Mohammad Rokib, Syamsul Sodiq
Tattooing is becoming increasingly popular in the predominantly Muslim country of Indonesia. While mainstream society continues to perceive the tattooing practice negatively, many individual Muslims attach positive personal meaning to tattooing. This paper provides some of the academic insights into contemporary perceptions of tattooing among Indonesian Muslims. It focuses on the existence of 'Punk Muslims' community whose tattoos form an important part of their cultural identity and on responses to their tattooing practices from the wider society. Data were collected by means of individual interviews, a focus group discussion, and interactive social media communication. This paper reveals that Punk Muslim community has personal meaning of tattoo, while society has different perception. This community considers to maintain their cultural identity as punker symbolized by tattoo and Islam signed by worship.
Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia
