A Theory for Tattoos

by Mark Bauerlein

The motives for tattoos are many, but they all have a common subtext. A tattoo can mark a group identity—sailors, soldiers, inmates, gangs, motorcyclists. It can memorialize a person or event, as in a virtual archive of snapshots of tattoos showing names and faces of deceased loved ones (I attended a presentation of the archive by two academics in Toronto last year). Sometimes they happen by blunt peer pressure, a set of 20-year-olds on Saturday night getting drunk, knowing not what to do until one of them blurts, “Let’s go get a tat and a ring!” (a good friend tells me of pulling out just as his turn came up). Continue Reading »

15 Sep 2014

Locating Narrative Body-Geographies in “U”. “S”. History

by Carl Scott

Sound like fun? Maybe they’ll talk about “alterity” also! KC Johnson at Minding the Campus (H/T Instapundit) takes a look at the program for the 2013 American Historical Association conference, especially at the priceless paper titles . Did you know that 1945-1965 “saw the . . . . Continue Reading »

3 Oct 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #27: Are There Anti-Abortion Rock Songs?

by Carl Scott

Robert Cheeks suggests in his comment on my last Songbook post that if there aren’t any, there’s really no point in me saying that Rock is ambivalent about or even resistant to modernity. He has a point. So, here are two possible candidates. The first is the most obvious choice, the . . . . Continue Reading »

21 Nov 2011