Tattoo information creation: Towards a holistic understanding of tattoo information experience

The tattoo information experience reveals possibilities to explore how tattoo images are created as things, what actions lead to the creation of a tattoo image, who is considered a creator of a tattoo image, and how different personal, social and cultural contexts influence creation of information through the tattoo acquisition experience. Based on the findings from nine interviews, the process of tattoo information creation was conceptualized encompassing all stages of the tattoo experience: from the moment the first idea of getting a tattoo emerges to sharing of information about a tattoo. Participants' stories about their tattoo experiences were used to develop a framework of four key phases of tattoo information creation: conceptualizing, verbalizing, visualizing, and pluralizing. These phases occur between four anchors identified in the participants' stories: anticipation, identification, ideation, and creation. This framework can be used to assist future empirical and theoretical research on tattoo information experience.