(Re)Figuring Pedagogical Flesh: Phenomenologically (Re)Writing the Lived Experiences of Tattooed Teachers

Abstract

This hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry describes the lived experiences of three visibly tattooed teachers and what it is like to sense their tattooed flesh while they are at school. Lived experience descriptions were collected during in-depth interviews and from personal reflective writings conducted by the study author, who is also a tattooed teacher. Using hermeneutic research approaches outlined by Max van Manen and Linda Finlay, lifeworld descriptions of visibly tattooed teachers are presented in the form of anecdotal passages that urge readers to ‘step into tattooed skin’. Drawing from Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, Luce Irigaray’s work on intersubjectivity, Michel Foucault’s notion of the disciplinary gaze, theories of the look in education forwarded by Madeline Grumet, and Judith Butler’s notion of subversive bodies, meanings are made of tattooed teachers’ experiences of adopting uncomfortable teacher identities and then growing comfortable in their professional roles. Through hermeneutic analysis, five main themes are presented, constituting the “essences” of the phenomemon of living as a visibly tattooed teacher: Trying to Fit; Mis-fit; Fit. You? Fit You!; Fitting In; and One Size Does Not Fit All.