What's at Stake?

I'm currently working on an essay, tentatively titled "Tattoo and Pain". The thesis is roughly, pain is undeniably apart of the tattoo process, what does pain have to do with tattoo? There is a history of deviance being associated with tattoo, and pain indeed plays a part in that line of thought. The psychological analyses on the subject of tattoo has cast the ritual in a pejorative light. The essay seeks to employ post-structuralist and postmodern approaches to the subject of pain's association with tattoo. What is at stake? First, problematizing psychology as a discipline, and second, leading the reader into a non-definitive space. I will draw on my own personal ethnographic research as well as existing literature broaching the subjects of pain, of tattoo, and of pain and tattoo. I will not be posting the actual essay simply because it reveals too much about me, and I am a fiercely private person. However, I will be posting a literature review.