in-class

Wallet

Did she buy it here?

It kinda reminds me of mine.

vera Bradley?

I think its vera Bradley

Why those colours?

Was it a gift?

How much was it. expensive I bet

Doesn’t look like she keeps a lot.

Well organized

Questions:

 

1. Why did you choose a vera Bradley wallet?

Roommate jenny gave it to my plastice thing gave.

 

2. Why did you choose those colours?

brighter

 

3. only has ID in it.

Value

Yeah have a bag too wouldn’t spend the money on it though.

Why do you have two keys.

One to my room one to my chello locker.

How long have you been playing the chello?

7 years.

 

 

 

            When observing her wallet it reminded me of every other wallet that I have seen on campus so I wonder why did she choose a Vera Bradley wallet? Why did she choose those specific colours? Was it maybe a gift? When I interviewed her I found out it was a gift because like every other college student her crappy red “wallet” Ball State gives you at the beginning of the year broke. I feel her pain that is why I went out and bought a heavy duty Vera Bradley wallet. She explained to me that she probably would have liked to have a brighter coloured walled as opposed to the dull blue and brown one. However, a free wallet is a free wallet especially when those are not cheap. She held up her wallet and showed me the only thing in her wallet was her ID which compared to my mess of a wallet was unbelievable. The she pointed out that she had two keys that look like dorm keys. She told me that one of her keys is for her room and the other is for her cello locker. I asked her how long she has been playing and as she counted on her fingers she said 7 years.

            Some points could be kind of awkward when I ran out of things to say but towards the end we stared to veer off in conversation that helped me better get to know her. I did okay it was sort of a choppy interview because I didn’t really know what to ask but towards the end I think I started to do better.

 

 

 

 

 

Blog post 7

By now you should have visited your site at least once (if not a few times), interviewed one or two people (or at least set-up interviews for the not-too-distant future), and gathered some research. Now I want you to start thinking about the benefits of fieldwork and what you can give back to your chosen culture/subculture by doing your research. So, what can you give back to your community? You should know a good deal at this point, so what does your community need that you can provide them? What is your contribution (to the community, to our class, to your own education)? Think about it and post on your blogs.

I believe with my mini-ethnography i can pull the subculture of tattoos out of that stereotype of prisoners and gang members and bikers (or at least try) and show people that tattooing is an art and a beautiful one. What can I give back? I can give back information on what a tattoo can really mean to someone. I can tell them my own personal story.They need my information on what tattooing is really about. The contribution to my class is to give them the information they need to better understand this subculture. To my own education is to better educate myself on how I can be a better artist and how to possibly someday make a career out of this.

Survey

Tattooing Survey :]

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=ki7kbx7tvjrhdus550090

first impression of cultural site:

When first walking into a tattoo parlor I was getting a piercing done but sitting next to me was a guy getting a tattoo done. I asked him if it hurt? But knowing better than that by looking at all of his other tattoos I knew this one probably didnt faze him one bit and he answered with an assumed "no". On the other hand going with my friend from back home to get her first tattoo was completely different. I ask her the same question and she answers "yes! it fucking hurts!" When ever walking into a tattoo parlor to have something done or just watch I always get adrenaline I get excited but hidden there is an anxious knot in the pit of my stomach. However, that is usually gone by the time I sit in the chair or start to watch the needle hit the skin.

Although I have gotten a tattoo, watched people get tattoos, and done research on tattooing, I am still an outsider to what an artist actually does to prepare for a tattooing session. How do they determine how big or small it should be? What do they use to draw it out? Freehand? Stencil? how do they prepare the tattooing utensil and needles?

how am I an outsider?

Blog post 6

Very simple for this week: Locate two sources, read them, and post an annotation for each, just like we discussed in class. So, provide the citation (i.e. how the source would be documented on a works cited page), one paragraph summarizing the source (remember, if it's a research study you need to show how the authors got their results, what their results were, and why the did the study), and a second paragraph explaining how you will use the source in your mini-ethnography.

Hudson, Karen. "Tuscon Weekly Gets Ugly."About.com 18 July 2000:2.pag.8 Feb. 2009 <http://tattoo.about.com/cs/articles/a/tucson_weekly.htm>

This article is about a writer in Arizona that has a negative view on tattoos. He does not believe that people with tattoos fit into a modern day society. He also throws out many stereotypes that are often connected to people with tattoos especially in women.

This article will become of good use in my mini-ethnography when talking about the stereotypes that people face when making the decision to get tattooed. It also gives me a radical outsider insight on why people are so against tattooing.

