The illusory infrastructure of ink: Machinic bodies and epidermic affects in Singapore

Abstract

This paper advances recent theorisations of the body-as-infrastructure by exploring the premise that there are multiple bodily infrastructures at play at any one time. It focusses on three infrastructural formations – the body, the skin that encases the body, and tattoos as visual inscriptions on the skin – that jostle against each other for representational primacy. The layering of infrastructure-upon-infrastructure leads to understandings of the self that exist in a state of tension with societal norms and the illusions of self-representation. Indeed, it is the intersecting gazes of society and the self that cause these infrastructures to become disaggregated, and representational politics to emerge. I illustrate these ideas through an empirical examination of tattooed bodies in Singapore. Singapore is a socially conservative city-state in which the body is implicated in the capitalist logics of development, and the aesthetic-aspirational logics of the Singaporean family. Tattooed Singaporeans must constantly negotiate these infrastructural overlaps and divergences amidst the growing trend towards more individualistic forms of self-expression and realisation. I argue that whilst the infrastructure of ink might be considered illusory, so too does it help to stabilise the self during times of uncertainty.