The Chicana Canvas: Doing Class, Gender, Race, and Sexuality through Tattooing in East Los Angeles

Inspired by the increased presence of tattoo parlors in East Los Angeles and the increasing numbers of their Chicana clients, this ethnography focuses on the changing world of tattooing in East Los Angeles. Findings are derived from a triangulated methodology: Participant observation, focus groups, and open-ended structured client interviews with Chicana clients. This study explains how Chicanas are accountable to Chicano male tattoo artists' expectations of how femininity, class, race/ethnicity, and sexuality should be done; as cultural gatekeepers of what it means to be a cultural insider, Chicano tattoo artists hold their Chicana clients accountable to dominant Chicano values. I find that the Chicana body as a canvas is a signifier of social agency influenced by the social context. This study offers a new analysis that emphasizes how Chicanas use their bodies as canvases to challenge the status quo and subvert the power imposed on them by men who are tattoo artists.