On The Meaning Of Tattoos

I see them all the time! Tattoos! Being a student of semiotics, the philosophy of symbols, I ran across this article by R.R. Reno, of First Things magazine, an excellent publication analysing religion in the public square. Even though I would not impute this motivation for every one who gets one, his analysis is piercing and on target in discribing the deepest roots behnd the fashion. Here are a few excerpts. I recommend the whole article. (Link at the bottom.)

Reno states:

"The ability of truth to compel the soul is reinterpreted by our culture of critique as an ideological ploy to mask and advance the interests of power. Thus we are taught that nothing rightly compels devotion of heart and mind.

This kind of 'free' soul is a slave of desires for success, desires for social acceptance, desires for all the goodies that our wealthy economy so efficiently provides, to say nothing of (the) primitive passions. Increasingly uncommitted—free from the limits of marriage, children, faith, devotion, and loyalty—we are more purely and more entirely defined by our social roles as productive workers and eager consumers, and by our passing desires for satisfaction and pleasure. ...is it surprising that in an age with so few binding commitments postmodern men and women seek symbols of permanence etched into their bodies?

The human heart hungers for permanence. We don’t want to be dispersed into endless possibilities; we want to be held responsible for being a particular person. Thus, absent strong cultural forces that encourage and enforce limitations on the will, in the coming decade we will see all sorts of strange self-mutilations and radical commitments of the body. Self-mutilation will provide a powerful symbolic compensation for our inability to commit and bind the soul.

In contrast, the most individual man or woman is the one who cannot do or be otherwise—and that comes from a heart circumcised by convictions that we allow to command our lives."

The Tattoo Fashion