earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to grasp the characteristics of expression, function, and role of athletes’ tattoos and to establish the symbolic meanings of tattoos as subculture expressed inthe social groups to which the athletes belong. To achieve this purpose, the following three research questions were established. First, how do the athletes approach tattoos? Second, what is the athletes’process of giving symbolic meanings to tattoos? Third, what are the symbolic meanings of athletes’ tattoo? As the research method, the purposeful sampling in the nonprobability sampling was used and the research participants were 6 active male athletes in four different events in university, and business sports professional teams. The text analysis was conducted on the collected data, and the following results were derived. First, in the athletes’ approach to tattoos, demand for new body, the sense of unity with colleagues and expression of cohesiveness, decoupling in the team, challenge to physical expression, and cultural curiosity were found. Second, in the athletes’ process of giving meanings to tattoos, healing of painful wound, symbol of fight, expression of superiority, formation of organization, and the message of hope and affirmation were found. Third, in the symbolic meanings for athletes, it was found that control (overcoming self-weaknesses), independence (free will as an athlete), purposefulness (longing for victory), confidence (self-belief through repetitive order) were being formed.