Authors: Sam Belkin(a) & R. Dale Sheptak Jr(b)

Corresponding Writer:
Sam Belkin, MA
sb787@leicester.air-conditioning.britain
440-241-5913

(a) Department of Sociology, Academy of Leicester, Leicester, England.
(b) Department of Wellness, Physical Educational activity and Sport Sciences, Baldwin Wallace Academy, Berea, Ohio, USA.

Talking Bodies: Athletes & Tattoos as Nonverbal Communication

Abstruse
Dennis Rodman, the quintessential example of deviant behavior as a thespian in professional basketball game, along with Chris 'Birdman' Andersen fast tracked the normalization of tattoos in the National Basketball game Clan. Even so considered deviant beliefs in Western societies, the prominence of highly visible tattoos in the NBA and collegiate basketball world has been growing rapidly. In this article, we discuss how professional and collegiate basketball players perceive tattoos in regard to identity and performance. We focus on how tattoos act as a channel for nonverbal communication in this population. Through these two topics, players avertedly or inadvertently accost the coaction of tattoos and identity as well as how tattoos inform social groups. With the increased visual media presence of players through social media, smart phones, the internet, and other forms of applied science, the necessity of understanding what office tattoos have amid the players cannot exist understated.

Keywords: Tattoo, Nonverbal Communication, Body Modification, Identity, Sport

INTRODUCTION
In the U.s.a., when a person refers to professional person sports, basketball is invariably i of the focal points of the discussion. Merely mentioning a professional basketball player evokes a sure image; immensely famous, ludicrously wealthy, chorded muscles, and typically tattooed. Whether art, a personal statement, a story, appalling, beautiful, or some combination, tattoos are an easily recognizable form of body modification. Tattoos are ubiquitous amid communities in the The states (Fenske 2007); and professional person and collegiate basketball players are no exception. Nonverbal communication takes a variety of forms, including communication via clothing, tattooing, cosmetics, or graffiti (see, for example, Mendoza-Denton 1996; Olguin 1997; Adams 2009). Previous work on nonverbal advice, particularly the method employed in these studies, is important for framing how the information collected will exist applied to contemporary discussions. Similar to how the same paradigm in a prison tattoo can communicate dissimilar messages depending on its location and the gang affiliation of the private (Baldaev 2009), this study investigates how the locations and images of tattoos among basketball players communicate different—intended and unintended—messages to other players, as well as their intended advice to fans (Olguin 1997; Phelan and Hunt 1998). Equally such, this research explores the relationship tattooing has with nonverbal communication and identity among professional person and collegiate basketball game players. We describe upon established anthropological literature in the fields of nonverbal communication, performance, the sociocultural significance of trunk modifications, and symbolic anthropology.

Anthropologists have studied performance and its societal application in terms of what information technology shows about cultural institutions, including the performance of gender relations and ethnicity (Beeman, 1993, 370). As the upper echelon of basketball players in the United states of america, the participants of this report human activity on a national, or even international, stage, which makes the anthropological literature on performance particularly relevant. Operation, as the term is used in this article, is a set of behaviors or actions, washed for the benefit of observers; that embodies central symbolic aspects of a cultural tradition (Beeman, 1993, 371). Through a functioning, participants attempt to communicate a bulletin to observers using symbols (Turner, 1990, 12). The symbols must exist culturally understood, or they volition fail to communicate any significant. For the purpose of this study, the symbols are tattoos, and the interest is in what they are communicating about identity.

Inside the larger body of literature on performance, the literature on gender as performance is especially notable. Utilizing the concept of performance presented above, "gender as operation" is best synthesized as an examination of gender as the symbol that the performance is attempting to communicate to the observers (Mendoza-Denton, 1996, 49). Such advice can office as a means of reinforcing social stereotypes regarding gender, or it can criticize cultural preconceptions. Regardless of the message being communicated, simply every bit functioning communicates a message through a symbol, gender as performance communicates letters through symbols as well, be they in the form of drag queens or, as in this study, tattoos (Butler, 1990, 36).

