M Youth Campus
The practice of tattooing is booming among young people, driven in particular by social networks. Beyond aesthetics, some see it as a way to claim an identity, or to "make peace" with their body or their history.
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Celia Callois
Suddenly, she has a doubt: does she have ten or eleven? Capucine Cmarard, 19, with a degree in sociology at the University of Paris-Cité, begins the inventory of her tattoos. There is the very first, a small square on the ankle, made in the evening by a friend “who had received a machine for her birthday”. Then, on the groin, the scorpion – his astrological sign – hieroglyphic style. But also the twisted knife on the left arm, the word “resilience” inked in red on the leg… In the end, there are ten of them. Waiting for the next ones. "In six months, I did six," she says. Then the next four, three months apart each. »
The young woman is no exception. In the French population and more particularly among young people, tattoos continue to gain in popularity. In a survey carried out by the IFOP for the newspaper La Croix (September 2018), 18% of respondents said they were or had been tattooed, compared to 10% eight years earlier. Above all, the share of tattooed people stands at 29% among 18-35 year olds, up sharply.
Read also: "Body positivism", a new vision of the female body is flourishing on social networks
For Claire Lahuerta, professor of visual arts at the University of Lorraine, co-author of a research article on "tattooing as a vector of emancipation", the democratization of the practice began in the 1980s, a time when we get away from the idea of the tattooed “big rebel arm”. According to tattoo artist Alice Bardou, a new step was taken ten years ago: “Previously, you had to work in art or be in a somewhat marginal environment to have tattoos. Today, it crosses all social strata. »
An extraordinary showcase
In this boom, Instagram, launched in 2010, played "a fundamental, essential role", says Alice Bardou. It has allowed many talents, like her, to hatch outside the classic circuits. She has thus “never worked in traditional salons, where there is often a lot of violence, a very virile, masculinist universe”. On the tattooed or future tattooed side, Instagram allows them to dive into an infinite universe of graphic styles.
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