Evidence » course: letters, signs and symbols

I don't really think modern tattoos stand for anything cultural anymore. They're just something that's popular now and have been so far removed from their actual cultural context that they don't mean anything. The first thing I think of is when people get those Chinese symbols as tattoos - what is that really saying?

When I first looked at the question as to whether there is traditional meaning, I immediately thought that there was not. In fact, I was ready to even say that there was a measure of disrespect in the appropriation of the tattooing and other cultural traditions into our modern world.

However, I had to think more deeply a few issues. Of course, anytime that you take something from the past and try and incorporate it into the present, the meaning is not constant. One might indeed have a well-meaning intention and wish to appreciate a culture by adopting its signs or symbols. For example--I turn to jewlery as I am not a tattoo person myself--I have several representations of Ancient Egyptian symbols and mythological figures in necklaces and bracelets. When I wear these, I mean no disrespect, nor do I mean to use them in the same way that they were seen in ancient times.

Of course, purposes differ from person to person, but it is interesting to think that no matter what, we are, in general, seen as adopting something that is not really ours and can never be ours in its original sense. And that last thought even makes me a little sad. We may be closed off from truly participating in certain signs and symbols for no real fault of our own.

To find out what these symbols are saying in the present time, I think one must look into a more personal context. There might be no meaning--following a fad, doing it because it's cool--and there might be very much.