Abstract:
The research theme deals with a study of the religiosities presented in the tattoos on the bodies of teenagers from the Novo Hamburgo Foundation for Socio-Educational Service - FASE, through religious images and symbols. Through bibliographical and field (social) research, questionnaires were administered to a universe of forty adolescents. Of the forty, ten were without tattoos, answering why they didn't have a tattoo. The remaining thirty answered questions about their tattoos and their religiosity, creating graphs with non-quantitative data (basic statistics). During the application of the questionnaires, five teenagers out of the thirty with tattoos were selected for a semi-structured interview based on semi-structured topics. The results of the interviews were audio recorded and digitalized as a methodological tool for research. In addition, there was a field diary recorded during the six visits in the Novo Hamburgo FASE – which helped to create the dense ethnographic description of the first chapter. The data were used in the three chapters, that is, the graphs, the field diary and the recording of the interviews. Only the photos of tattoos collected during the interviews were used only in the second and third chapters. The main authors used were Clifford Geertz (culture and religion), Erik Erikson (adolescence and human development), José Bittencourt Filho and Adilson Schultz (religiosity and popular religiosity), Silvana Jeha (Tattoo) and Mircea Eliade and José Maria Mardones (images and symbols). As for the findings, the tattoos as a whole present the sociocultural relationships of adolescents divided into four categories, related to a lifestyle. In other words, tattoos that express elements considered sacred and/or religious to them; those that are part of everyday life - related to leisure, but also with moments of reflection and search for meaning; those that demonstrate a goal, such as a life dream – which in this case is to have a lot of money; and the obstacles or enemies that threaten the achievement of such objectives, that is, the State, represented by the police. Furthermore, it could be seen that there is a symbolic-cultural imitation, when the image and symbol of another is borrowed; Likewise, sharing common memories creates and strengthens the sense of community belonging, which means that not only can these individuals who have been far from their homes still feel part of that social nucleus, but it also creates a new community bond between them. As for religiosity and tattoos, the approaches and contacts with teenagers allowed a mapping and perception of the religions that are said to be linked, which are related to the Brazilian religious matrix and popular religiosity. The other tattoos are associated with cultural issues, represented by mass culture and/or pop culture.
