This is one of those topics that I could write a dissertation on. Not only was it the largest chapter in the original book itself, but this is also something I feel quite strongly about. Even before I became the heavily tattooed individual I am now.
Tattooing plays such a huge role in our society at the moment that you would struggle not to find someone who has a tattoo or knows someone that does. Yet there are some, archaic views that have maintained on this that govern the information we could read as hunter gatherers, in the non-verbal sense of course.
Perhaps this stems from the way that criminals were tattooed across their foreheads to mark them for their crimes, or prostitutes in ancient china, P.O.W’s and even the Irezumi suits of the Japanese Yakuza. I will probably never know for sure, and speaking from my own subjective opinion, in that I have been looked over for a few roles in Detection due to having a visible hand tattoo, just reminds me that somewhere along the line emotional qualities are becoming antagonistic to clear reasoning. That’s not to say that I hold any feelings one way or the other, because I don’t. I am still consulted by many folks in the field for assistance.
Anyway, my point is that there is a wealth of information that we can read about our tattooed friends for the purposes of becoming Deductionists. Are you about to let your emotional qualities stand in the way? With regards to the aforementioned dissertation, here are some of the things that can yield details for us to glean – style, size, design, placement, imagery/symbolism, offence, cover ups, artists experience, blood and skin disorders. All noteworthy for our purposes. So I will focus on placement. This could be linked to Polynesian cultures or the aborigines whose tattoo placement and size would indicate their rank within their tribe or there is much evidence from a societal input. This is known as Consumption theory. A link to download one of the many articles on this topic can be found Here
In terms of placement lets first address, visible vs invisible. How can you see the invisible ones? All I mean is that they can be covered as part of their work role or uniform and therefore poses no issues. The Visible ones would reflect someone who has a way of life that is suited to that. Not necessarily intrinsically bohemian but something where it is not frowned upon as part of the image it conveys. These would be things like Call centres, Retail, Hospitality, Food (Using that as a big umbrella term for everything from Chef’s to McDonalds) , Tattoo artist, Bar work, performers, our frontline awesome Care Workers and Healthcare proffessionals. The flip side of this of course being banking, therapy, doctors, nurses, big business (another umbrella term), Air travel crew, some of our planets forces (I’m well aware that different countries have different standards, and even specific tattoos).
Now thats a strong level of information thus far, cross checked against the many other factors that you would have from your hypothetical encounter you would be well on your way to figuring out what they do for a living from a few glances. Further to this we could look, from an inductive reasoning perspective, at the first tattoos of males being on their arms. Usually within the Bicep/Tricep area. Females tend to be feet/ankles/wrists. The size being suggestive of their commitment to the ideology presented and/or a representation of masculinity. For females the size would be directly related to gregariousness and the ideology of the symbols.
Outer arms representing something that they can display. Much like one would do by actually wearing your heart on your sleeve. The inner, for matters of a more personal, familial sense. To illustrate, the outer arms would be where we would see animals, flowers, tribal symbology and the like. The inner is where we would see dates of importance, names, personal preferences. This can be included in a sleeve or just 1 or 2 tattoos of significance.
I will revisit tattoos in further blogs as it is a huge topic of great importance for us as readers of people. To sum up, within these few glances covered here, we would be able to gain important details about the job they may have, as well as their outlook on life. In addition, how they spend their free time and in some circumstances, their own tastes and interests. Lest we forget that at their core, they are something that the wearer felt that strongly about (at the time) to visually commit to them in a permanent manner.
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So here we understand that the eyes can be so much more than the windows to the soul.
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Ben