Fans for life? Popular culture-inspired tattoos and the challenges of inscribed expressions of fandom

This article examines active practices of fandom and identity communication through the collection of fandom-based tattoos. Through an analysis of fan theory, the article argues that fans who express their devotion to media culture through tattooing engage in a distinctive act of active fandom that represents a bodily extension of Rojek’s concept of the fan reliquary, a religiously inspired repository of collected items and artefacts by which fans signify their fandom to inspiration figures (such as Taylor Swift). The article considers the critical issues relating to fans that have used their bodies as tattooed reliquaries, but for whom the designs have become problematic in the wake of negative social actions and cultural reactions towards the objects of the fandom, such as J.K. Rowling. Tattoos, therefore, signify a potent expression of fan identification, but their permanence makes them a risk in an unpredictable landscape of popular and media culture.