Anthropologists who have studied tattoos and gender as performance have concluded that tattoos are an effective medium for communicating and reinforcing notions of gender and ethnic identity (Phelan and Hunt, 1998, Adams 2009, Baldaev, 2009 and Trunev, 2010). In addition to looking at tattoos as a symbol for gender every bit performance, in that location is engagement with literature in the field of anthropology of the body regarding performance. This trunk of literature is utilized equally well to unpack identity through the torso and its human relationship to masculinity (Wacquant, 1995). Building upon these previous studies, the aim is to uncover the role tattoos play in gender as functioning among the study participants.

The sociocultural significance of body modifications is another topic that has been studied for many years in anthropology (e.g., van Gennep, 1960, Mead, 1928, Leach, 1954 and Levi-Strauss, 1963), and it has remained a compelling topic for contemporary anthropologists in the quest to define social condition, rituals, links and boundaries between cultures, and identity (Schildkrout, 2004). Anzieu, (1989) discusses the idea of "ego skin," which are the markings on the skin, which human action as an interface between the torso, the self, and others. The importance of this idea here is that it supports the notion that tattoos have different meanings to the individual with tattoos and to those who view them. Debates regarding the extent to which the self-identity of an individual and the cultural identity of a group relating to body modifications are common among those in the field (due east.one thousand., Gell, 1993, Cummins, 2003 and Baldaev, 2009). Focusing on a previously unstudied population, this research engages the word of tattoos in defining identity at the local level by investigating how identity is communicated through tattoos via the personally ascribed meanings or philosophies behind tattoos in the basketball subculture, every bit well equally what they are intended to communicate to those around them. To better sympathise why tattoos are placed in specific locations, this research utilizes literature in the field of anthropology of the body to demonstrate how sure parts of the body take on specific meanings, and how this relates to the notion of functioning (Scheper-Hughes, 2002).

Symbolic anthropology is used to guide the data drove and analysis portions of the study. Initially proposed in 1973 by Clifford Geertz, symbolic anthropological theory emphasizes means of analyzing meaning and their relationship to the actors inside a society (Geertz, 1973). The premise of this theory is that social life is defined as the creation and negotiation of meaning regarding symbols in the civilisation (Geertz, 1973, half dozen). The class that these symbols tin can accept vary equally widely as cultures themselves, encompassing tattoos, language, clothing, art, and music, for instance. According to this theory, in order to analyze the symbols specific to a cultural group, the anthropologist must disregard the eclectic notions of civilisation that make up the "conceptual morass," and focus instead on a narrow, semiotic concept of culture in which analysis is an interpretive science in search of meaning (Geertz, 1973, 5).

Gimmicky anthropologists use symbolic anthropology to define status, describe rituals, explain links and boundaries between cultures, and investigate identity (Schildkrout, 2004). The primary methodology for interpreting meaning from symbols is through ethnographic research. The researcher needs to perform "thick description," which is, "sorting out the structures of signification […] and determining their social ground and import" (Geertz, 1973, ix). A researcher working within this theoretical framework needs to embrace the thought of thick clarification because the interpretation of meanings, both intended and perceived, from nonverbal communication is inherently cryptic; cultural connotations must exist portrayed accurately, which means that a fellow member of the civilisation must affirm whatsoever proposed estimation (Yuan, 2007, 79–lxxx).

The centre of symbolic anthropology lies in the understanding that there is a divergence betwixt a sign, meaning to an individual, and a symbol, which is representative of something larger to a group of people. For a sign to become a symbol within a culture, there must be a shared cultural system of meaning among the members of a society (Geertz, 1973, 8). As will be discussed in farther particular subsequently, the difference betwixt these two concepts can be seen among the participants. While the tattoos of an individual may have specific stories attached to them regarding, for example, the participant's family, life story, or religious feel, their importance lies in how the participants assign pregnant to the tattoos of other basketball players and how they use this agreement to address questions nearly the self and the nature of others beyond, or in identify of, verbal communication.

