Tattoos and Sonic Imitation: Mantras, Body Tuning and Tattooing as Sounding
Tattoos are sensory experiences, requiring analyses that consider them not only as images but also as intersensory, bodily experiences and practices. Taking into account the interrelation of sound, vision and touch in tattooing, this study focuses on godna: the tattoos and historical tattooing pract...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Material religion
Year: 2025, Volume: 21, Issue: 2, Pages: 137-159 |
| Further subjects: | B
TATTOOING
B entrainment B Hinduism B sensory Anthropology B sonic purification |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Tattoos are sensory experiences, requiring analyses that consider them not only as images but also as intersensory, bodily experiences and practices. Taking into account the interrelation of sound, vision and touch in tattooing, this study focuses on godna: the tattoos and historical tattooing practices of Surinamese and Guyanese Hindus. Godnas may be conceptualised as sound events, as among other things they include Hindu mantras. Like recited mantras, tattooed mantras enforce powerful sonic patterns that can affect human bodies through auditory purification. They harmonise, transduce and attune a body’s sound to eternal and auspicious (world) sounds. This tuning is often supported by vocal and tactile rhythm during the tattooing process, audible and inaudible sound. Such mimetic copying of auspicious sound vibrations is based on the strategic process of sonic imitation, which is a kind of rhythmic entrainment. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2024.2418221 |
