LYRICAL ESSAY
You let out a sigh of relief as the bell dismisses your class. You’re tired, but that doesn’t matter, the school day is almost over anyway.
You’re arms swing lazily at your side as you and your friend exchange quick goodbyes and head off in different directions. Your eyes stay glued to the floor as you stuff your hands in your pockets.
You think that minding your own business will keep you out of trouble, but that doesn’t matter. A heavy hand lands on your shoulder and a familiar feeling of dread settles in your stomach. Your hands fly out of your pockets and grab onto the backpack straps on your shoulders.
Their words hit you and sink into your skin as you look down in shame. Your hands fidget and come together in front of you before your eyes are forced up as they shove you against a wall. Your backpack cushions the blow a bit, but you still wince as your calculator digs into your back.
You briefly make eye-contact with one of the staff members who is supposed to keep this very thing from happening. She holds your gaze for a beat. Then another. But it doesn’t matter. She looks on and your tormentors finish their taunting and move on to class.
Your feet drag and your schoolmates’ eyes bore holes into you as you silently reach your destination and open the door.
You are hesitant when your friend invites you to a club that allowed high school students admittance. You knew that your parents wouldn’t let you go, but you kept the option in the back of your mind. It took a couple of weeks of badgering before you reluctantly agreed to try the club out.
She had cheered when you finally conceded, promising that there would be more people like you there. It would be a nice change of pace from your school life.
In the dead of night, with your mom and dad asleep in the next room, you snuck out of your house and into your friend’s car. She had just gotten her permit, but her inexperience didn’t matter to you as she sped away from your house and towards the city.
The club was imposing, and a little frightening, but that didn’t matter to your friend who dragged you up the steps and towards the entrance.
Bright lights both captivated and intimidated you as you made your way through the doors and shoved your hands in your pockets. The only thing that pushed you forward was your friend’s reassuring hand on your arm.
Your eyes meet those of a man across the club. You had been dancing for a couple of hours, and you hadn’t failed to notice his gaze following you intermittently throughout the night.
The attention he gave you didn’t feel nearly as oppressive as the attention you often got from your classmates. After a moment’s hesitation, you smiled at him. Your uncertainty clear as you quickly looked back at your friends, trying to ignore the heat in your cheeks.
Not more than a few moments passed before you felt a hand on your shoulder. You tensed, turning to see the man from earlier. His smile was friendly, alluring, it was something that you had rarely seen before.
Was it simple interest? Fondness? Attraction?
It didn’t matter to you as you allowed yourself to indulge in the positive attention. Your hands flying through the air as you spoke with him.
The last bell of the day rings, your eyes dart down the line of cars in front of your school before they catch sight of your mother stomping her way towards you. You quietly beg her to let go of whatever has her upset, but it doesn’t matter. She passes you, heading into the building you’d finally been released from.
You shuffle meekly behind your mother as she storms through the halls of your high school in search of the principal’s office. Your head is down and you can feel your face go red-hot with shame as your mother impatiently asks the woman at the front desk to speak with the principal.
As the two of you are directed down the hall and into a spacious office, you avoid eye-contact with anyone and everyone, preferring to just disappear behind your mother’s fuming form. Your mother barely waits for the door to close before she starts her tirade. You tug at the hem of your shirt anxiously.
She laments to your principal about having to buy you three new locks for your locker in the past two months. The teachers pretend not to see the bullying.
You look up and the principal meets your gaze. Your eyes burn with unshed tears.
There is a part of you that appreciates your mother’s attempts at rectifying your situation. But it doesn’t matter.
“There’s nothing we can do,” the principal answers with a practiced apologetic smile.
The pulsing music of the club is invasive, but welcome, as you and your friend are guided inside by your partner. He’s well over eighteen, but that doesn’t matter to you as his warm hand leaves yours with a pleasant tingling feeling.
Your sad attempt at dancing is uncoordinated and sloppy, your hands hovering in the air without thought. But that doesn’t matter to you, your friend is laughing and your partner is smiling at you.
You’re gay, but that doesn’t matter, “most of the people here are,” your friend reassured you the first time she convinced you to come.