Contemporary anthropologists utilize symbolic anthropology to study how the body takes on symbolic meaning, the commodification of the body, and how symbols are read differently past individuals inside and excluded from a culture (Wacquant, 1995, Scheper-Hughes, 2002, Wohlrap et al, 2008 and Trunev, 2010). Precautions must be taken when utilizing this theoretical framework, and then as not to simplify the culture every bit a purely symbolic system. By distancing the theoretical structure from cognitive anthropology and structuralism, ane is able to avert the dangers of isolating cultural analysis from the informed logic of actual daily life. Symbolic anthropology thus locates civilisation and ethnography within the semiotic turn of anthropology and the full general interest of hermeneutical assay in other disciplines.

METHODS
The data for this written report was collected from 16 collegiate basketball game players and 11 professional person basketball players. The participants were born and raised all over the United States, play for teams spread beyond the country, and are of various ethnicities. For both collegiate and professional person participants, interviews were conducted with both players who have and did non have tattoos. Among the collegiate players, ten had tattoos while six did not. Eight of the professional players had tattoos, while only 3 did not.

Table 1

While the elite basketball subculture is a office of the full general American populace, the demographics of each are very unlike (meet Table 1). The data for Table 1, indicate that African Americans are far more prevalent in both collegiate and professional basketball than they are nationally, while the other ethnicities are far less present. The pct of African Americans present in collegiate basketball game is essentially higher than in the general Us population, and information technology increases in professional basketball. However, the other ethnicities are less represented in basketball than in the United states as a whole. The master implication of this data is that the basketball game subculture is a cultural grouping that is separate from the general United States populace.

The data are comprised of 27 one-hour semi-structured interviews which included discussing the social networks of the participants and, when applicable, took photographs of all their tattoos. The participants were recruited through availability sampling. Availability sampling, also referred to as convenience sampling, is a method of recruiting participants based upon accessibility (Bernard, 2006). The semi-structured interviews were conducted in four different locations: team locker rooms, participants' houses, university cafeterias, and university libraries.

In addition to semi-structured interviews, the inquiry utilizes participant observation on two occasions. The get-go was over an evening of "going out," which consisted of drinking at two local bars, going to a dance lodge, and finally going to a party at a high-rise flat. The second occasion was at a dinner political party at i of the actor'southward houses. The party attendees were all teammates, coaches, spouses/meaning others, and their children. On both occasions, structured field notes according to established guidelines were recorded (Bernard, 2006).

The analysis for this research utilized hermeneutic text analysis, which attempts to establish connections between symbols in a culture, tying back to the symbolic anthropological theoretical framework used in the study (Bernard, 2006, 475). Some examples of the hermeneutic units used include "view of other players with tattoos," "view of other players without tattoos," "meaning of tattoos," "growing upwardly," and "how personal tattoos are seen by others." To support the hermeneutic text analysis, the presentation of exemplar quotes from transcripts can exist seen throughout this article. The presentation of exemplar quotes is also done in club to convey the voice of participants and the ideas they are expressing more accurately. Using hermeneutic text analysis relates dorsum to the theoretical foundations of this study by providing clear explanations of and connections to the symbols, which allows for the unpacking of performance behaviors and ideas regarding identity.

One characteristic of nonverbal communication without direct exact explanation is ambiguity (Yuan, 2007, 74). To mitigate incertitude, semi-structured interviews were used to better understand participants' interpretations of the tattoos (run across the methods and analysis department for farther detail). During the analysis of these interviews, there has been no endeavour to translate meanings or intended/perceived communication of tattoos without confirmation from the participants because, in addition to the inherent ambiguity associated with nonverbal communication, it too requires that cultural connotation be accurately portrayed which requires a member of the culture to affirm (Yuan, 2007, 79-80).

UCINET was used to run the different social network analyses and produce a graphical representation of the social network. Specifically, the analyses ran include betweenness, caste centrality, geodesic distance, creating a visual social network, and network density to run into how closely the members of each network are continued, how many members had tattoos, and how central the tattooed members were in each social network (Hanneman and Riddle 2005, Reid et al, 2008). The connectivity of the network and axis of the tattooed members indicates how strongly tattoos are influencing the social systems of the participants, which reflects on both identity and the importance of operation within the networks (Peace, 2000, 592). The social network data work in conjunction with the hermeneutic text analysis to place patterns in the participants' views of others and of self.

