Narratives in the flesh: the tattoos of young people in socio-education

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the psychic, identity and social expressions of the tattoos of young people in compliance with a socio-educational measure of deprived liberty, understanding that their bodies are territories of symbolism, memories, affections and affiliations. This is a clinical-qualitative research based on immersion in the field and ethnographic records. Based on field reports, we built narrative axes of tattoos that were constantly on the skins of young people, such as the name of the mother, homage to dead, proper names, religious symbols, understanding them based on the connections with the social, institutional, and territorial area. Thus, the tattoos of these young people are full of meanings and tell of an internal world that tries to present itself, demarcate places and come out from invisibility.