Inked Women Narratives At The Intersection Of Tattoos Childhood Sexual Abuse Gender And The Tattoo Renaissance PDF Download

This dissertation explores how I, as a woman in recovery from alcoholism and addiction, have re-storied my sexual abuse and trauma narratives with tattoos. After becoming sober in 2005, through my membership in the 12-step recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), I discovered a way to heal my sexual abuse narratives through my community involvement with the fellowship in AA. I began to get extensive tattoos after commemorating the death of my best friend in recovery, learning, unconsciously at first, through the process of acquiring tattoos, how I was re-storying my skin with transformative narratives. This dissertation uses the participatory paradigm, as it uniquely addresses the collaboration between myself as the researcher and the community of AA in which I am situated. The selected method for the dissertation is evocative autoethnography for its distinct way of being able to address ethics of sympathy and provide rich, thick, descriptive language to compel the reader to enter the world of the inquirer. The method also allows the inquirer to provide a unique societal reflection of a woman in recovery with tattoos.This dissertation disseminated data from over 16 years of journals, blogs, letters, poems, photographs, academic papers, my field journal entries, and the lived experiences of a sober heavily tattooed woman. During the process of reviewing the data, many revelations were discovered in the themes of trauma, influential people in AA with tattoos, spirituality, transformation narratives, and stigma. The data revealed that tattooing served as a unique way for me to mitigate and heal sexual abuse narratives.Currently there is little to no research that reflects both the experience of a woman with tattoos and in recovery healing from childhood sexual abuse trauma. This study is of value to women in and out of recovery who use tattoos as a healing modality. It also brings new insight to those in the medical, legal, and academic professions where tattoos are often viewed with stigma. Finally, it provides a fresh perspective to those who are in relationships-personal, professional, intimate, or otherwise-with women who have tattoos.