Power of the Badge

The more we dive into defining “literacy” the more lost I become. It’s like this intricate maze that was always there, but because I never asked the right questions, I hadn’t known existed. In the Hamilton reading I thought that the section about “Literacy on the Body” was interesting. It states, “the large amount of writing which can be seen on people’s clothing…brandnames, writing as patterns on clothing, tattoos and body painting. It also includes badges which identify people”.

It’s amazing to think that the writing that people choose to put on their body IS LITERACY. So many see script on someone’s arm and immediately label that person. They belittle them and put them in small and demeaning categories. Judging someone based on a quick glance is such a shameful and sad thing, but we all do it without realizing it. Tattoos are so interesting to me because most of the time there are layers and layers of meaning behind that phrase or word that someone chose to permanently put on their body. But at the same time there are many who will see it and not even take the chance to read it before putting a label on that stranger. If you were to see a younger man walking on the side of the road with a skateboard in his hand and tattoos covering his arms it wouldn’t take you long to label him then look away. But the minute you see a police officer with a badge on his chest and the hint of a shoulder tattoo under his sleeve you react differently.

Tattoos have many functions, some that I’m sure I haven’t ever considered. They could be a reminder of a darker time, a word of encouragement that at symbolizes a pivotal moment in your life, a mark to remind you of how far you’ve come, a small part of a loved one that you want to carry around with you forever, or something that you simply never want to lose. The functions of a tattoo are endless and powerful.

I’m not really sure if this is even relevant, but I wanted to add it anyway. In my classes this year it’s becoming more and more apparent that our generation and just the world we live in enjoys labeling. We label to make ourselves feel better and we label to put our minds at ease. We label people because it makes us feel more comfortable. I do it too, but at the same time I don’t understand why this is. Why is it our immediate tendency to label, name, or categorize people? Why do we have to have a name for something in order to feel more comfortable with it?