The precarious visibility politics of self‐stigmatization

The case of HIV/Aids tattoos

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12370056
AutoresDan Brouwer (Loyola University Chicago, autor de correspondencia)
Año1998
Volumen18
Número2
Páginas114-136
Fecha de publicación1998-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaText and Performance Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1046-2937 • E-ISSN: 1479-5760
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10462939809366216
OpenAlexW2063511315
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas23
Referencias citadas8

One of the ethical issues that emerges in discussions about HIV and AIDS is disclosure of serostatus‐who should know if an individual is HIV‐antibody positive, when, and by what means? For seropositive individuals, day‐to‐day existence is characterized by strategies of concealment and reveal‐ment about their seropositivity. Some seropositive individuals have chosen to disclose their serostatus rather indiscriminately by non‐verbal, rather than verbal, means through the acquisition of an HIV/AIDS tattoo. These tattoos‐indelible marks inked upon the skin‐textualize the body by rendering the surface of the skin communicative about the interior (seropositive) status of the blood, tissues, and organs. Asymptomatic tattoo wearers render the invisible visible. This phenomenon is politically precarious, functioning critically to problematize assumptions about space and appearances of health while simultaneously raising the specter of repressive or violent surveillance

Asymptomatic · Geography · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Pathology · Political science · Politics · Serostatus · Sociology · Visibility · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology · Immunology