Alexandria Jones
UNIV 112
Research Question: What is the significance of tattoos to people of different social
classes/cultures? How are they used as a method of establishing identity in certain
groups?
Bibliographic Information: Hiramoto, Mie. “Inked nostalgia: displaying identity
through tattoos as Hawaii local practice.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
Development. 36.2 (2014): 107-123. Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Background of Source: A professor at the National University of Singapore, Mie
Hiramoto has an educational focus on linguistics, more specifically in relation to
Japanese culture. As a linguist, Hiramoto has valuable knowledge about cultural
appreciation of language; moreover, the use of symbols as an alternative form of
language is explored in her analysis of Japanese tattoos.
Main Claim: Japanese texts are portrayed symbolically in the form of visual motifs
among Hawaiians of Japanese descent; moreover, oftentimes these motifs take the
form of tattoos.
Sub Claims:
1. Hawaiians with Japanese ancestry connect themselves to their culture
through tattooing.
2. Removal from the native Japanese culture does not play that big a role in
determining who gets tattoos
3. There is a rift in the interpretation of the meaning behind Japanese cultural
texts and tattoos among native Japanese and those who have immigrated to
Hawaii.
Evidence:
1. Oftentimes, Hawaiians get tattoos of kanji, or Chinese characters, in order to
link themselves symbolically to their Japanese culture.
2. For people who do not use the Japanese language, getting tattooed with
imagery of Chinese characters
3. After the period between 1885 and 1924 when over 200,000 plantation
workers emigrated from Japan to Hawaii, the Japanese language and text
they brought along with them began to evolve as the workers transitioned
from speaking Japanese to English. This transition affected the interpretation
of the Japanese language.
Quotations & Responses:
 “As a result of the physical mobility of people and globalisation in general,
relationships between meanings and signs can go through a number of
changes. The concept of ‘moving texts’ proposed by Blommaert and his
colleagues offers an approach to the sociolinguistics of globalisation (e.g.

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Blommaert 2007; Blommaert and Dong 2010; Kroon, Dong, and Blommaert
2011). (Hiramoto).” This quote is important in the understanding of how
language can evolve over time and with the movement of people to different
areas. Certain symbols and languages have different contexts in different
locations and situations so with the idea of “moving texts” one is able to
imagine the implications.
“When people move, language gains mobility along with them. For example,
signs travel across different spaces while changing their shapes rather
unproblematically; however, meanings and values that are indexed with the
signs do not always travel very well (Kroon, Dong, and Blommaert 2011, 2).
(Hiramoto).” Meaning is often drawn from situations that the person or
group drawing meaning can relate to. This quote describes the evolution of
the meanings of symbols relative to where these symbols are interpreted.
“While Hawaii locals of Japanese heritage may have limited understanding of
the local kanji or kana tattoos, Japanese from Japan tend to comprehend the
specific referential meanings due to the orthographic transparency.
(Hiramoto).” This quote is important because it describes the two different
ways that native Japanese and Japanese-Americans native to Hawaii
interpret Japanese symbols.
“After Captain Cook’s visit to the islands in 1778, migrations to Hawaii from
various parts of the world started, mainly for commercial purposes including
whaling, sandalwood trading and plantations (Kawamoto 1993) (Hiramoto).”
This quote reiterates Captain Cook’s voyage to Polynesia, setting up historical
context for Hawaiian culture at the time.
“While it is not rare for non-locals to get memorabilia tattoos of Hawaii, their
tattoos are based on individual experiences and they do not work as a
membership token. However, local tattooees symbolise their often multilayered local identity through local tattoos which, though they have more
predictable content and style, serve to link them to the broader pan-Asian
culture found in Hawaii (Hiramoto).” This quote shows the difference
between those who get tattoos just to document events in their lives as
opposed to those who use tattoos as an identifier of culture and unique life
narratives of one specific individual
Questions & Conclusions: This article does a good job at analyzing Hawaiian
culture relative both to its early history as well as to the point where people began
immigrating to the land from Japan. Native Japanese perspectives vary from the
Japanese-American perspective native to in regards to symbolism.