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Article published In: Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 12:2 (2026) ► pp.115–139

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The skin of belonging

Acts of linguistic citizenship through skinscapes

ORCiD logo with link | Monash University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

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Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Monash University.

Published online: 29 September 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.25016.ski
Abstract
This article explores the construction of cultural identity and belonging through a case study of a young woman of Korean heritage, living in Australia, and her use of tattoos in claiming linguistic citizenship (Stroud, Christopher (2001). African mother-tongue programmes and the politics of language: Linguistic citizenship versus linguistic human rights. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 22(4), 339–355. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2018). Linguistic citizenship. In Lisa Lim, Christopher Stroud & Lionel Wee (Eds.), The Multilingual Citizen: Towards a Politics of Language for Agency and Change (pp. 17–39). Bristol: Channel View Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Stroud, Christopher, Quentin Williams, Ndimphiwe Bontiya, Janine Harry, Koki Kapa, Jaclisse Mayoma, Sibonile Mpendukana, Amiena Peck, Jason Richardson & Shanleigh Roux (2020). Talking parts, talking back: Fleshing out linguistic citizenship. Trabalhos Em Linguística Aplicada, 59(3), 1636–1658. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The study uses the concept of skinscapes (Peck, Amiena & Christopher Stroud (2015). Skinscapes. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1–2), 133–151. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Peck, Amiena & Quentin Williams (2019). Skinscapes and friction: An analysis of zef hip-hop “stoeka-style” tattoos. In Amiena Peck, Christopher Stroud, & Quentin Williams (Eds.), Making Sense of People and Place in Linguistic Landscapes, (pp. 91–106). London: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Roux, Shanleigh, Amiena Peck & Felix Banda (2019). Playful female skinscapes: Body narrations of multilingual tattoos. International Journal of Multilingualism, 16(1), 25–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) to analyse how she disrupts state-level, top-down notions of citizenship through semiotic claims to belonging, exemplified in tattoos that draw upon imagery that align with fluid notions of heritage and origin. Skinscapes in this study are shown to be material-discursive objects that are at once transformative and transgressive, allowing the bearer to make choice and agency the defining characteristics of a transpositional cultural identity (Li, Wei & Tong King Lee (2024). Transpositioning: Translanguaging and the liquidity of identity. Applied Linguistics, 45(5), 873–888. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
개요
이 연구는 호주에 거주하는 한국계 젊은 여성을 사례로 하여, 그녀가 문신을 통해 언어적 시민권(Stroud, Christopher (2001). African mother-tongue programmes and the politics of language: Linguistic citizenship versus linguistic human rights. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 22(4), 339–355. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2018). Linguistic citizenship. In Lisa Lim, Christopher Stroud & Lionel Wee (Eds.), The Multilingual Citizen: Towards a Politics of Language for Agency and Change (pp. 17–39). Bristol: Channel View Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Stroud, Christopher, Quentin Williams, Ndimphiwe Bontiya, Janine Harry, Koki Kapa, Jaclisse Mayoma, Sibonile Mpendukana, Amiena Peck, Jason Richardson & Shanleigh Roux (2020). Talking parts, talking back: Fleshing out linguistic citizenship. Trabalhos Em Linguística Aplicada, 59(3), 1636–1658. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar)을 주장하는 과정에서 문화적 정체성과 소속감이 어떻게 구성되는지를 탐구한다. 연구는 스킨스케이프(skinscapes)라는 개념(Peck, Amiena & Christopher Stroud (2015). Skinscapes. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1–2), 133–151. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Peck, Amiena & Quentin Williams (2019). Skinscapes and friction: An analysis of zef hip-hop “stoeka-style” tattoos. In Amiena Peck, Christopher Stroud, & Quentin Williams (Eds.), Making Sense of People and Place in Linguistic Landscapes, (pp. 91–106). London: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Roux, Shanleigh, Amiena Peck & Felix Banda (2019). Playful female skinscapes: Body narrations of multilingual tattoos. International Journal of Multilingualism, 16(1), 25–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar)을 활용하여, 그녀가 국가적 차원에서 위로부터 부여되는 시민권 개념을 어떻게 전복하고, 유동적인 혈통과 기원의 개념과 맞닿은 이미지를 활용한 문신을 통해 소속감을 의미론적으로 주장하는지를 분석한다. 본 연구에서 스킨스케이프는 물질-담론적 객체로서 동시에 변혁적이면서도 전복적인 성격을 지니며, 이를 통해 주체가 선택과 주체성을 초국가적 문화 정체성의 핵심적 특징으로 만들 수 있음을 보여준다 (Li, Wei & Tong King Lee (2024). Transpositioning: Translanguaging and the liquidity of identity. Applied Linguistics, 45(5), 873–888. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Citizenship
  • 2.Skinscapes
  • 3.Youngeun
  • 4.Snakes
  • 5.Tiger, Tiger
  • 6.The white rabbit
  • 7.Discussion: Fragmented assemblages
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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