News Story - Jamie Ellis, Candidate Number 9150

Another influence upon me was a story I heard about a woman who got tattoos placed on her as an emotional refuge and redemption. She was stricken with breast cancer and unfortunately had to have both her breasts removed to survive. She felt worthless, ugly and became very depressed. However, she decided to adorn herself with tattoos, and through this process of giving herself tattoos, her self-confidence boosted astronomically, she felt beautiful again and tattoos really did save her. She stated in an interview that her cancer phase was "a cocoon phase, and now I'm more beautiful than ever"

After hearing this story, it's given me some ideas in terms of content of questions we're going to be asking people. I'd like to be able to ask more sensitive questions about each persons tattoo's but we'll have to tread lightly and try not to be too intrusive into their lives. This is because the story may be too painful for them or too sensitive for them to share and we'll have to bear this in mind when creating our questions.

Influences Part 2 - Jamie Ellis, Candidate Number 9150

Not quite sure if this is an influences on me personally, but through our target audience research questionnaire, it's been noted that the more emotional and thought provoking response were from females. So, during our documentary filming whilst we're out on the street filming short interviews, we'll tend to be trying to go for females more than males based off of this research.

Action shots of getting tattoos we could use in our documentary by Kate Parkinson. Candidate number 9204

These are shots from inside a tattoo shop of regular people getting tattooed. These are ideas we could use for our documentaries when filming or taking pictures. I particularly like the image of the woman biting her finger as it shows are stereotypical view of how painful getting a tattoo is, she looks more interesting than someone who just sits straight faced whilst having one done.

Mood board of female diversity with tattoos by Kate Parkinson. Candidate number 9204

This is a mood board of females with big, controversial tattoos. They are all proud to show of their tattoos which shows how differently viewed women with tattoos are in today's society.

Mood board of male diversity with tattoo's by Kate Parkinson. Candidate number 9204.

This shows the diversity of male tattoo's and what they have done. However they all seem to have their tattoo's in similar places.

Origins and History of Tattoos - Jamie Ellis, Candidate Number 9150

Origins and History or Tattoos

The origins of the word “Tattoo” are derived from the Tahitian word “Tatau” which translates to “To mark something”. Most countries have a form of tattoo history in one way or another.

The earliest record of human being having a tattoo was discovered in 1991 and is named “Otzi the ice man”. His frozen body was discovered and has a grand total of 57 different tattoos at various points along his body. It is believed that these tattoos were therapeutic for him, possibly to counter-act arthritis.

 

Japan

Japans tattoo history has evidence that there was pottery such as vases and clay figurines, both depicting imagery underneath the painted human subjects’ skin. The first record of Japanese human tattooing was found in a compiled Japanese history from 297 AD and tells us that Japanese tattoo marks were for their decorative qualities rather than magical ones, contradicting to other earlier, primitive cultures.

The traditional Japanese tattooing method is called a full-body suit. The technique used to create this full-body suit was performed by “ the Horis” – the Japanese tattooing masters. Their imaginative designs as well as their use of bright vibrant colours made them the masters of their craft.

 

Polynesia

< Samoan tribe tattoo

 

This encompasses many different early cultures.

 

In early Samoa, the tatau has long defined their ranks and titles among each tribe. Chiefs were the ones to apply these tataus to their successor. These tataus were gifted to the future leaders at the onset of puberty in the successors as this was a key time in their ascension to their leadership role in the tribe.

 

 

Hawaiians had a traditional tattoo art too.  Theirs was known as the “Kakau” and they were to safeguard their health, their well-being in addition to being an ornamentation and sign of distinction. These tattoos were naturally looking and had natural imagery such as woven reeds and flowers adorning men’s limbs and women were tattooed on their hands, fingers, wrists and sometimes on their tongues.

                                                                                      Tatau >

India/Thailand

Indian tattoos were a symbol of strength and one of the most prominent images that appeared was Hanuman, a Hindu deity. This mythical monk is still being placed on people’s skin to this day in Thailand and Myanmar. The tattoos are given magical properties by monks during the embedding process.

