"Å være feminin, og kanskje litt tøff samtidig …"

Sammendrag

Tattooing oneself is to do with making the body more feminine or more masculine, and there are clear rules here as to how gender is communicated. The article's theme is tattooing, body and gender, and it discusses how some young, female interviewees understand and behave towards a more conventional form of femininity. To what extent can they be said to cross, and indeed, perhaps even play with, gender categories. With their tattoos, young women operate and balance in an area of suspense between masculine and feminine-loaded expressions. It is problematical for a woman to become too masculine, as she risks losing her gender and her sexuality. Neither should she become too feminine; she should nevertheless stand out as clear and unambiguous.
In the article, it is argued that crossing the gender-related barriers seems to be less related to the motif, shape and colour of the tattoo itself, as to the fact that women, of their own free will, are tattooing themselves with large tattoos that are visible in public. In so doing, they are accentuating their own sexuality and challenging the feminine norm of purity. Not least, they are creating conspicuous, colourful and daring bodies that demand to be noticed in the presence of others, and they are thus challenging masculine dominance and the framework of femininity.