This book attempts to discover why so many Canadians are now turning to tattooing as a form of personal expression (13). Atkinson bases his answer on the work of Norbert Elias (1897-1990) and on a theory of “figurative sociology” as well as on data from 65 tattoo enthusiasts and 27 tattoo artists from Calgary and Toronto, data collected using the ethnographic method. participant observation (here called ethnosociology). A figuration is defined as “a set of social actors linked together by chains or networks of interdependence” and replaces the concept of society (4). The term sociogenesis refers to the long-term, even historical, processes that constitute the “genesis” of current society. Since the self is constructed through controlling agents or “civilizing processes” of the network of social relations (9), psychogenesis is understood as the “development of personality structures within specific figurations” (8). These personalities are our “second nature,” those seemingly taken-for-granted “ways (i.e., habits) of experiencing, using, and interpreting” our bodies (8). As Atkinson interprets it, the body is a site of social control, a "text of civilization," and what constitutes appropriate or inappropriate bodily exposure has much to say about current cultural values ​​and meanings related to the body. Therefore, an investigation into tattooing as a body modification should provide insight into the evolution of figurations (dependencies between individuals) and the changing meanings of bodies, their presentation and representation, in culture and society. Atkinson reviews theories from the social sciences, particularly those from psychology and anthropology, which are found wanting, thereby establishing the theory of sociogenesis as a means of understanding the...... middle of paper.. ....tattoos to parents because they are afraid of parental anger and rejection), deviance, group membership, self-identity and more. Little attention is paid to why many Canadians who are not passionate about tattooing find the practice more acceptable than in the past. Thus, figurations are Durkheimian social facts: external, general and coercive. The individual is caught up in society but sometimes resists it, sometimes unconsciously (by modifying his body) and sometimes consciously (by modifying his body). Yet we do not have the insight into current cultural values ​​and body-related meanings that this study promised. Despite many interesting forays into the subject, Atkinson never really answers the question of why more Canadians are tattooing their bodies, beyond exploring this phenomenon in functionalist terms as a form of deviance (a process of decivilization).).