A Qualitative Study on the Bodily Experience of Tattooing fromthe Scopic Drive

Abstract

Objective: to understand the meaning of the relationship between tattoos and the satisfaction of the scopic drive postulated by psychoanalysis. Method: it is of a qualitative nature focused on semi-structured interviews that take into account the subjective and bodily experiences of people with tattoos, as well as the meaning they attribute to their marks on the skin. Results: a breakdown of the data is provided based on a membership categorization analysis, which serves as a descriptive device for what people say and act. The three main categories were: body, drive and gaze. Discussion: The results show the interrelation between the body, the drive and the gaze: the body is a «canvas» where beauty is captured in a part of it, investing it with localized enjoyment and pleasure. This shows how the scopic drive needs the alternation between a positive and a negative, an action and its opposite. Conclusion: the tattoo, through the gaze, provokes in its wearer a feeling of completeness, of obtaining something that was missing but that, however, sooner or later, begins to wear out and is missing again. The gaze fulfills the function of affirming something that the wearer exposes, but that can only be conveyed through the symbol and the circuit of the drive.