Vanishingtattoo.com. 2009. The Vanishing Tattoo. 18 Feb. 2009

Although at first this website does not look very professional, as you look though it you find it has much to offer. The website contains much information about the history, culture, facts, and news about tattoos. Also within the website is an online tattoo history museum.

This website can help me in many ways when I go to write my mini-ethnography. The section of this website that i feel will help me a lot is the culture aspect of tattooing seeing as how that is what I am writing about. In this section of the website it talks about "the rituals and social significance of tattooing in cultures around the world". Within this it contains information about anywhere from gangs to media and advertising to military to religious body art.

Box #18

The focal point in my fieldsite would be the tattoo chair. Walking into the tattoo parlor to get a tattoo is an exciting thing and a right of passage for some. However, when the tattooist is done setting up equipment and they call you in, the first thing you see is that chair, it is the kind of feeling you get when you step into the dentists office. The doctor will call you in and you focus on the chair you do not know what to expect when you sit down, will i have a cavity? Do I brush well enough? Does my dentist know what he/she is doing? This feeling is the same for a tattoo parlor. Not knowing what to expect when getting a tattoo is a rush. Many people who don't have tattoo's including myself before I got one would often ask the tattoo community what it felt like? Did it hurt? However, you would never get the same answer from everyone. Some would say it didn't hurt at all some would say it was worse than child-birth and others were less radical and would say it was painful yet tolerable. So, when approaching this chair, and sitting in it a million questions run through your mind, will it hurt? Is my tattoo artist experienced? Is he/she gentle with the needle or do they press harder than normal? Or is this really what I want to do? Do I want this on my body forever? As a person with personal experience with getting a tattoo, this is the way I felt and I also feel like it is almost impossible for someone to not feel or think anything when sitting in that chair.

In-Class

This summer I went to my first concert. It was august the weather was hot and sticky, as the sweat wetted my hair and stuck to my face. Walking into the Verizon Wireless music center was a rush of excitement something I have never expierienced before. My boyfriend and I arrived late the the Poison concert making it in as the second band was playing. As we manuvered our way through the large mass of middle-aged drunk people in a time capsule I realized there were also people my age; most of which who probably just watch rock of love. As I looked around at the huge crowd I knew we were all here for a common reason. It was shocking to see the ammount of diverse people who attended this concert including 40 year old with teased mullets, young kids, teenagers, college kids. I never thought I would have something in common with a middle-aged man with a teased mullet.

Blog post 5

Though we've riffed-off of this idea a few times in previous blog postings, I think it is important to keep you folks focused and on task: What type of plan have you come up with to finish this mini-ethnography? Do you need more research on a specific facet of your subculture? Do you need to spend more time in your fieldsite(s)? How do you plan on spending that time? Interviewing? Observing? Participating in activities? In other words, how do you plan on finishing this assignment? Also, what questions do you have for me pertaining to upcoming assignments? Activities? Expectations? Etc?

A: In all honesty I really need to make an agenda to keep my mini-ethnography organized. I need to figure out what i am really looking at in this subculture of tattooing and learn how to not be bias. I need to spend more time talking to tattoo artist, the tattooed, those against tattooing, and those wanting to be tattooed. I also need to re-visit my fieldsite not only for observing, and interviewing, but also participating. I feel i need to plan out my interview questions. Im not quite sure I'm exactly understanding what I need to do. I know an ethnography is basically a description of a culture or sub-culture. However, what questions do I ask to better understand this culture? what do I ask the artist? the tattoo community? the anti tattoo? I have a few questions in mind for each group but I feel i need to add more. What should I think about when creating interview question? What kind of questions would be most helpful?Oh! And completely off topic i would just like to say I enjoyed the blog assignment that was due tuesday it was nice to take myself back to that place. I feel if we had more blog assignments like that i would be more motivated to write more.

Box # 15

Going down to the woods behind my quiet neighborhood felt like I was leaving reality into a fairytale land. To get down to my special place was a journey in itself. I would walk down the street veering off onto a thin dirt path surrounded by uncut crab grass that wasn't tainted by the construction, on the way I pass my dog's burial ground. As I enter the woods it begins with a plethora of pine trees with needle covered grounds and small sprouts of grass peaking through the brush. As I walk farther I can start to hear a faint sound of water. The sound grows louder and soon I come upon the edge of a mossy ledge and can see the waterfall. I can feel the coolness from the water on my face. I follow the creek down to a broken rusty barbwire fence that leaves a rusty residue on my hands. Over the fence leads to a field covered with mayapples and rare wild flowers that is illuminated by beams of light that shine through the trees. In the field is an old abandoned truck, rusty with chips of old faded red and white paint showing in spots. The truck almost seems placed in a position that portrays it as a holy relic the way the trees opened up to let the light shine on it. On the other side of the truck is my special place. 

