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The Body as (Another) Place: Producing Embodied Heterotopias Through Tattooing

Author

Listed:
  • Dominique Roux

    (REGARDS - Recherches en Économie Gestion AgroRessources Durabilité Santé- EA 6292 - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - MSH-URCA - Maison des Sciences Humaines de Champagne-Ardenne - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne)

  • Russell Belk

    (Department of Mathematics and Statistics [Toronto] - York University [Toronto])

Abstract

While previous research has mobilized sociological and psychological readings of the body, this study considers it ontologically as the ultimate place we must live in, with no escape possible. A phenomenological framework and a four-year, multimethod, qualitative study of tattoo recipients and tattooists substantiates the conceptualization of the body as a threefold articulation: an inescapable place (topia), the source of utopias arising from fleeting trajectories between here and elsewhere, and the "embodied heterotopia" that it becomes when people rework their bodies as a better place to inhabit. We show how tattooed bodies are spatially conceived as a topia through their topographies, territories, landscapes, and limits. We then highlight how this creates a dynamic interplay between past, present, and future, resulting in utopian dreams of beautification, escape, conjuration, and immutability. Finally, we show how tattooees produce embodied heterotopias, namely other places that both mirror and compensate for their ontological entrapment. In considering the body as a place, our framework enriches phenomenological and existential approaches to self-transformation in contemporary consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Dominique Roux & Russell Belk, 2019. "The Body as (Another) Place: Producing Embodied Heterotopias Through Tattooing," Post-Print hal-02022169, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02022169
    DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucy081
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02022169
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tonya Williams Bradford & John F. Sherry, 2015. "Domesticating Public Space through Ritual: Tailgating as Vestaval," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 42(1), pages 130-151.
    2. Linda Jane Coleman & Lauren E. Cote & Jian Gu & Victoria Nicolau, 2017. "Getting my tat on … and off: Consumer explanation of tattoos’ roles in presentation-of-self in everyday life," Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 46-59, January.
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    4. Zeynep Arsel & Jonathan Bean, 2013. "Taste Regimes and Market-Mediated Practice," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(5), pages 899-917.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dominique Roux, 2020. "Entre ici et ailleurs : expressions consommatoires des utopies du corps," Post-Print hal-02949806, HAL.
    2. Bernard Cova, 2021. "The new frontier of consumer experiences: escape through pain," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 60-69, June.
    3. Aleksandrina Atanasova, 2021. "Re-examining utopia in contemporary consumption: conceptualization and implications for marketing," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 23-39, June.
    4. Justyna Kramarczyk & Mathieu Alemany Oliver, 2022. "Accumulative vs. Appreciative Expressions of Materialism: Revising Materialism in Light of Polish Simplifiers and New Materialism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(4), pages 701-719, February.

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