Final Blogs.

As we continued to get further into knowing our sites to construct our final paper, it was time to really get to know the people that worked there too, it was time to get the "whole story."  My favorite blogs in this section have to do with secondary research and what I would have done differently about my observations to make my third paper even stronger, but to make my fourth paper that much better.
The first blog entry is almost like a practice annotated bibliography.  This blog entry was just the start of my research on how tattoos came about, why people choose to get tattoos, and some of the health risks of getting a tattoo.  In this blog, I not only analyzed and picked out the key points of journal article, but I also inputed how it would be helpful to my paper, and my personal opinions on the paper and the information it contained.
The second blog in this section is about the person I interviewed and what I learned from him, and it is also about what I would have changed or done differently thus far in the whole project.  This blog entry also includes me admitting that I truly did not know about tattoos before actually doing any research.  I had these biases about tattoos and the people that got them because of my parents view, but I had really no logical reason to have these biases.  Though my biases were confirmed after visiting the site several times, I now had proof and reason to have these biases, because I saw everything with my own eyes.

Thursday, 8 April 2010

Looking Back

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Ok, so the third paper is all done, which was based upon the secondary research (annotated bibliography) and interviews. There is one more paper to go, to finish this semester long project. We are asked to reflect, though, on our project as a whole and see what is missing. I realized after my interviews how much tattoo artists and shops really do depend on getting customers through word of mouth. I really wish I would have asked some customers how they heard about this place, and I would definitely do more research on marketing tattoo shops in my secondary research just as to better understand the importance of word of mouth.
Danny's Ancient Art Tattoos is a place where people can come and express themselves. The person I interviewed, Chris Toler, is one of the nicest people I have met. His site is
: 
Chris Toler. It is open to any ideas for tattoos, but the artists ask one thing, that if you have a hand drawn piece that you have created and you have brought in, they want to change it up a little, in hopes of making it even better, but also it allows the artist to put their name on that tattoo, because they made with their own style. The artists always put their customers first. They will spend hours drawing a tattoo for a customer and sometimes in the end it is not what the customer wants, yet they continue drawing again until they achieve what the customer wants.
I still possess the same biases towards people that obtain tattoos though. Most people do have their ears gaged or do have a different color such as pink or purple in their hair. Most do wear baggy clothes and have long hair. A main color of choice is black. The people at the tattoo place, speaking about the men that work there, because they are nice, unlike the female that works there, are very open to discuss and explain anything. I just love talking to them and learning more about them, because it is so cool. Well that is it for now, I have only gotten three hours of sleep the last two days, so I am going to bed!

Friday, 26 March 2010

Secondary Source

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Our assignment for tonight was to find a secondary source related to our topic we have been studying throughout the semester and right a summary about it and how it relates to our topic.
I found a piece called
 Body Art, Deviance, and American College Students, which is very helpful in supporting my biases against people with tattoos. This article talks about how the average college student that has four or more tattoos and seven or more piercings is more likely to smoke marijuana and abuse alcohol. I will restate again that one of my biases with people that have tattoos is they like to rebel. The article also goes on to state that tattoos do tell a story, but the story could be a symbol or jail time or a gang. People with many tattoos are also deemed by researchers as anti-social or having multiple sex partners.
All of this information found in this secondary source only supports my biases, but gives real examples of them, which will ultimately help make my paper stronger and more reliable. My biases are not just my thinking, but the thoughts of others, too. I will use the examples listed in this paper to back up my biases.


Looking back from my midterm blogs to the final blogs, my writing has become even stronger.  I support the things I have written in my final blog entries compared to my midterm blog entries by examples and research. Also, the length of my final blog entries are longer, because they contain more description and support, which is what makes my writing stronger and more supportive.
These blogs are the best, because they showcase the diversity of my writing.  They not only showcase my ability to incorporate research and my opinions on a subject matter, but they showcase my ability to look back on a situation and find ways I can improve and be the best writer I can be.  These blogs also incorporated URLs for sites, which were very relevant to the subject at hand and pictures, which also help to not only add design to my blog through the different colors of texts, but it also keeps my blogs entertaining.