You grin at the people you’re dancing with. You have school tomorrow. But that doesn’t matter. You’re happy now.
You’re happy. Aren’t you?
TABOO TATTOOS: APPRECIATION OR APPROPRIATION?
Slaughter, pillaging, and forceful adaptation, these graphic scenes are brought to some minds in the controversy of culturally appropriating tattoos from other cultures. Images of war, honor, shame, and rebellion pasted on foreign skin make many in the cultures that these meaningful tattoos come from feel offended. Others, however, are excited to share their culture and show off their own tattoos. The many differing opinions on the topic of cultural appropriation and tattoos has lead to conflict both inside and outside of these cultures. Some believing that there is beauty in sharing their culture with outsiders, while others believe they have been forced to “share” enough. In this complicated social climate, is it okay to have tattoos that originated in cultures that you do not belong to?
One thing that upsets many people in cultures that have their traditional tattoos replicated is that others will not bother to do their research on what a tattoo means before they go under the needle. People that get tattoos, not for their meaning, but for their trendiness or uniqueness without actually caring about the culture their image came from are disrespecting whichever culture they are taking their imagery from. The groups that have been forced from their native lands by colonizers are most upset to see “tribal” tattoos occurring more and more in the mainstream media. In an article by cultural anthropologist Toon van Meijl, Pacific Discourses About Cultural Heritage and Its Protection: An Introduction, he explains, “This concern with culture is usually articulated by peoples who feel they are being marginalized, especially those who are tagged as indigenous. They fear the loss of their culture and traditions or control over their culture and associated symbols that express their identity”. The fact that people are getting these permanent marks that can indicate meeting a cultural milestone or becoming a warrior, without actually doing anything that would make them worthy of the mark in its original culture, diminishes the meaning behind these important symbols. It can cause a sense of loss for a community when significant symbols are taken out of context and it is especially insulting when those that are taking these symbols are unaware of what they are taking.
One example of how meaningful tattoos can be in a culture is the moko skin art style that comes from the Maori people of New Zealand. Moko is method of leaving ink on the skin that is similar to tattooing, using scaring to leave a permanent mark. Moko is one of the most identifiable examples of native skin marking and, though it has not made a large splash in modern society, there have been a few non-natives that have decided to decorate themselves with moko. The Independent, an online newspaper based in London reported on one New Zealand woman with no Maori ancestry who decided to get a “moko kauae”, which is a traditional chin tattoo given to Maori women. Many saw this as a public relations stunt to promote her career as a life coach. Though she claimed the contrary, the fact that she had this tattoo made many native Maori upset. On the issue, Dr Lee-Penehira told 1 News, “I think for us, as Wahine Maori, the issue isn’t about [the non-native woman having moko kauae], the issue is about… our responsibility to look after–to maintain–the integrity of this gift that we have from our ancestors as Tanga, which is quite sacred”. The moko kauae is more than just a tattoo, it is an identity. It transcends marking on skin and expresses the very being of those that show their moko kauae to the world.
The intricate relations between European explorers and native people are riddled with suppression of identity and forceful conformity to European expectations. The UK’s Royal Museums Greenwich wrote that missionaries that traveled to the Pacific islands often discouraged tattooing due to their belief that the practice was sinful. This is the type of interaction that makes many people in the current tattoo world uncertain of what to think when discussing native tattoos on non-natives. Should those that descended from a culture’s oppressors be morally allowed to get tattoos from that very culture? In Selma Schmid’s article “Tattoos – An historical essay”, she explains how Europeans, even if accidentally in some cases, have done a lot of damage to the cultures that they have visited. In the case of Oceania, the demand for less traditional and more “European” designs led to the point where “there were soon no traditional tattoo designs in Oceania anymore with European designs replacing them almost entirely”.
