Do you have a tattoo or a piercing, or know someone who does? Though it may sound surprising, the culture of tattoos has a long history based on cultural differences, questions of gender and more. Sponsored by the Aquinas College Women’s Studies Center, Margo DeMello, a widely recognized anthropologist, will share her experiences and insights into body modification, exploring how cultural expectations have shaped the culture of tattoos and piercings in surprising ways. The Aquinas College Women’s Studies Center academically approaches the intersections between gender, history, culture, and contemporary life.

On September 13, DeMello will present on the topic, “Gender and Body Modification,” an overview of the many ways the human body is modified and reasons why: for fashion, to celebrate success, among others. DeMello has written several books on the topic, some presently available to the public, others forthcoming. When asked to preview her presentation, DeMello lists the many forms of body modification that come under her scrutiny: “Tattooing, piercing, the use of corsets, foot binding - that kind of thing. I always begin with an overview of what body modification is, how it’s used... there is a real difference in how it functions. In particular, when I focus on gender, I want to talk about how men’s bodies and women’s bodies are very, very differently modified. Not in terms of the practices, but in terms of the function of those practices.”

DeMello has observed the various ways in which men and women’s bodies are expected to be maintained, and how modification connects to questions of identity, beauty, success and freedom. She says, “Men are celebrated in cultures around the world for what they do, and women are expected to look a certain way. When men are tattooed, scarified, or pierced, it’s often in celebration of their accomplishments or as a test of their masculinity to ensure that they’re going to be up to the challenge of being men. Whereas where women get tattooed, scarified, or pierced, it’s often as a signifier of their beauty and their marriageability.”

It’s this dichotomy that has driven DeMello’s years of research. DeMello first approached this subject during her graduate studies in anthropology at University of California, Davis. “Most anthropologists in my department, as well as I think at that time most anthropologists in the United States, were cultural anthropologists - which do their research... in the sort of traditional way anthropologists work,” she said. “They go to a non-Western culture.” DeMello took a different approach. She was encouraged to look at the culture of tattooing, a culture to which she had some connection.

“At that time, I was married to a tattooist. I was tattooed myself,” she said. “There were not a lot of people who were writing about tattooing at that time. This was the early 1990s.” Her doctoral research focused on the tattoo community. However, she did not begin this research by exploring differences in gender. That part of her interests came as a result of her findings. “It started to become clear that - in terms of my original research, which was on the United States, the American tattoo community - tattooing in the U.S. had long been a male practice, and when women got tattooed it was very unique.”

“Women were tattooed as tattooed ladies,” DeMello said. “It was quite a lucrative profession for a while there... women were able to make more money than men were, because they were sexualized in a way that men never were. That got me thinking about gender in general.” Since that time, she has expanded the focus of her work to include other forms of body modification.

She also noted that there are examples of cultures around the world where body modification is approached in a more egalitarian sense. “There are always exceptions to every rule” DeMello said. “There are some cultures in which tattooing, say for women, or piercing, can be used as more of a signifier of accomplishments. For some arctic cultures, certain tattoos are reserved for women who excel at weaving, for instance. But the general rule that I found in most cultures, is that for women, body modification is used to make them more beautiful and make them marriageable.”

DeMello will be discussing her insights into gender and body modification during her presentation in the Wege Center Ballroom on Thursday, September 13, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the lecture.