Processi di professionalizzazione, riconoscimento e ridefinizione identitaria : tatuatori e tatuatrici tra sottocultura e standardizzazione

This article analyses the professionalisation processes of tattooing based on qual-itative research conducted in Cagliari, as part of a broader ethnographic study carried out between 2018 and 2023. The contribution focuses on tattoo artists who devel-oped their practice within subcultural networks linked to punk, skateboarding and DIY attitudes. The analysis shows that professionalisation does not coincide with normative institutionalisation and the standardisation of training pathways, but rather takes shape as a continuum between forms of self and heterorecognition, negotiated through craft practices, community relations, shared subcultural codes and everyday work organisation. The analysis highlights a redefinition of the group's identity and professional boundaries as an hybrid space between art, craft and regu-lated profession, where the recognition of work is constructed through the tension between subcultural belonging, standardisation and internal self-regulation practices. [Publisher's text]