Even the word “tattoo” was from another culture, as Dr. Juniper Ellis explains in her book Tattooing the World : Pacific Designs in Print and Skin, “the Tahitian word tatau was first imported into English in 1796 by Captain James Cook”(1). She describes the moko as “a living face of Maori genealogy, worn by old and young, men and women: a sovereign design of people resisting colonization”(74). Her book explains the nature of the moko, both in its original culture and how it interacts with the culture of the Europeans that first visited the islands. She demonstrated the relationship between the Europeans and the Maori through how the Europeans saw the moko, “the figures of moko are admired, while the faces on which they appear are seen as problematic”(75). The Europeans that originally went to Maori populated islands saw the moko as unconventional at best, and demonic at worst. In many cases they tried to stop tattooing practices in many island cultures due to their own beliefs. Many cultures were lost or transformed in this process, so there is a strong feeling of protectiveness in some of these communities when it comes to non-natives using native designs. Bart Willis, a tattoo artist who has decided to help Canadian natives reconnect with their heritage by giving them traditional tattoos. He explained their importance by saying, “This is part of their culture, so they don’t see it as being trendy. By wearing (tattoos), they’re reinventing their culture, which was almost lost”.
Currently, there are some laws that protect native people from having their art and traditions taken from them. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which was passed in 1990, was meant to protect Native artists and the art that they make. The U.S. Department of the Interior describes the Act as “a truth-in-advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in the marketing of Indian arts and crafts products within the United States”. The Act forces business that are selling native-looking pieces that are not made by natives to express explicitly that their products were not made by natives. The Juneau Empire, a newspaper based in Juneau, Alaska, wrote an article about how cheap native-style crafts were being sold for low prices, which has run many authentic shops out of business. On the issue of cheap native-looking goods outsourced to non-natives, the author of the article wrote, “If something costs $5, it likely didn’t take 200 hours to make”. Having laws like the Indian Arts and Crafts Act have helped protect the sacred nature of many native traditions, but there is no law that protects native images being placed on or by non-natives. The closest claim that natives can make, as was pointed out in John McCrone’s article, Sharing the taonga: who owns Maori intellectual property?, is “to claim copyright protection and ‘control over the dissemination’ of their traditional cultures”. This allows people from cultures around the world can do things like sue companies that use their images and/or language to sell something. This, however, does not apply to people simply tattooing others with native imagery.
So, we circle back. What tattoos are “okay” to have on your body as a non-native? In an article by News Blaze, The president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, was quoted on the issue of Sanskrit tattoos, saying that people considering getting said tattoos need to go “beyond the fashion statement and indulge in serious study of rich philosophical thought”. There seems to be a common consensus that as long as there is a solid understanding of the culture surrounding your tattoo, and you are respecting that culture, tattoos are fine to be on non-natives. Abel Ryan, a native tattoo artist said in an interview with the Washington Times, “If you give somebody a design as a Native artist, that is your gift to them”. There should be a mutual respect between the art and the one who is getting the art marked onto their body forever. There are many religious and spiritual connotations that come from something so permanent, and many people take this commitment too lightly.
There are many, however that don’t think any non-native should get a imagery from another culture etched into their body. In Ta moko – significance of Māori tattoos, Dr. Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, a Maori professor of psychology, explained that “ta moko today is much more than a fashion statement, a passing fad for Māori. It is about who we are, and who”. So, looking at moko that way, how can someone that is not Maori truly appreciate a moko marking on their skin? Or, as said by Dr Lee-Penehira, “How do you wear something that represents your genealogy when that’s not your genealogy?”. If something was created in a culture to display their heritage, is it morally justifiable for someone not of that heritage to get that tattoo? This example is a lot more straightforward than getting a symbol for strength or power or love tattooed on your body. However, the message is similar enough that the question of what should be kept sacred and what is allowed to be meddled with is likely to be posed.
There is still much debate on what is and is not cultural appropriation when it comes to tattoos. Is it okay as long as the tattoo was designed by a native? Or only if the tattoo artist was a native? Is it never okay for foreigners to use images from cultures when their ancestors oppressed those same cultures for centuries? These answers will differ from person to person, island to island, and culture to culture. The most important thing to consider if you plan on getting one of these controversial tattoos is how you would feel if someone confronts you about it. Make sure that you will be able to handle the repercussions that come with the tattoo you are wanting. Do not get mad at others for questioning you, it was your decision to mark yourself permanently, so think about what you want seriously.
