The tattooed feminine body: Considerations for sexuality and British culture

Over the past couple of decades, numerous pieces of research consider the rise in the popularity, availability, and accessibility of tattoos. Within this, there is a small amount that explores women’s tattooed bodies, and an even smaller amount that considers how tattooed bodies are navigated within particular cultures, such as in Britain. This chapter explores the intersecting issues of gender, class, and sexuality in how women make sense of their own tattooed bodies. Through interviews with British women, clear discourses emerge that demonstrate how pervasive notions of normative femininity are, with stereotypical representations that exist within heteronormative contexts frame how we make sense of femininity. In addition, the chapter explores how tattoos are embedded within a (predominantly working-class) culture, and why this is specifically important to a British context. To conclude, the chapter discusses how it is difficult to disentangle these intersecting issues, with thoughts to how they affect women explicitly. Understanding discourses surrounding tattooed women’s bodies provides us with insights into cultural issues that play a key role in identity work.