Justin Orndorff
Social Deviance Sociology 320
Blog #1
How do you spot o deviant?
For my first blog, “How do you spot a Deviant” I’ve chosen people with body art. Some of my best friends have most of their entire bodies covered in tattoos along with stretched ears and numerous other piercing. But for now I’m just focusing on how people perceive people with tattoos.
The population I’ve chosen to analyze are people with body art, tattoos, mainly and most importantly people with visible tattoos. The sample within my population will be four of my closest friends. People that are frequently measured as deviant are people at the bottom end of the socio-economic scale, drug addicts or people that look different whether it’s a birth defect or someone with too many tattoos are more often then not considered deviant by society. Deviance in this analysis is that we respond to, through social control reactions, as deviant.
Many of my friends have tattoos. One of my closest friends, “Matt” has almost his entire body covered in tattoos among other body alterations I need not mention in this blog. Matt is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met in my life. Matt will do just about anything for a friend. He’s helped me move countless times, given me rides, babysat for me, and numerous other things. Matt’s never asked for anything in return. Matt also doesn’t do drugs, has no criminal record, works full-time, and goes to college.
Know I realize that I know Matt very well, over 15 years in fact, but your run-of-the-mill stranger doesn’t. So when Matt and I go into a store or a restaurant people look at us or should I say Matt as if he just got out of prison. I can see the disgust on peoples faces as they look Matt up and down and even give me the occasional stink eye for just being with him from time to time. I myself do not have any tattoos, well no visible ones anyway. Am I better person because I’m not covered with tattoos? My short answer is of course “NO”.
Matt’s tattoos send a very obvious message to society. That is I’m diverse and that he’s chosen to cover his body in art which comes in the form of tattoos. People don’t know Matt when were walking into a store. They don’t know that he has no criminal record; he doesn’t smoke or use drugs. So then there is no deviant behavior, just a deviant stereotype seen by society. So then it’s ridiculous to assume that one may perhaps judge deviance on appearance alone. So then it’s simply Matt’s tattoos that send a deviant message to society.
What do people have to gain by avoiding or separating themselves from Matt or people covered with tattoos? The answer is the path of least resistance. People are chicken shits simply put. And they have nothing to gain by accepting someone like Matt in the fear that they themselves might be judged for associating with an “outsider” like Matt. So the consequence then of having what many may consider being too much body art is being ostracized from society.