My special place is a hidden creek a little over a mile into the woods. There is one place in the creek where the water reaches my shoulders and i can watch the fish scurry around my feet. The creek bed is covered with fossils, geodes, pebbles, and sandstone. Sandstone reminds me of my childhood visiting Lake Monroe and scratching into wet sandstone to make a paste that i used as face paint and pretended i was an indian princess. The geodes remind me of my mom when we would would go looking for geodes and crack them open. I remember finding one that had beautiful faint blue crystals inside. On the creek bed are stacks of limestone blocks that are place so precisely they resemble ancient Mayan ruins. The limestone blocks sit over the deep part of the creek. Sometimes I go here to think, I sit on the edge of the "ruins" and dangle my feet over the water letting the summer breeze move through my hair.

In Class movie

Do you feel this is an ethnographic study, a work of entertainment, both? Explain your answer.
It is a work of entertainment because it is telling a story
Who are the interview subjects and why are they important? What roles do the interviews play? Do they move the story along? Lend a perspective on the subculture? 

People that were part of the skate crew new and old members, the informants give you the feel for what the group was like and what it was like to be the only ones who did this, the interviewrs move the story along as well as the narrorator. the informants gave a whole new perspective that no one but the group knew about and the heart and soul that went into what they did.

What are some of the attitudes, beliefs, rituals, artifacts, etc. that make this group a subculture?
beliefs: no one surfs at the PO no locals dont bring someone to the pool w/o talking about it with the group

Attitudes:negative towards outsiders

Rituals:creating new surf moves, making own skateboards/ surfboards, skating when the surfing was bad, finding pools, draining pools. ride bikes to the schools skate until the skate board was broken go home fix your board and do it all over again.

Artifacts:
What is the structure of the piece? How is it organized? Does this help or inhibit your understanding of the subculture?

the informants talk, the narrorator gives background information/ historical/ geographical. yes, especially the way they describe you group the feelings, the rules, the closeness of the group. The photographs as well and the video also really helped give you a feel for what these people did.

What were some of the stereotypes you held about skateboarders before watching this? Do those stereotypes still hold true? If so, why? If not, what changed your perspective?

I honestly respect skateboarders i dont necessarily have stereotypes about them because I have knows so many and i really respect what they do.

The rhetorical triangle (ethos – do we trust what the creator of this is telling us…? What if you knew the filmmaker was also one of the skaters? Pathos – what emotional response did you have and why? Logos – how was the piece constructed?)

In Class Box 12

Age: 18

Nationality:American -scotch/irish and german

Gender: Female

Race:white

Education Level:high school graduate with an honors diploma now a a freshman at BSU studying art edu.

Social/Financial Support:parents

Freedom of Religion:agnostic

Socioeconomic Status:middle-class

As an 18 year old i am fresh into the tattoo world and may not know as much as others older with more tattoos. As a female I feel like me having a tattoo is more looked down upon and "trashy". As an art student it makes me more accepting to this form of art. My parents were never against tattoos. I do not have a religion that looks down on me for having tattoos.

Blog Post 4

Q:Can you make any general conclusions about your subculture as of right now? And if so, what are those conclusions? Do you think that what you have been observing is specific to the particularly community in which your subculture resides, or do you think it would be the same even if you observed that subculture in a different community (i.e. is being a server at Ruby Tuesday's the same everywhere? Would a club like the BSU Tennis Club or Campus Crusade for Christ conduct itself in the same way at Kent State? Do the same rituals, beliefs, behaviors, etc. surround all tattoo parlors? etc. etc). Think about how geography, demographics, political and religious positions, etc. play a role in influencing members of a particular subculture.

A: I have not really made any general conclusions as of right now. I believe when observing a subculture in different communities there will be similarities but will never the same. A tattoo may cost more at another store, some may have tattooing for longer, the stores are different, some are cleaner than others. Not every parlor will conduct itself the same way as the next tattoo parlor. Also, not ever place has the same rituals, beliefs and behaviors with tattooing especially when you mix in the original procedure of getting a tattoo. Any thing can influence a person to get a tattoo whether it be religion, heritage, a rite of passage, memorial etc..