November 30, 2004
Sutures of Ink
National (Dis)Identification and the Seaman's Tattoo
by CHRISTINE BRAUNBERGER
"...during the first half of the 20th century those ubiquitously visible tattoos--eagles and anchors, shields and ships, flags, daggers, and dancing hula girls--carried their own specific set of conflictual connotations. American culture at the time cathected the sailor's tattoo to national militaristic fantasies, desires for the exotic, and the penultimate masculinity of rugged bravery. When disembodied from the prideful flush of militarism, the tattoo became grotesque, that is, repulsive and provocative. The seeming irreconcilability of these attached meanings leads to several questions: What were all those tattoos DOING on all those bodies?1 Why did eagles, ships, flags and other icons to the civil religion of American nationalism take the form of tattoos? How did tattoos function to authenticate the military man? In what ways did tattoos become artifacts of consent for civilian men to be transformed into the physical protectors of democracy?"
