Forever: Bodily Freedom and the(Im)possibility of Change 123
Felipe Carvalho

11 Bearing the Marks: How Tattoos Reveal Our EmbodiedFreedom 135
Jonathan Heaps

SHEET VI EXPERIENCES AND STORIES SURROUNDING TATTOOS149

12 Never Merely ′There′: Tattooing as a Practice of Writingand a Telling of Stories 151
Wendy Lynne Lee

13 Something Terribly Flawed: Philosophy and TheIllustrated Man′ 165
Kevin S. Decker

SHEET VII ETHICAL CONCERNS 179

14 The Vice of the Tough Tattoo 181
Jennifer Baker

15 To Ink, or Not To Ink: Tattoos and Bioethics 193
Daniel Miori

16 Writing on the Body: The Modern Morality of the Tattoo206
Simon Woods

SHEET VIII EASTERN AND RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES 219

17 Is a Tattoo a Sign of Impiety? 221
Adam Barkman

18 Confessions of a Tattooed Buddhist Philosopher 230
Joseph J. Lynch

19 An Atheist and a Theist Discuss a Cross Tattoo and God′sExistence 242
Robert Arp

Notes on Contributors 261

Robert Arp is a philosopher and ontologist who has taughtat numerous colleges and universities.  He is the author ofScenario Visualization: An Evolutionary Account of CreativeProblem Solving (2008) and a co–author of Critical Thinking:An Introduction to Reasoning Well (2011), What s Goodon TV: Understanding Ethics through Television(Wiley–Blackwell, 2011), and Philosophy DeMYSTiFieD (2011);in addition, he is editor of South Park and Philosophy: YouKnow, I Learned Something Today (Wiley–Blackwell, 2006).

Series Editor

Fritz Allhoff is an associate professor in the philosophydepartment at Western Michigan University, as well as a seniorresearch fellow at the Australian National University sCentre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. In additionto editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, he is alsothe volume editor or co–editor for several titles, includingWine and Philosophy (Wiley–Blackwell, 2007), Whiskey andPhilosophy (with Marcus P. Adams, Wiley, 2009), and Food andPhilosophy (with Dave Monroe, Wiley–Blackwell,2007).  His academic research interests engage variousfacets of applied ethics, ethical theory, and the history andphilosophy of science.

Review from The Scotman 8 June 2012