RESULTS & Discussion
Of the xvi collegiate students interviewed, ten had tattoos, while six did not. Eight of the 11 professional players had tattoos, and only 3 did non. All of the players who had tattoos, both collegiate and professional, ascribed personal meanings to their tattoos. The data revealed that these meanings are associated with four dissimilar categories: artistic, family, religious, and spiritual. During the analysis, the relationship of each tattoo to these four categories was identified based upon the players' stories and descriptions, as exemplified in the following narrative:

This one [points to underside right forearm] is a Transformer. Uh, this right here, cuz like, y'all know, um, terminal yr I got injure so I, um, uh, you know. I really had a lot of things taken abroad from me and then I just decided to go this one to say, you know, that, like, things can be taken away from yous but if you work hard to get them back, you tin.

The four categories are distinguished as follows. Artistic tattoos are tattoos that are not personally symbolic to the player of an outcome or story, and they are done for aesthetic continuity. The family category contains those tattoos with a personal symbolism representative of an event involving a family member, friend, or significant other. Religious tattoos are those that correspond a symbol or text from a generally acknowledged religion, such every bit Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, or Taoism. Finally, the spiritual category is for tattoos that take a personal meaning to the players regarding morality, a lawmaking of ethics, lifestyle, or worldview that is non direct connected to a religious platonic.

For increased clarity regarding these categories, an example for the artistic and spiritual categories is provided, as these are the most abstract. Artistic tattoos can exist summed upwards through one player who, when discussing a group of differently shaded stars on his arm, said, "The reason I got these [stars] greyness is to fill the space and bring out this [tattoo]." A tattoo classified inside the spiritual category would be, for case, a phrase that states "alive in the stars," with an explanation along the lines of, "Y'all know, sky'southward the limit. Reach your goals. Work hard. Be ameliorate than the rest." The frequency of each type of tattoo among collegiate players, professional players, and the group as a whole appears in Table 2. The nigh common category among both groups of players is family; this is followed by religious, then spiritual, and finally creative.

Table 2

To define what constituted a unmarried tattoo versus a collection of tattoos required a sure amount of subjectivity on the function of the researchers. For instance, if a player has a sentence tattooed across his chest, is the whole sentence ane tattoo, or should each discussion be considered a dissever tattoo? Or even each alphabetic character? What if each word was done in a unlike script, only they are worked together to make 1 sentence? Due to this inherent ambiguity, the analysis utilizes the individual agreement of each role player to define how many tattoos they have and what they consider a single tattoo. Effigy i is an example of the ambivalence that can sally when defining what constitutes a single tattoo.

Figure 1

While the designs in Figure 1 piece of work together to create an aesthetically cohesive unit, the participant classified each grouping of images as a unique tattoo. He starting time received the prayer hands when he was 13, then the words when he was 17, followed past stars at 18, and finally the clouds at 19. He imbued each of these with a meaning. As such, when "number of tattoos" is discussed, it is based upon the numbers given past the players, which are not broken downwards further.

The continuity between collegiate and professional basketball players in the frequency of themes regarding their tattoos and the number of tattoos they possess is indicative of a possible trend among basketball game players: the presence of tattoos requires ascribing meaning to tattoos, rather than but offering a visual brandish. While this idea may seem enticing, at that place is notable counterfactual evidence that must be addressed: the players, both collegiate and professional, are receiving their tattoos on their bodies in almost exclusively highly visible locations. Despite the significance players ascribe to their tattoos, some of which they are loathe to share, they are yet flaunting them to others. One such example of this is a professional person player who had an image of a child with wings on his shoulder. The prototype is representative of a child his family made his ex-girlfriend abort when they were in high school; now he, "clothing it on my shoulder for erry'one to run into. Erry'thing I do in life, I want that unborn child to be wit me for. I don't… I don't tell people that though. It still hurts. But it'south skillful for the world to run across." Despite the securely personal story attached to the tattoo, he does non speak virtually it to many people; however, he placed it on his shoulder for greater visual display. The fact that these players are placing tattoos in locations that are visible, not merely during a basketball game, only as well in everyday life, indicates that the tattoos are interim as a form of nonverbal communication for both players and fans.

