Reclaiming the Body Through Tattoos

Abstract

Psychoanalysis has always addressed issues concerning the body. More recently, the proliferation of practices of aesthetic body intervention such as plastic surgery, piercings and tattoos have been calling the attention of psychoanalysts to their use and effects on the subject. This paper focuses on the analysis of the role of tattoos in reclaiming one’s body, which will be approached through the psychoanalytical discourse analysis of data retrieved from online magazines and blogs. The practice of tattooing has subjective implications on the relationship between the body and the self, revealing a fundamental trace of human beings: the need to process traumatic events and give them some sort of tolerable expression.