Journal #5

I would say that the three most important factors of everyday writing are setting, purpose, and informality. The setting of a text determines the context of the writing, and therefore its overall meaning. Depending on the location, time, and place, the same text could mean very different things to a given audience. For example, the ZEPPELIN ROCKS!!! graffiti was inappropriate on the wall meant for 9/11 reactions, but it would likely be accepted on a wall near a concert venue. The purpose of a text is essential to everyday writing because most everyday writing is written for a specific purpose. A zine would be written to share ideas. A text could be seemingly random, but the purpose of that piece of writing could be to fight off boredom. This brings in the third aspect of everyday writing- informality. Because it is "everyday" writing, it has to be something that can be produced easily and that is casual, something that doesn't necessarily require much forethought.

Tattoos fit into the scope of everyday writing because they satisfy the main points mentioned above. The setting of a tattoo is of course on a person's skin, but the location on the body can influence the overall meaning found by the audience. A tattoo of birds on the wrist might mean something different than if they were placed somewhere else. In Brouwer's "The Precarious Visibility Politics of Self-Stigmatization: The Case of HIV/AIDS Tattoos", some people who tested as HIV positive got tattoos on their arms to "publicize their infection". Their purpose is clear by the location and content of the tattoo. The text was placed somewhere it could be easily seen by the public, showing "what would otherwise remain hidden or unknown." The informality of tattoos is more in reference to the unschooled nature of tattoo artistry. Though some aspects of tattooing are schooled, the art and interpretation are left up to the tattoo artist. This is also seen in other forms of everyday writing, because letters are derived from what is taught in school, but the actual letter format and the content is for the writer to choose.