En sylvass konstform : Tatueringen och dess influenser

Sammanfattning: The modern tattoo has expressed a lot of different trends and fashions since it became a more accepted practice. The purpose of this essay is to show the artistic influences on tattoo art in Sweden today. Where did the different styles come from and how did they evolve to an artistic style outside of their own context?  Historically, tattoo art has been of great importance in cultures around the world. Some of the more prominent tattoo cultures were the Japanese and the ones scattered around Oceania. The traditional Japanese tattoo art was inspired by the woodblocks which were characterized by bright colors and full-body tattoos. The tattoo art in Oceania was mainly made with black ink and the sacred motifs where chosen for the person getting tattooed. When James Cook shared what he had learned of the tattoo cultures it was considered barbaric and primitive, it is not until present time that we speak of tattoos without stigmatization. The essay revolves around interviews with two tattoo artists active in Sweden. Emelie Lagne, a 22-year-old based in Stockholm and Johannes Streith, a 44-year-old working in Gävle since 2002. The interviews show what their influences and inspiration come from and how it affects their art. To analyze their work, the essay also uses visual semiotics by the model from Roland Barthes to look closer at the tattoo artists art and its influences. Pierre Bourdieu discusses the importance of an artist’s environment and conditions and how it affects their artistry in economic and social capital one possesses interplays with the world which we enter and live The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field (2000). Bourdieu means that the cultural, in. The essay uses this theory to see if the tattoo artist’s environment and conditions play a part in how they make their art. The influences and inspirations from traditional Japanese tattoos and “tribal” motifs have become a category of itself as “classical” tattoos. They are popular motifs to this day and also inspire the more contemporary styles. The two active tattoo artists have two different art styles but the influences in Sweden are on the bigger scale, the same.