While the tattooed body or body part can act as an identifier, information technology can also deed as a symbol. A symbol has the ability to communicate the worldview of individuals, statements of personal history, affiliated organizations, as well as other aspects of life. It expresses these notions through nonverbal communication to an observer who is a member of a specific grouping (Turner, 1990,12). Symbols must be culturally understood, or they will neglect to communicate whatsoever pregnant. The cultural traditions information technology represents could be inside the basketball subculture, but they could as well include prison culture, gang civilization, or ethnic cultures, among others. For instance, should a player accept the number 417 tattooed on their body, it likely means one of ii things: either they are from the southwestern quadrant of Missouri, where 417 is the area code, or, if they have been to prison house, it could mean they have committed an assault with a weapon (run across Figure two for example) (Phelan and Hunt, 1998, 282). To those viewing the player with communicative tattoos, be they identifiers, similar the one on LeBron James' triceps, or markers of life history, the performer is no longer a person; their torso has become a text. The commodification of the body, in this sense, is yet another case of how the bodies of tattooed players become objectified.

Figure 2

The chapters of tattoos to act as nonverbal communication for other members of the basketball guild relies heavily upon the other members' tattooed status. One mode in which this functions, every bit discussed in the following section, is through the social networks of players. Players with tattoos tend to associate only with other players with tattoos. Likewise, players without tattoos associate with other players who do not take tattoos. Another way in which tattoos serve as a form of nonverbal communication within the basketball society is through the interpretation of skill. The process of sizing players upwards earlier any gameplay begins occurs through an appraisement of their appearance. Players without tattoos responded forth two separate lines regarding this idea. The kickoff was that they, "look at the guy an' go DAMN! I want mine [tattoo]! [Slang n-word] must exist good at ballin'." The other response that they provided was that they, "view 'em the same as players without tattoos. I know some people use information technology every bit an intimidation factor but it's the aforementioned for me. In fact, sometimes I call up they're simply trying besides hard." The two responses are polar opposites: ane indicates that the tattooed histrion must be good because he has tattoos, while the other states those with tattoos are not ready apart at all. Players with tattoos viewed other players with tattoos in the pregame atmosphere in a adequately uniform manner amid both collegiate and professional person players. For example, one professional thespian said, once you go through a tattoo, especially in those tough spots, information technology kinda makes you a different person. And they carry that onto the court. Kinda like, 'I went through this. What else could get wrong?' *laugh*

The players with tattoos who viewed other players with tattoos considered them tougher, and, therefore, meliorate players considering they had gone through a pseudo-rite of passage. Equally the quotation above indicated, echoing a traditional rite of passage, the players brainstorm in a non-tattooed condition, and then enter a liminal space in which the tattoo is applied and where ritualized hazing—in this case, the pain of a tattoo and the healing process—take identify, and then they reemerge in a new social condition (van Gennep, 1960). The circuitous interactions betwixt a role player and his body, the thespian and himself, and the thespian and the other epitomizes the concept of "ego pare." The players utilise their skin, both tattooed and not-tattooed, equally the vehicle to interface with these complex notions while non fully addressing their existence.

The responses from both tattooed and non-tattooed players address the idea that tattoos part as a class of intimidation in the pregame temper; still, they are not looking at players without tattoos. The concern of the players lies with those individuals who are marked. The marked individuals have more notoriety among everyone else within the guild and, since the markings are physical and visible, they are more closely noted than if they were marked in a religious or spiritual sense, which points to the occurrence of symbolic boundary maintenance (Douglas, 1966, 43). Such symbolic boundary maintenance plays an important function in defining their social networks, in addition to maintaining the intimidation factor, given the supposition that there are 2 different states of being, tattooed or not, which is supported through the pseudo-rite of passage.

