Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Grant Watson

Thesis: Tattooing with Frictions and Fictions

July 2025

Abstract

What arises when the practice of tattooing is understood as a social experience and mode of production? The following stories situate the tattoo studio as a microcosm. Within this situation, a set of insurmountable contradictions arise: the characters (the givers and receivers) feel, talk, and strategize on how to live within and outside of fictions, contradictions, and change.

The second story, No One is Alone, explores Queer Marxist readings to question how social categories and ideologies are produced by a system of racialized capitalism. How do these ideologies influence the social experience of the tattoo session?

Language shifts between poetic phrases and theoretical analysis to shake up binaries between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction, material and dreamy. While looking backwards and forwards, each story is situated in a specific moment between 2020-2025 in the locations of Berlin, Rotterdam, Brooklyn, and Minneapolis.

Author: Bel Mclaughlin