Response To Week 8 Question

The main thing I have found through my research is why people receive tattoos. A lot of my research shows the effect of tattoos on cultures. I guess this is the theme right now, but hopefully I will come up with something interesting when I sit down and think about it more. I don't think my place in this culture is much different than what is was 8 weeks ago.

Notes for February 26 First Part of class

Notes for February 26, 2008

· Go over the reading assignment due for today. (pg. 237-257)

o Conducting Interviews and what to do while conducting interviews.

§ What do you get from interviews?

· When to interview

· Be a good listener

· Learn terms

· Take notes

· Have questions planned out

· Pick a convenient, comfortable and quiet location to interview

o How do you prepare for an interview?

§ Write out questions

§ Research the group

§ Know what you want to learn from the interview

§ Spend some time in the group first before the interview

o What are closed questions?

§ One word answer

§ Gives you what you are looking for

o What are open questions?

§ Trying to find more answers

o What do good listeners do?

§ Listen to what interviewer responds with and has a question to respond to their response

§ Tips: taking notes, wait till the person finishes, record the information, use recording equipment from the library, and know the topic so you can better understand the information.

o What are other ways of recording responses for people who have already interviewed?

§ Maybe use a handheld video camera from library or use scanner to scan brochures or other important information wanted.

o Transcriptions and Dialects from the book. (pg.237-257)

§ Dialect: How people speak and how things are pronounced

§ Different Dialects: Southern dialect, Northern dialect, R-less style or New York dialect, New Jersey dialect, Chicago dialect, Indiana has many different dialects – 3 shits: Northern, middle and southern.

o Get partners and do box 19 (pg 240) – 8 steps: type out and turn in

response to week 7 question

The plan I have finishing my ethnography is to spend more time interviewing my community. I feel that I have all the information I need from my research, but I need to have the views from the actual subculture. Having views firsthand from people that belong in the culture might provide me with information that I have not though of yet. An aspect that I may find very interesting, that could change my ethnography completely.

version 2

The tattoo parlor will be a building with 4 to 5 rooms. The first room to walk in will be open with designs and people, known as a waiting room. This room will have one person working behind the desk to help attendants. The desk will be in the front with the rooms in the back. Each room will have a seat and equipment for tattooing. The walls of the building will be covered with designs and an off color. The floor will be tile or wood and products will be sold behind the desk.

Version 1

The layout of the tattoo parlor from my experience will be just a small building with 4 to 5 rooms. When you first walk through the front doors there will be a big open room for designs and people standing kind of like a waiting room. This waiting room will have usually one person who is working the desk making reservations for people to receive their tattoos and helping people with any questions. The desk is towards the front and in the back are the multiple rooms where the actual artist is performing the tattoos. Each room will have a device for the person to lie down or sit so that they can comfortable receive the tattoo. Also there will be all of the necessary equipment for the tattoo procedure to happen. The walls of a tattoo shop will be covered with either small or large displays of designs. I am guessing that the walls will be a different color than white. Maybe a darker color or something intriguing to keep people’s interest sparked. I am sure the floor will not be carpet, but some kind of hard surface maybe wood or tiling. There will probably be products that relate to tattooing being sold behind the front desk. Other than that I am guessing that there will be a small bathroom somewhere located in the back.

Box 16

Response to Week 6 Question

The conclusions I have about the community of my subculture is that it is very popular in American society. I had that in mind before I started reading my resources, but there are many things involved in the subculture that I did not know. One is the tattooing of cancer patients and the mass use of marketing by tattoo designs. I think this is the same for any place I went to no matter where it is because the articles I have read they are talking about the subculture being mainstream in different places, big or small. These places range from big cities marketing tattoos, to large increases of tattoo parlor shops in small cities, such as, Kansas City.