While tattooed and non-tattooed players had differences in how they view other players, their ideas about how they felt other players viewed them differ fifty-fifty more than radically. Collegiate basketball players without tattoos frequently stated that they believed that players on other teams viewed them as less adept than the tattooed players, despite what the statistics might show. Professional person basketball players without tattoos showed a general consensus that their skill level was non judged by their lack of tattoos; rather, they believed that they only had to brand themselves stand out in some other way on the court, such as through their manner of play. The professional players did express that they felt they were more frequently overlooked past the media, since they were not as marketable as the players with tattoos. One professional player without tattoos said, "We all worked hard to become here. Nosotros're all the all-time in the world, you lot know? Some chip o' ink ain't gonna modify that. But those guys wit the ink…get more of that [spot]light." He concluded that, despite the supposed equality of players at the professional level, those without tattoos were simply not as flashy as players with tattoos.

Basketball game players with tattoos, both collegiate and professional, had similar ideas with regards to how they thought other players viewed them. The players spoke nearly being the figureheads for basketball game because they could be marketed; however, the major idea they discussed was being seen with respect. One interviewee stated this pointblank: "I think that havin' tattoos actually gives you a sign of respect, I retrieve really." Some other professional actor stated that, "When y'all got tattoos, then yous that guy. You the cool guy. The one anybody wants ta be." The idea he is expressing is, again, the respect he receives both on and off the court.

This notion of respect is endorsed, either purposely or not, past the institutions surrounding the players. While the thought of marketing in relation to the players is a topic tangential to this article, it is worth noting that at the collegiate level, players with tattoos are used more widely for marketing than those without tattoos. One such example is from Northern Arizona University, where the able-bodied department sends out pamphlets to the local customs to bolster its ticket sales. The pamphlet for the 2013 men's basketball team had a moving picture of four players on the cover, all of whom had tattoos, and in that location were no pictures of any other players. The four players were the only ones on the team who had tattoos (run into Figure three).

Comparison the publically posted statistics on the Northern Arizona University website for the whole team at the time the pamphlet was sent out, the categories of Games Started, Points Made per Game, and Minutes Played were examined in particular. The data show that iii of the tattooed players were among the five starters, and the fourth tattooed player was the 6th homo. So the tattooed players were among the best players on the team, but non undisputedly and so. Furthermore, upon examining the biographies on the website, non all of the players were of the same historic period or yr in school; they ranged from freshman to senior (NAU Athletics Website, 2012). In this lite, there is no logical caption as to why the four tattooed players were chosen, other than for the fact that they were the just players with tattoos. Utilizing these players every bit the image of the basketball team indicates that the university, or at least the athletic department of the university, bestowed a greater level of respect upon the tattooed players.

Figure 3

How players believe others view them is significant because it reflects their "ego pare" and identity. The players are expressing their understanding of how their skin allows them to interface with the other, while also discussing their interface with the self. None of the players tried to extrapolate a personal significant for the tattoos of another actor, yet they do understand how the role player will fit in a social interaction. The connection betwixt "ego skin" and identity lies in the aspect of "ego skin" in which the skin interacts with the self. The lack of tattoos and the possession of tattoos are both exemplifiers of identity as it relates to the private. What the tattoos mean to the cocky, specifically the personally ascribed significant or lack thereof, is indicative of the diversity of social situations the individual has experienced that have led to the conclusion to receive a tattoo or not. Furthermore, the decision to receive, and the actual process of receiving, a tattoo is an essential element in the establishment of self-identity, due to the best-selling permanent land of change to the skin, which results in a different state of social being (Wohlrap et al, 2009, 204). The change in social beingness is a result of the decision to receive or pass on a tattoo. Regardless of the option made, the individual is forced into a new type of social being, whereupon the identity of the self is inverse.

Social network analysis is a gear up of methods, also as a theoretical orientation for interpreting data. The methodology focuses on the measurement of relations between people by quantifying them and utilizing established models and techniques, while the theoretical orientation associated with social network analysis focuses on the consequences and causes of relations between people (Hanneman and Riddle, 2005). For this study, the theoretical insights provided by social network analysis are fatigued upon to interpret the patterns uncovered through the awarding of social network methodology in the analysis of players' tattoos. This is because information on tattoos is the primary data nerveless. Though other aspects of social relations were explored, such as ethnicity, historic period, and position on the team, these factors did not yield any pregnant findings. Egoistic social network assay was used, due to its focus on individuals within a group and the anthropological roots of this method.

