Abstract

Tattooed bodies are increasing in number. Definitely the majority. One could say that the nude has disappeared and, with it, an ancient piece of the invisible and its mystery. Tattooing has not had a great philosophical fortune, in any case very secondary to that which it has had in anthropology and the history of religions. However, the idea of marking the body is very important as a way of conceiving self-expression on a symbolic level. It means declaring to the world what we really are. And that is: authentically. In the world of the tattoo age, being oneself is most important even if it comes at a huge cost. For it means being less and less components of a universal humanity and more and more the affiliates of a particular community, an acolyte almost religiously guarding its own symbols. This relatively new disposition of individuals in the global universe (which tattooing reverberates and amplifies) has grand consequences on the anthropological, aesthetic and political levels. It means, for example, that people claim to be the masters of their own symbols. This is an apparent tautology that nevertheless has disruptive consequences. In such a world, for example, the universal interest of institutions is overwhelmed by that of groups and communities that come into conflict with them because they do not feel considered and welcome