Box 15

The spot I have chosen that has left me with a lot of memories is the tree behind my mom's parents house in the country. It was a very small and country part of town where it seemed very peaceful and quiet. I would always be there with my family, usually my sister and my cousins. We always climbed this huge tree that sat right behind the big L.P. gas tank. Me and my cousin Andrew would always dare to climb the highest of this enormous tree.
Every time we went to my Grandparent's house we would play in the back yard and we would always climb this tree. This never got old to any of us, we were so amazed by this tree. When I think of my senses the first is sight. I remember it in the beginning of spring, when it was nice enough for me and my family to walk around in shorts and t-shirts. There was a slight breeze that felt really good. The noise was that of the breeze and the beagle who was in its kennel barking its head off. The smell was that of the warm weather and the country smell.
This backyard with the tree has symbolized my appearance of small country houses. Whenever I am at a peaceful at home environment I usually seem to think of that tree at my Grandparent's house. It has been years since I have been out to that house since my Grandma died and my grandfather is in the nursing home, but I feel that I will never forget that place

Box 12

I think the privileges that will affect my field study is that I am not narrow minded. I feel that this is a trait of my own, but I think it will help me out in my research study. I usually try not to judge things as I see them, but I usually try and see it's side of the situation. I think this is good for my relationships with people and since I will be dealing with people that are not exactly like me I will be able to have a positive experience with them. I think being younger is somewhat why I am like that because I want to experience everything and although I have had experiences that affect the way I feel, I don't think that there has been a situation where that has clouded my judgment towards dealing with something.

Box 9

My personal assumptions of the text was more of a down south "hillbilly" community rather than picturing it as an island community. Although there are islands down south and I am sure that "hicks" live on them, I just pictured a clip from an older time also. I feel that they way they lived in their community was that of an old time strict conservative era. There was one person who made an impact on the entire community who made it what it is today and I think they followed how that person would have wanted them to act.
Another movie I would have to say that reminds me of this story is "O Brother Where Art Thou?". I think this mostly because of the language of a southern person. Also for some reason even though this story relates to 1999 I kept imagining it to be in an older era. The reason I thought it was an older era was probably the mentioning of things that had happened before the narrator's time. Such as farming, the Depression, how there island came to be and why it originated and so on.
My previous reading experiences made me think of this story as an uneducated farm land, where not much excitement happens. I cannot think of many stories that I have read that relate me almost exactly as this one, but the language and images of the society seem very relevant to that I have read before. I would describe her style as using a lot of slang and making the people in the story actually really being like in real life.
There were many problems for me in understanding the text. At first it started off about Sapphira Wade and then I feel that it immediately jumped to the Realtors wanting to buy the land to make money. I had to go back and see how they were mentioning Mama Day and how it actually related to the beginning of the story. Also another hard part for me was the end when it was talking about Reema's boy doing all these things like chewing on mints and sticking things inside his shoes.
I found myself entertained in the text when it was talking about Sapphira Wade boring the seven children and how those seven children ended up. I really did not find too much of this story interesting. As I said before I was confused in a couple spots because of transitioning and some wording.
I only read the story once, but I feel I understand the storyline. It is about the history of an island town where a boy comes to do fieldwork and find out about the culture. The narrator is describing many aspects, but I took it in that way.
I think Mama Day was most interesting to me because she seems just like the old strict mothers you see in the movies. Very stern and tough.
My imagination came into play when they were describing the people who had left the island and had been successful. I think the reason why is because I am leaving my hometown, which I had felt bound to for awhile. I think that leaving for college was kind of like relating to those people in the story.

Response to week 5 question

I have gatheres 2 articles from the academic search premier and found a book from academic search premier that has a two page article about tattoos and university students. The book is called Psychological Report from 2006, which I found from the card cat in the library. The 2 pages covered in this book go over why students in college recieve tattoos from a psychological perspective. One article is called "An Ironic Fad: The commodification and consumption of tattoos", it goes into detail about America and the American people who have become a "tattooed nation". The last article I have is also about college students and tattoos, it is a survey someone has taken and shows correlation with their social environment. I still want to find information about the artist's perspective of the culture of tattooing.