All I See Are the Gaps: Semiotic Realignments in the Post‐Renaissance Tattoo Culture

This paper presents the claim that the contemporary Post‐Renaissance tattoo culture—a period of time subsequent to the professionalization and the relative destigmatization of tattooing—can be characterized by a series of semiotic shifts in cultural perception(s) of this practice. Using the Zerubavelian framework of cognitive sociology, the author suggests retronyms and changes in the marked/unmarked indicate that the occupational world and esthetic styles of contemporary tattoo culture have undergone a cultural turn. Qualitative data are drawn from participant observation, interviews, and content analysis of social media to illustrate these transformations.