Your Tattoos Are Problematic is an article, written by Liz Wolfe, that defended the free exchange of ideas across cultures in the tattooing business. Her first interview subject, a white man using the pseudonym Oscar, said, “people might be offended by [my Japanese tattoo], people might be scared by it, and I like that—I like the fact that it can be polarizing or controversial. I ultimately got it because it was something I liked and I didn’t feel like I had to justify it beyond that”. He felt that there was no reason that he should not get a tattoo that he thinks is interesting or cool. His aim was not to be destructive of Japanese culture, but at the same time, he did not attempt to learn more about the culture than was needed to discover his tattoo of interest and find someone to tattoo it on him. So ultimately, as Oscar eximplifies, no one can tell you what you can or can not get a tattoo of, but you might want to reconsider getting that dream-catcher on your waist and think about what cultures you are borrowing imagery from. Is it really just innocent interest in another culture? What does that tattoo really mean? There are many questions that you should ask yourself before committing, but the most important might be this: are you appreciating a culture, or are you appropriating it?
Works Cited
“Captain Cook, Sir Joseph Banks and Tattoos in Tahiti.” Royal Museums Greenwich |
UNESCO World Heritage Site In London, 19 Feb. 2018,
www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/captain-cook-sir-joseph-banks-and-tattoos-tahiti.
Carney, Scott. “Thai Tattoo Tradition Draws Worldwide Devotees.” NPR, NPR, 13
Nov. 2007, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16235581.
Ellis, Juniper. Tattooing the World: Pacific Designs in Print and Skin. Columbia
University Press, 2012.
Import, Archive. “Exploring the Gray Area between Cultural Appreciation and
Appropriation in Juneau.” Juneau Empire, Juneau Empire, 14 Aug. 2016,
McCrone, John. “Sharing the Taonga: Who Owns Maori Intellectual Property?” Stuff,
Stuff, 8 Apr. 2016, 17:44,
www.stuff.co.nz/national/78443390/sharing-the-taonga-who-owns-maori-intellectual-property.
Meijl, Toon van. “Pacific Discourses About Cultural Heritage and Its Protection: An
Introduction.” International Cultural Property Society, vol. 16, no. 3, Aug. 2009.
NEWS, 1, director. Sally Anderson’s Moko Is an Example of ‘White Privilege’, Says
Maori Academic. YouTube, YouTube, 22 May 2018,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S0R4X1glDw.
Phu, Lisa. “Gray Area Separates Cultural Appreciation, Appropriation.” The
Washington Times, The Washington Times, 20 Aug. 2016,
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/20/gray-area-separates-cultural-appreciation-appropri/.
Schmid, Selma. Tattoos – An Historical Essay. Philadelphia.
“Ta Moko – Significance of Māori Tattoos.” TNZ Media,
media.newzealand.com/en/story-ideas/ta-moko-significance-of-maori-tattoo
s/.
“The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.” U.S. Department of the Interior, 16 Jan.
2019, www.doi.gov/iacb/act.
Wolfe, Liz. “Your Tattoos Are Problematic.” Reason.com, Reason, 24 Feb. 2018,
reason.com/archives/2018/02/24/your-tattoos-are-problematic.
News, Blaze. “In View of Rihanna’s Misspelled Tattoo, Hindus Call for Sanskrit
Training.” NewsBlaze News, 13 Dec. 2017,
newsblaze.com/world/south-asia/in-view-of-rihannas-misspelled-tattoo-hindus-call-for-sanskrit-training_8996/.
Biss and Rankine Response
1.
In Eula Biss’s book, Notes From No Man’s Land, she wrote about a time when a student apologized for something that someone who “might’ve been his cousin” had done to her. This shows the way that many black people in America feel that they need to maneuver through life. They need to apologize for things that they didn’t even do, because it is better than the alternative of being accused of something, denying that you did it, and getting harsh treatment in return. There is an intense sense of fear that comes from that section. It’s as if that student felt the pressure to either apologize or face harsh consequences, even if they did nothing wrong.
Similarly, in Rankine’s collection of lyrical essays, Serena Williams was constantly biting her tongue. If she said anything about the injustices that were directed towards her, both by referees and fellow tennis players, she was painted as the “angry black woman”. So, she ended up just brushing off these attack or pretending like it was an accident. She couldn’t respond to the injustice, or else he would be faced with the same “harsh consequences” as the student from Biss’s book.
