Contemporary tattoos practices have not, so far, been the subject of much philosophical investigation. Philosophers – apart from a few sporadic publications that have handled the topic of tattoos mostly from the point of view of aesthetics – have not yet shown a general interest in those indelible marks on the skin, frequently born in marginal contexts and often polemical towards the social order. Thus, while the subject of ink on skin intrigued anthropologists and sociologists, tattoos left philosophers indifferent, unable to see it as privileged lens through which to investigate identity, the sense of belonging, and – above all – the dialectic between individual and community.

The challenge proposed by Federico Vercellone in his book is precisely this: to use the enormous popularity of tattoos to interrogate certain macroscopic specificities of the present time. And to address the fundamental misunderstanding originated by this popularity: that between authenticity and truth. The latter is, by definition, universal. Authenticity, on the other hand, is a personal expression. Through symbols grafted onto the body, subjectivity becomes, for everyone, truth. One’s own truth, embodied.

Tattoos, in short, bear witness to a crucial shift: having lost its democratic and universalist ambition, Western culture turns to nostalgia. To circumscribed, related communities, capable of accommodating our specific uniqueness. Authentic groups, perhaps. But also polarized, entrenched, lacking shared criteria for reading the world.