Tattooing: profile and discourse of individuals with marks in the body.

BACKGROUNDS Tattooing is an atavist and diffuse phenomenon of interest to various areas of knowledge. Its practice by specific groups such as prisoners and psychiatric patients has turned it into a stigma. OBJECTIVES To investigate the discourse of tattooed individuals about the discrimination and the construction of stigmas resulting from marks in the body. METHODS 42 individuals were interviewed and the data were analyzed. RESULTS The profile of the participants was as follows: most were women; with 2 to 4 tattoos; who were about 23 years old when they got their first tattoo; with an undergraduate degree; who viewed tattooing as a trend; who did not report any important fact that made them get a tattoo; who classified the pain of getting a tattoo as tolerable, who stated that never felt discriminated and never felt the need to hide the tattoos; who find that tattoos make them more sexually attractive; who do not view tattooing as a form of cultural resistance; who said they would not have done it if they believed it caused them professional problems; who stated that they were not drunk when they got the tattoos; who said they were not habitual drugs users, who believed that tattooing is a form of expression and aesthetic sense. CONCLUSION A difference between the discourse of tattooed individuals and their acts was observed in relation to the social context. In addition, there has been an important shift in the meaning of the practice to tattooed individuals.