Tatoo and body piercing among high school teens in Belgrade

Abstract

Belgrade is an urban environment, with excellent media coverage, which offers to the young people a tattoo and body piercing as a commodity for consumption and as a role model of behavior. Having in mind that tattoo and body piercing are usually associated with certain subcultures, and that young people are prone to building a social identity through affiliation into different subcultures, the research was conducted on a correspondent sample of young people who attended a third grade high school in Belgrade. It was found that more than a half of respondents considered tattoos and body piercing as something positive, something that has an aesthetic value and symbolic meaning, and that they modify their bodies in such a way.

Beograd predstavlja urbanu sredinu, medijski odlično pokrivenu, koja mladima nudi tetovažu i pirsing kao robu za konzumiranje i kroz uzore u ponašanju. S obzirom da se tetovaža i pirsing najčešće povezuju sa određenim subkulturama, kao i da su mladi skloni da grade socijalni identitet kroz pripadnost tim subkulturama, sprovedeno je istraživanje na prigodnom uzorku mladih koji su pohađali treći razred srednje ekonomske škole u Beogradu. Utvrđeno je da više od pola ispitanika prihvata tetovažu i pirsing kao nešto pozitivno, nešto što ima estetsku vrednost i simboličko značenje i rado bi modifikovali svoje telo na taj način.