Ink and Flesh: Tattoos as Collaborative Palimpsests of Trauma and Posthuman Literacy

Abstract

This paper explores tattooing as a collaborative, restorative, and posthuman literacy practice. Through an in-depth interview with a tattoo artist, we examine how tattoos function as layered texts that transform scars into narrative foundations, inscribe memory and identity onto skin, and foster healing through relational care. Drawing on frameworks of restorative literacies and posthuman theory, the findings reveal that tattooing is not merely decorative, but a process wherein pain, agency, and meaning are negotiated and co-created by bodies, tools, and stories. The study highlights how a tattoo studio became a liminal space for rewriting trauma, reclaiming agency, and making visible the entanglement of human and more-than-human actors in the ongoing work of healing and becoming.