Egoistic network assay allowed for a fairly accurate analysis of each team. It can be posited that the analyses are substantially accurate because, having collected data from a minimum of five players per squad, and with each squad consisting of no more than than 13 players (National Basketball Association, 2011), a minimum of 38.v% of the squad has been accounted for, which is considered meaning (Hanneman and Riddle, 2005). Nevertheless, it should be reiterated that while the analyses are meaning for the iii teams examined, the findings exercise not necessarily apply to the entirety of collegiate and professional person basketball society, every bit number of collegiate and professional person teams is vast.

Despite the inability to collect social network data from every member on each team, enough data was gathered to create an egocentric social network analysis for two collegiate teams and i professional team. The players from the collegiate social networks varied in the number of years they had attended schoolhouse and their level of completion, from freshman to senior, and they also differed in age and were of varying skill levels on their corresponding teams. The analyses indicate that, through their tattoos, or lack thereof, the bodies of the players become symbolically charged, acting as a fundamental to their social relations. The tattooed or not-tattooed condition of basketball players influences how their bodies are interpreted past others. Thus, the social networks of players on a team are defined through the tattooed status of an private, such that a potent factor in determining the social networks is the tattoos themselves.

Every role player, when asked who they spent time with socially, made information technology articulate that they got along with their whole team and that subgroups within the team did non exist. However, when pressed, every player had a list of people on the team that they got along with well and spent significantly more than fourth dimension with socially. The players did non purposely effort to spend time with other players who were statistically better or worse than them because, as one informant noted, "From the best player to the worst player on the team, the worst player thinks that he can accept that all-time actor. And the best actor fears it." The same mentality was echoed by well-nigh every player interviewed, both collegiate and professional.

Figure 4

The beginning social network is from a university on the Due west Coast of the U.s.. V individuals provided data for this egocentric network. Figure 4 is a graphical representation of the network; players A, B, C, and D all have tattoos, and individual E does not. The members with tattoos all mentioned each other and individual East during their interviews, but no one else on the team. Player Due east acts as the liaison between the tattooed clique and the residuum of the (non-tattooed) basketball team. Player F was not interviewed, so social network information for him was not inferred or implemented into the diagram.

Figure 5 is some other graphical representation of a social network, this time from a university in the Southeast region of the U.S. The social network consists of the seven individuals who provided information for the network. Players K, H, I, J, Chiliad, and L all had tattoos, while players M, N, O, and P did not. Like to Figure four, the players with tattoos all named each other, establishing a clique, while thespian Yard acted as the master liaison and N equally the secondary liaison to the rest of the (non-tattooed) team. Players N, O, and P did not provide data; yet, they were not-tattooed players, and (with the exception of Player N, who was noted past histrion H) they were only mentioned by histrion M.

Figure 5

Figure half dozen is a 2-dimensional graphical rendering of a social network depicting a professional basketball game squad in a Midwestern U.Due south. urban center. Of the 9 players depicted in the social network, 6 provided information. Players Q, R, Due south, T, and Y had tattoos, but actor Y was unavailable to provide information. Of the remaining players, U and V provided information, but Due west and X were unavailable. Like to the other two social networks, the tattooed players, discounting player Y due to the absence of data for him, are in a clique. If we were to bookkeeping for histrion Y, the tattooed group would exist labeled as a 1000-core, which, for the purpose of these data, is a negligible alter, then I will refer to information technology as a clique. Actor U acted as the liaison for the cliques that, with the presence of two not-tattooed players, were starting to develop.