In Biss’s book, she also has a story about when some students asked her to not be afraid of them. She was unable to respond that she wasn’t afraid of them, but the mere fact that they felt the need to say that to her is telling. They probably just didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable, but by asking her to not be scared by their presence alone shows how black people are often perceived in America.
In Rankine’s collection, she has a similar story about fear of how you are perceived in the form of a man going to his therapist’s house for a meeting. She responded to seeing him walk around her property by threatening to call the police. This ended in the therapist realizing her mistake and apologizing profusely, but the message was heard loud and clear. He scared her.
Memoir Essay
John McCain was many things: a politician, a son, a father, a soldier, a war survivor, the true definition of an American hero. He discusses all of these aspects of his life in his memoir, The Restless Wave, and how everything in his life led him to become the man he was. This memoir lays bare the life of McCain and all his struggles and triumphs and really connects you to him and makes you feel all the frustration and passion that he felt.
From his love of his family, to his love for his country, we can see that he values loyalty. He lived his young-adult life following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps by going into the navy like both of them did before him. After he was held captive during the Vietnam War, he came home and decided to move on to politics. This loyalty to the country and to each other is something that was deeply ingrained in John McCain’s family. In his book, he recalled his father telling him reminiscently about something McCain’s grandfather said to him, “Son, there is no greater thing than to die…for the country and principles that you believe in” (2). He was ready and willing to throw himself into combat in order to help protect the American Dream. He valued America and the ideologies of the country more than anything, more than his own political career. During the 2008 presidential campaign, McCain said, “I’d rather lose an election than see my country lose a war”.
McCain was also a very compassionate man, he cared about the people around him and said as much in his book. While he was campaigning in 2008, he visited a lot of blue states to share his plans for the country were he to be elected. In his book, he wrote about the media’s response to his visit with nostalgia: “The headline for the Birmingham News’s report proclaimed, ‘In Black Belt, McCain Wins Hearts, Not Votes.’ I loved that too” (40). The fact that he cared more about how people saw him as a person than he did about how they saw him as a politician shows that he values and cares for others immensely. In another instance, he was talking to reporters while visiting Vietnam and said, “I still bear [the people that tortured him while he was a POW] ill will, not because of what they did to me, but because of what they did to some of my friends”. He cared less about how he was treated and more about his friends.
Religion was also a very important aspect of his life, he lived in a way that would permit him peace of mind with himself and with God. He took the things that happened to him and the soldiers around him and used that to make what positive changes he could in his community. He became a politician after coming back from a P.O.W. camp and continued to fight for the rights of others. In his book, when he was talking about the deaths of his friends, he recounted, “Other friends have left, too. I’m tempted to say, before their time, but that isn’t the truth. What God and good luck provide we must accept with gratitude. Our time is our time. It’s up to us to make the most of it, make it amount to more than the sum of our days” (5). He saw the gift of life as an opportunity to improve the lives of others and was willing to accept death as a necessary part of the life cycle. He was saddened by death, sure, but to him, death wasn’t the end. He also showed both patriotism and faith while talking about visiting a group of deployed military men and women, saying, “There they were, many of them after multiple combat deployments, aged beyond their years, having seen the worst and the best of humanity, having risked everything for our country and its causes, signing up to do it some more. My God, they are a blessing to this nation, a living rebuke to cynicism and empty patriotism” (147). He truly believed that those who were protecting the nation should be loved and celebrated, as they were blessings sent from God himself.
Having the ability to read the thoughts and beliefs of someone like John McCain has been really eye-opening for me. He is a republican, but he was great guy! I think this memoir can help people understand the necessity at looking at things and people at all angles before making decisions on how or why people act the way they do or believe the things they believe. His values are relatable and extremely important for American society as a whole, especially in a time like today when political parties are so divided that they disagree with one another just to argue.
Works Cited
- McCain, John, and Mark Salter. The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations. Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Chandrasekaran, Rajiv. “In Former Saigon, McCain Says Wrong Guys Won War.” The Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2000, www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-523071.html?refid=easy_hf.