A Suggested Integrated Model of Reading Tattoos

Raed Dakhil Kareem; Ahmed Salih Daher

Raed Dakhil Kareem University of Kufa/ University of Kufa, Faculty of Education for Women, Iraq
Ahmed Salih Daher University of Kufa/ Faculty of Arts/ Department of English Language, Iraq

Keywords: Visual grammar, agony

Abstract

The uniqueness of tattoo images stems from their distinct way of image representation and use of semiotic elements. Numerous studies have therefore examined tattoo images, but no study has examined tattoo images from a multimodal discourse perspective. A multi-analytic model has been developed for the analysis of the chosen corpus. The adopted model is constructed on Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design by Kress and van Leeuwen (2021) and Text-Image Relations in Old and New Media by Martinec and Salway (2005). In order to bridge this gap, a visual and textual analysis of this study is conducted. The study has various aims. First, the study will focus primarily on the representational/ideational meaning of tattoos. The study also intends to investigate the applicability of tattoos' level of interactive/interpersonal significance. In addition, the study will reveal the compositional structures/textual significance of tattoos. The study will conclude by analysing and explaining how the text and images work together to create a comprehensive meaning. The current study is an attempt to broaden the visual framework's applicability to visual semiotic analysis of linguistic fields, which has previously been restricted to photographs and visual signs. This study suggests that images, like language, are rich in multiple potential meanings and are governed by clearly defined structures of visual grammar that can be used to decode these multiple meanings. Two Instagram social website images are analysed in terms of their representational, interactional, and compositional aspects.This study concludes, based on the results, that the findings support the visual grammar theory and emphasize the value of images as semiotic resources for communicating multilayered meanings. Utilizing a variety of visual modes, the analysis of the chosen images reveals a variety of visual relationships between the participants and the observers. Messages of loss of love or life; tortures or sufferings of diverse love, life, and death-related experiences.

References

1. Atkinson, M. (2003). Tattooed: The Sociogensis of a Body Art (Université of Toronto Press)
2. Brady, C. K. (2015). A MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF FEMALE K-POP MUSIC VIDEOS [Master’s dissertation, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK].
3. Csesznek, C., & Stemate, D. (2019). Tattoos as a Form of Expressing Identity and Perceptions of the Health Risk... Series VII: Social Sciences, 12 (61)(1). https://doi.org/ eries VII: Social Sciences • Law •https://doi.org/10.31926/but.ssl.2019.12.61.1.6
4. Berger, Arthur. (2010). The Objects of Affection: Semiotics and Consumer Culture. United State: Palgrave Macmillan.
5. Cobley, P. (2010). Cybersemiotics and human modelling. Entropy, 12(9), 2045-2066.‏
6. Fan, Jiang. (2006). Charles Morris‘s Semiotic Model and Analytical Studies of Visual and Verbal Representations in Technical Communication. J. Technical Writing and Communication, 36(2), 121-139.
7. Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd edn.)))) London: Arnold.
8. Hu, C., & Luo, M. (2016). A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Tmall’s Double Eleven Advertisement. English Language Teaching, 9, 156. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n8p156.
9. Jewitt, C. (2015). Multimodal analysis. In The Routledge handbook of language and digital communication (pp. 69-84). Routledge.‏
10. Leeuwen, Th. V. (2005). Introducing Social Semiotics. New York: Routledge.
11. Kress, Gunther. (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London& NewYork: Routledge.
12. Lodder, Matt (2010). Body Art: Body Modification as Artistic Practice. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Reading, Department of Art History.
13. Marchetti, Luca (2007). Dysfashional. Berkeley: BOM, The University of California Press.
14. Morgan, N. (2002). The truth behind the smile and other myths. Harvard Management Communication Letter, 5(8), August, 1–3. Online at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3123.html. Accessed 1 Jul 2010
15. O’Halloran, K. L. (2011). Multimodal discourse analysis. Companion to Discourse. London and New York: Continuum.‏
16. Van Leeuwen, T., & Jewitt, C. (Eds.). (2001). The handbook of visual analysis. Sage.‏
17. Torres, G. (2015). ‘Reading’ World Link: A Visual Social Semiotic Analysis of an EFL Textbook. International Journal of English Language Education, 3(1),239- 253.http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ijele.v3i1.7200.
18. Yao, Y., & Zhuo, Y. (2018). A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Promotional Video of Hangzhou. English Language Teaching, 11, 121. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v11n10p121.