Women covered in ink: tattoo collecting as serious leisure

Robert Stebbins has created a theory around ‘serious leisure’ (as differentiated from “casual leisure”), which has six particular qualities related to the extent of investment and efforts, benefits elicited, and the social world of the activity. Collecting tattoos, especially for serious collectors, can be considered a leisure activity that ranged from casual to serious, along with the collectors’ commitment to the activity. The act of becoming ‘heavily tattooed,’ with its historical association with deviant subcultures, continued to maintain a social stigma and evoke negative sanctions from observers. This is especially so for women—the participants of this study—who must also contend with gender norms in this subculture, which has previously been associated with other masculine groups. Besides gender norms, the tattoo world has specific ethos which divides the serious subcultural member from those more casually connected to it. The physical parameter of the subculture finds people gathering in tattoo studios and at tattoo conventions, as well as consuming tattoo-oriented media, such as magazines and television shows. This study is based on qualitative interviews with 36 participants across the United States who consider themselves serious tattoo collectors. From their stories, we learn about the importance of participating in this leisure activity and how becoming heavily tattooed impacts their sense of self and identity.