Exploring the Narratives of Tattoos and Graffiti as Second Language Literacies in the City

• In Event: Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Writing and Literacies SIG Roundtable 8: What Counts as Writing? Tattoos, Graffiti, Blogs, and Other Sites of Display

Abstract

Since 2013, our research team has discovered that English is no longer “foreign” to Colombian language ecologies. As a follow-up to our initial research on physical spaces, this study provides a more personal dimension of these second language literacies. Through our conceptual framework of “city as literacy” and narrative ethnography as our method of inquiry, our data inquires on why urban dwellers choose to write words in English on their skin (tattoos) and on the walls of our city (graffiti). Our data indicates that the particular affordances of English, including its choices of language economy, provide more powerful alternative and mores spaces for transgression for these second language users to explore their own heritage, social situatedness, and identity at large.

Authors

• Raul Alberto Mora, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Tatiana Chiquito, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Maryori Giraldo, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Natalia Ramirez, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Sara Uribe, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana