Fannish tattooing and sacred identity

• Main Author: Bethan Jones
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Organization for Transformative Works 2015-03-01
• Series: Transformative Works and Cultures
• Subjects: Émile Durkheim; Identity; Performance; Totem
• Online Access: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/626/499

Pleasure is an important motivation for fans to adopt texts. Fannish tattoos function to demonstrate affective investments in a text; they are also a performance of fandom and an example of sacred fan identity. Like engaging in cosplay or wearing clothing that features logos, fannish tattoos mark people as fans of a text. Furthermore, the more obscure the logo or fannish reference, the more performative the tattoo. Fannish tattoos help to construct a sacred fan identity. The sacred experience (as theorized by Émile Durkheim and his concept of the totem) is imbued with meaning through choices that set it aside from the mundane. Within the context of fannish tattoos, fan affect gains similar significance.