Sutures of Ink: National (Dis)Identification and the Seaman’s Tattoo

Feb. 1, 2000

"The physical body symbolically reproduces the anxieties of the social body." -Mary Douglas [1] The tattooed seaman. The image is so deeply embedded in the collective American psyche that the men can hardly be separated from the ink. The habitual naturalization of this connection intrigues me. Today the linkage is...