Popular Culture and Identity Formation A Study on Tattoo Consumption Practices among Urban Youth

Tattoo has been transitioning to become a socially acceptable form of self expression from a stigmatized notion, and the youth are drawing images from the culturally available symbols to put together bodily appearances against conventional cultural standards. The notion associated with tattoos in the mainstream understanding is being challenged by the youth's bodily behaviour, and the widespread consumption of tattoo is breaking the stereotypes linked with the ink. The visibility of the tattoo in the popular culture represents an acceptance of tattoo as a legitimate art form by an increase in its consumption by the youth. The tattooed people started legitimizing their own tattoos by tattoo narratives that ascribe semantic meaning to their images. The identity formation of the youth through bodily comportment is enabling them to express his/her ideology through the social skin. Widespread tattoo consumption reveals how informal social control and judgments about socio-economic status play out in the realm of popular culture and personal embodiment. The current study focuses on how the youth is marking their identity with Tattoo.