TY - JOUR AU - Dougherty, Kevin AU - Kane, Jake AU - Wilkinson, Renae PY - 2017/10/16 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Campus Tattoos Project JF - TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology JA - TRAILS VL - IS - SE - DO - UR - https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/campus-tattoos-project SP - AB - In the United States, there is a growing acceptance and embrace of tattoos, especially among younger generations. Tattoos hold powerful messages of identity and belonging ripe for sociological exploration. The Campus Tattoos Project (CTP) is an innovative, semester-long assignment that uses tattoos to teach sociological concepts and methods. Students engage in research and reflection in four reports. The first report is a deductive analysis using original survey data to answer the research question: Who has a tattoo at the university? The second and third reports are inductive, content analysis studies using photos of tattoos taken by students for the project. Report 2 focuses on stratification. Students analyze photos to answer the research question: How do tattoos differ by race, ethnicity, or gender (students choose one) at the university? Social institutions are the topic of Report 3. Students again analyze photos taken of campus tattoos throughout the semester to assess: What social institutions are most commonly depicted in students’ tattoos on campus? The final report requires students to design and describe their own tattoo, with particular attention to the interrelationships of status, group, and social institution. The Campus Tattoos Project provides an intriguing and meaningful way for students to learn sociology by doing sociology. We used the project in a very large introductory course, but it is readily adaptable to a wide range of sociological courses regardless of size. ER -