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Euphoria tattoo shop7/31/2023 Though tattooing is undoubtedly an individual act and decision, it is no less meaningful as a form of reclamation and resignification in a communal way: its ritual aspect reconnects us powerfully to our senses and our skin. It is this very same flesh that serves as the stage, a battleground, even, with which to fight back. Tattoo by Ace Vicenzo SibilaPhoto courtesy of Ace Vicenzo Sibila Language, law, and expectation crowd into the flesh like insidious intrusions that attempt to convince us that we possess no autonomy. And in day to day life, we are often confronted by others––from friends and family to lovers and strangers we interact with––who impose their projections about our embodied expression on us, what we do not “read” as. ![]() ![]() In what follows, I showcase the voices of talented practitioners and empowered clients who’ve adorned their bodies in order to give an account of tattooing as a gender-affirming art.Īs queer, trans, and nonbinary individuals, our relationship to bodily agency is complicated: at a concrete level, our skin is at the mercy of legislation and policy surrounding a medical and social system set out to determine what is and isn’t appropriate for an individual to decide. While not commonly considered a form of gender affirmation within the realm of gender-affirming medical care available to trans and nonbinary individuals, tattooing affirms us differently by allowing us material and creative agency over our skin. And while we might have a sense of the historical significance of tattooing within cultural, countercultural, and spiritual contexts, it might not be immediately obvious how this ancient art of bodily adornment overlaps with gender-expansive and affirming practices. The beautiful and endless arrays of gender and embodiment are equally so. ![]() Tattooing is a body modification practice as ancient as our first forms of collective social life. Rolón’s three-headed dog tattoo, by Aurora at Tres Leches (Photo: Pedro J.
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