Going ALL Ink : An anthropological phenomenology study of a moral self, individuality, and embodiment through the practice of tattoos

Sammanfattning: Habitus is a type of order that explains how an individual becomes a member of a society or a culture and can be studied to learn about that society or culture. Daniel Miller is introducing a similar approach to order of individuals’ material relationships through which one can learn about meaningful representation of the individual subjects themselves. These relationships could be interpreted as being highly subjective and be seen in the form of a practice of self-construction. In a search for an anthropology of morality authors such as Mattingly (et.al) are complementary using virtue ethics and Foucault´s notion of “a care of the self” as a moral practice to study moral subjectivity and its formation. Strathern and Stewart claim that embodiment, as a theoretical concept, can show how the mind, body, and experience come together and provide insight into personhood. This thesis focuses on tattoos as a moral practice, by studying individuals through a narrative of a moral being, with the aim to understand its formation of moral subjectivity and its embodiment of individuality. In conclusion, there will be argued that the practice of tattoos creates a negotiation between the individual mind and body, and between the practice itself and the society where it takes place.