In this culture, the monks won’t give women a tattoo, as they believe women don’t need the physical and magical boost. They believe they are strong enough on their own. This is a unique concept, as during early cultures, women were seen as inferior to men, or that they didn’t deserve the boost, but this is a whole new attitude to this topic.

 

                                                           Hanuman tattoo >

 

 

Ancient Greece and Rome

In ancient Rome, tattoos were adopted from the Persians. In their culture it was typically criminals and slaves that were branded with tattoos. They weren’t ceremonial or symbolic, but were rather for punishment. Slaves were stricken with a tattoo that simply read “tax paid” when the early roman empire exported some of them to Asia. This is another new idea to tattoos. They’re not used to empower them, they’re used to hinder and make the individual bearing them to feel shame at having them under their skin.

Emperor Constantine Outlawed all tattoos on the face as he believed the face was in the likeness of god and shouldn’t be defiled by the tattoos.

However, soldiers showed their loyalty to the roman legion by having a tattoo reading “ SPQR” meaning “Senatus popolusque Romanus” which translates to “The Senate & People of Rome”

 

Circuses

These were responsible for popularisation of tattooing during the late 19^th century. Where circuses prospered, tattooing boomed. This is due to the circuses employing full body tattooed individuals. These people were typically gawped at, but others performed traditional circus acts like juggling or sword swallowing.

 

 

 

 

 

Mood-board of possible shots outside and within a tattoo shop, Kim Potter, Candidate number 8180

Mood-board to show mens tattoos in todays society, Kim Potter, Candidate number 8180

Mood-board to show the diversity of women's tattoos in todays society, Kim Potter, Candidate number 8180

Target Audience Research - Group Activity

To achieve a profile or our target audience, we have performed multiple forms of research into our audience and what they think and feel about tattoos.

Jamie - I created a short questionnaire that we gave to two sets of year 11 children to fill out.

This is the questionnaire;

Boy/Girl

Are you interested in getting a tattoo as soon as you are able to? Yes/No

What tattoo would you get?

Why?



And we got the year 11's to fill these out to give us some ideas behind the mentality of those who are approaching being able to get a tattoo and how they feel towards them.  The opinions change quite drastically from being in favour of them and wanting to get them for a symbolic meaning whilst others want one because they "Thinks it looks good".

The majority of the responses that weren't along the lines of "it looks good" were from female participants. So far, 6 out of the 7 meaningful responses are female and have meanings to as to why they would want a tattoo, what they would get as a tattoo and what that tattoo would mean to them. To me, this would mean that we would try to ask more females than males, as they appear to have a more emotional connection to the idea of a tattoo compared to the males, who so far think that the only reason for them is "they look good".

Some examples of the responses from the females to the question "What tattoo would you get?" followed by their response to "Why?"

"A ladder up my right side with red and white roses and the cards off of Alice in Wonderland"
"Alice in Wonderland is very close to my heart and that is the favourite scene"


"Peace sign on collar bone"
sadly, this person only put "too long to explain" as their answer which is disappointing


"One saying Grandma"
"Because I loved my grandma and I want her to be with me all my life"


"Minnie and Mickey on my arm, kissing"
"Because I love Minnie and Mickey and my boyfriend always calls me Minnie because I'm small and I love them so much"


"A love heart on my wrist, flowers or butterflies on my feet"
"To support self-harmers and the butterflies look nice"


"Mum and Dad on my chest - near heart"
"I miss them"


The only emotional response from a male was that he wanted Donald Duck and the reason was because "Donald Duck was my childhood"

A second thought provoking response from a male was that he didn't want a tattoo because " I don't like the idea of ink being embedded into my skin forever"


The other responses to the questionnaire were along the lines of simple imagery and the reason they wanted these tattoo's was because "they look cool" or "I think I'd look great". Most of these less emotional responses were from males.