Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

11-2023

Abstract

This paper advances recent theorisations of the body-as-infrastructure by exploring the premise that there are multiple bodily infrastructures at play at any one time. It focusses on three infrastructural formations – the body, the skin that encases the body, and tattoos as visual inscriptions on the skin – that jostle against each other for representational primacy. The layering of infrastructure-upon-infrastructure leads to understandings of the self that exist in a state of tension with societal norms and the illusions of self-representation. Indeed, it is the intersecting gazes of society and the self that cause these infrastructures to become disaggregated, and representational politics to emerge. I illustrate these ideas through an empirical examination of tattooed bodies in Singapore. Singapore is a socially conservative city-state in which the body is implicated in the capitalist logics of development, and the aesthetic-aspirational logics of the Singaporean family. Tattooed Singaporeans must constantly negotiate these infrastructural overlaps and divergences amidst the growing trend towards more individualistic forms of self-expression and realisation. I argue that whilst the infrastructure of ink might be considered illusory, so too does it help to stabilise the self during times of uncertainty.

Keywords

infrastructures of ink, machinic bodies, epidermic affects, illusion, Singapore

Discipline

Asian Studies | Family, Life Course, and Society | Infrastructure

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

Emotion, Space and Society

Volume

49

First Page

1

Last Page

8

ISSN

1755-4586

Identifier

10.1016/j.emospa.2023.100991

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2023.100991

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