Tattoos may be understood as a way to navigate one's own social being and the continuity of it over different social contexts and parts of the self. The project Inking Social Skin presents two intertwined aspects, where the first one touches on how identity is embodied in having tattoos and the second aspect touches on identity embodied from getting tattooed. Identity embodied in having tattoos dives into what tattoos say to both their carrier and to their surroundings. In other words, tattoos perform as and constitute physical manifestations of personal experience for our participants. Using Foucault’s theory of care of the self, this project argues for the belief that tattoos can function as a process of embodiment.

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