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Art of Healing: Lawrence University Researcher Says Tattoos Help Deal with Physical, Emotional Trauma
APPLETON, WIS. -- The tattoo, long the artistic expression of choice for societal "outsiders" -- psychotics, criminals, lesbians, punk rockers, gang bangers -- serves an important role as a medium for emotional healing and survival according to a Lawrence University researcher.
Judith Sarnecki, associate professor of French at Lawrence, says a correlation exists between the increased mainstream use of tattoos in today's culture and a psychological need to deal with traumatic or life-threatening experiences.
"The process of getting a tattoo is a traumatic and certainly painful event in and of itself, although the pain and trauma are, to a considerable extent, controlled and mediated by another human being," says Sarnecki, whose research interests also include gender issues.
She became interested in the subject of tattoos three years ago after being captivated by a young man in a Stanley Kowalski-style undershirt standing in line in front of her at a local Dairy Queen. The man displayed a delicate fine-line tattoo that graced his upper back and shoulders.
"Some people who have incurred bodily trauma mark their bodies on the very site of that trauma as if to repeat it in some new, creative setting that will allow for a different, life-affirming demarcation of the event while still bearing witness to it."
Among the most common examples linking trauma and tattoo Sarnecki has found are in women who use the body art to cover their mastectomy scars as a kind of memento mori.
"Getting a tattoo is a way for these women to facilitate their recovery from the loss of a breast to cancer," explains Sarnecki, whose research has centered on visiting tattoo parlors in Seattle and San Francisco as well as interviewing dozens of people who sport them. "The repetition of pain and trauma is evident, but the painful return is also different in that it marks the place where the trauma occurred with a life-affirming design of the woman's own choosing.
"Having a part of your body tattooed serves as a conduit to understanding and incorporating both a physical and psychological loss while also regaining some sense of control and a new sense of individual empowerment."
As society becomes increasingly technologically-driven and people feel more anonymous, dehumanized and homogenized, Sarnecki maintains that tattoos, in addition to empowering, provide a perceived sense of permanence in an unstable and ever-shifting world.
"Tattoos allow a person to shout, 'Hey, I'm here! I exist, look at me! I, too, have a story to tell, a life to relate that is remarkable.' Perhaps those who feel most silenced in our society speak loudest via their tattoos."
Among the silenced minority most frequently using tattoos as communication vehicles are prison inmates. In prison, tattoo images speak more eloquently and succinctly than words.
Of all the people Sarnecki has met and interviewed the past three years, none have left the impact of "Sky," a fifth generation cowboy who spent three years in an Arizona prison for his role in a gang-style killing.
At the end of a lengthy interview, Sky removed his shirt and displayed his own tattoo collection for Sarnecki. His back features a cowboy on a bucking bronco, tribute to his days as a champion bareback rider on the teen rodeo circuit. "Fear no man" is emblazoned across his chest. Two sparrows -- in memory of his best friend, killed in a gang war -- adorn his pectoral muscles. A dragon on his left arm is the demon of alcoholism he battles daily and the flames surrounding the dragon are for "the hell" he has already endured in his young life.
"Like many who are or were in prisons, Sky's body is his only possession. His tattoos are the one thing that cannot be taken from him," Sarnecki explains. "His tattoos help him articulate his life story. They help him remember those moments he chooses never to forget. And they capture and memorialize some of the pain he has both endured and inflicted during his brief lifetime."
The stories that perhaps are impossible to tell or those that society prefers not to hear often wind up in the flesh. For the bearer, tattoos become self-contained stories, symbols that become the very thing they symbolize.
"Tattoos call out to be read and understood on their own terms," says Sarnecki. "As a society, I suggest we have a lot of reading to do."
Presently tattooless but contemplating, Sarnecki presented invited papers on her tattoo research at the International Narrative Conference at Dartmouth University and at two Midwest Modern Language Association meetings. A member of the Lawrence French department since 1990, she earned her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin.
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