Figure 6

The information from the three social networks indicate that, with the exception of one or two liaisons, the tattooed players and non-tattooed players were spending their social fourth dimension separately. The actual status of beingness tattooed is not of import, just rather the general knowledge of this status among the teammates. As such, the tattooed body office, normally in a place hands displayed on the basketball game court or in the locker room, supports the idea proposed in the previous section: the act of tattooing is a pseudo-rite of passage. The divisions in the social networks suggest that there is a social bulwark between the individuals who are tattooed and those who are non in both the professional and collegiate groups. Furthermore, considering there are liaisons in all 3 social networks, these social barriers must be at to the lowest degree semi-permeable to allow for the substitution of ideas or information.

CONCLUSIONS
Gimmicky collegiate and professional basketball game players, either through purposeful engagement with the public or past sheer happenstance, have established an iconic epitome of tattoos in the modern world. For all the physical prowess, fame, power, and wealth that these basketball players enjoy, 1 must wonder if it just obfuscates something larger. With all the accolades these individuals receive, their humanity is often lost, and they become objectified. When their humanity is lost, it becomes hard to see that they are but individuals, subject to cultural pressures and influences. While collegiate and professional person basketball game players are members of United States culture and subject to cultural pressures, they also belong to their own subculture, which is every bit complex.

The discussion of the tattoos showed that all of the players, professional and collegiate, ascribed personal meanings or stories to their tattoos. The personal level of these meanings, coupled with the permanence of a tattoo, connects tattoos to the expression of identity. Furthermore, despite the personal nature of some stories, players are still receiving tattoos in almost exclusively highly visible locations on their bodies. Since the tattoos are on such visible locations, they human action as a form of nonverbal communication aimed at other players and fans. In this way, the bodies of players become chatty texts through the presence of tattoos. The presence of tattoos also acts equally nonverbal communication about skill. The presence, or lack, of tattoos expresses intimidation and respect, which other players can read. The players reading these symbols are able to size up their opponents before any gameplay fifty-fifty begins. Because receiving tattoos is a procedure that changes the condition in which a player is viewed by his peers, the process is a pseudo-rite of passage that aligns the tattoos closely with the identity of players.

Discussing the social networks of three teams explains that, while the players said that they were friends with everyone on their team, the bulk of their free time was spent with other players who, like them, either had tattoos or lacked them. Each tattooed or non-tattooed clique had one or 2 liaisons who connected the squad every bit a whole. While tattoos cannot be isolated as the determining factor, the prove presented here is grounds for the argument that tattoos are a major gene in determining social relations. Equally such, this topic addresses the concepts of nonverbal communication and operation, as it is articulate that tattoos play a major role in defining the players' social networks, which, in turn, play a large role in identity affirmation. Furthermore, the cliques illustrate that inside the professional person and collegiate basketball subcultures, there are clear social boundaries, and these must be maintained through operation. All the same, the boundaries are semi-permeable, which allows for the exchange of ideas, information, and necessary cooperation amongst all groups inside the subculture.

APPLICATIONS IN SPORT
Undoubtedly in that location are more analyses that can be done with this data fix and concepts to unpack. For the purposes of this commodity, we have intentionally glossed over the multifaceted concepts of race & ethnicity, performance of masculinity, contemporary & historical political economy theory, commodification of the body, personal identification, and the holistically connective notion of swag. While these ideas are present, covering them hither would exist far too lengthy. A substantial corporeality of information was collected and utilized to achieve the conclusions posited in this article. Nevertheless, future inquiry on this topic needs to done to fill up in gaps. As it stands, the data are non vast plenty to make statistically meaning conclusions regarding all of basketball social club; notwithstanding, the results lay the groundwork for time to come inquiry. Specifically, further research needs to increase the number of participants in both the collegiate and professional person sectors. Some other recommendation for further research is to use more participants on each team to collect stronger social network data. This would allow for the confirmation or modification of the ideas illustrated by the three teams analyzed here. Further research on this topic needs to continue to accept a varied regional context then that the data volition not exist region-specific. Such variation volition provide greater insight into the basketball game subculture as a whole. One further recommendation for future research is the continued usage of interdisciplinary literature for belittling thought. The benefits of interdisciplinary contributions for future enquiry include varied theoretical orientations, an increased amount of relevant literature, and the power to breach advice gaps between fragmented disciplines.

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