Den här uppsatsen undersöker de diskurser som kan formuleras kring hur tatuerade personer talar om sig själva och om tatueringskonsten, utifrån en diskursanalytisk studie av intervjuer i Scandinavian Tattoo Magazine. Uppsatsens teoretiska och metodologiska ramverk är byggt kring Marianne Winther Jørgensens och Louise Phillips diskursteoretiska begreppsbygge, som i sig framförallt grundas i Ernesto Laclaus och Chantal Mouffes diskursanalytiska begrepp. De formulerade diskurserna; sexualitetsdiskursen, ironiseringsdiskursen, möjligheternas diskurs, individualitetsdiskursen och maskulinitetsdiskursen, har diskuterats utifrån begrepp tagna från Mary Douglas (renhet och fara), Slavoj Žižek (cynism) samt Peter L. Berger och Thomas Luckmann (typifieringschema och face-to-face-situationen). Uppsatsens analys visade att kvinnor inte bara föredras som representanter för tatuering i tidskriftens intervjuer, utan också att de, till skillnad från männen, sexualiseras kraftigt. Vidare har teorier framlagts kring relevanta diskursers utvecklingar vad gäller hur de intervjuade identifierar sig med själva praktiken, och slutsatser kunde även dras kring tatuerings individualiserande aspekter, där analysen tyder på att gränserna inom tatuering, vad gäller exempelvis motiv och val av placering, kommer att flyttas fram kontinuerligt i framtiden. / This essay examines the discourses that can be formulated around how tattooed people talk about themselves and about tattoo as a practice. This is based on a discourse analysis study of interviews made in Scandinavian Tattoo Magazine. The essays theoretical and methodological framework is built around Marianne Winther Jørgensens and Louise Phillips framework discourse theory, which itself is based mainly in Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse analysis concepts. They formulated discourses; the sexuality discourse, the ironic discourse, the discourse of opportunities, the discourse of individuality and the masculinity discourse, has been discussed using concepts taken from Mary Douglas (purity and danger), Slavoj Žižek (cynicism), Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann (reciprocal typification and face-to-face situations). The essays analysis showed that women are not only preferred as representatives of tattooing in the specific interviews in the magazine, but also that they, as opposed to the men, are heavily sexualized. Theories regarding how relevant discourses surrounding tattoos have developed, based on how the respondents identify with the practice, are also presented, and conclusions were also drawn around the individualizing aspects of tattooing, where the analysis suggests that the boundaries of tattooing, for example in design and choice of location, will be continuously stretched further in the future.

Based on what body adornment has been throughout history, this project investigates what it might be in the future. The possibilities, forms and methods of body adornment has changed and will continue to change over time, along with our societal and environmental shifts as well as with developments in science and technology. Our bodies are increasingly perceived as malleable objects that we can modify, enhance and improve. I use speculation as a method to explore how the human body may develop and be modified in the future. I envision a world where we have become increasingly intertwined with technologies, where environmental changes and our lifestyle have affected our biology, and where our bodies have continued to be altered based on social norms. Through this project I have become some kind of contemporary Frankenstein scientist, although I am not in a laboratory but in a jewellery workshop. My objects, which I call potential jewellery, or maybe-jewellery, are presented in an installation in the form of a clinical setting. It is a representation of where body adornment meets medical technology, where jewellery meets prostheses and implants. This project does not have any answers or a clear message about what is right or wrong – it is based on a curiosity without having a conclusion in mind. The installation is meant to be a reminder that our bodies are always adorned, modified and in transformation – that we are in an ongoing metamorphosis from one state to another.