The Construction of Knowledge in the Work of a Tattoo Artist: A Look from the Perspective of Aesthetics

Becker, Rúbia Goi; Campos, Simone Alves Pacheco de; Antonello, Claudia Simone

doi:10.1590/1984-92302021v28n9905EN

Rúbia Goi Becker

Federal University of Santa Maria , Santa Maria , Brazil

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6774-6294

Simone Alves Pacheco de Campos

Federal University of Santa Maria , Santa Maria , Brazil

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9627-7677

Claudia Simone Antonello

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul , Porto Alegre , Brazil

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9654-5125

Associate Editor: Josiane Oliveira

Authorship

Rúbia Goi Becker Master’s degree by Graduate Program in Administration by Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM).E-mail: rubiagoibecker@gmail.com

Simone Alves Pacheco de Campos PhD in Administration by Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Professor and researcher at the Department of Administrative Sciences and Graduate Program in Administration at the Federal University of Santa Maria.E-mail: simone.campos@ufsm.br

Claudia Simone Antonello PhD in Administration by Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Professor and researcher at the Graduate Program in Administration and School of Administration at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. E-mail: claudia.antonello@ufrgs.br

Conflict of interests

The authors have stated that there is no conflict of interest.

Authors’ contributions

FIrst author: conceptualization (equal), data curation (lead), formal analysis (lead), investigation (lead), methodology (lead), project administration (lead), resources (equal), supervision (lead), validation (equal), visualization (equal), writing – original draft (equal), writing-review and editing (equal).

Second author: conceptualization (equal), data curation (supporting), formal analysis (supporting), investigation (supporting), methodology (supporting), project administration (supporting), resources (equal), supervision (supporting), validation (equal), visualization (equal), writing – original draft (equal), writing-review and editing (equal).

Third author: conceptualization (equal), data curation (supporting), formal analysis (supporting), investigation (supporting), methodology (supporting), project administration (supporting), resources (equal), supervision (supporting), validation (equal), visualization (equal), writing – original draft (equal), writing-review and editing (equal).

Category	Description
Beautiful	Production of pleasant feeling and admiration that does not translate into words.
Sacred	Representations of what cannot be divided. It causes respect and idolatry. The legendary. The fantastic. The dreamlike. The archetype. That which is not related to organizational rationality, but rather to the divine and the inviolable.
Picturesque	Unusual or bizarre landscapes. A description of something colorful, informal, and emotional, highlighting the distinction between the aesthetic experience and its evocation.
Tragic	The mixed pleasure of suffering and its representation, in which the organizational actor’s heroism lies in challenging what is unknown and threatening.
Ugly	Asymmetrical, disproportionate, or poorly formulated. The representation of organizational alienation, in which mediocrity, bad taste, banality, and artificiality exist.
Agogical	Rhythm of activities and organizational phenomena, which can be unpleasant, slow, interrupted/prolonged, simple, and delicate.
Comic	Jokes between coworkers. Sarcasms about the professionalism of women or less skilled people. Provocative irony. Something that is ugly and smoothly demystified.
Sublime	Dignity and nobility of spirit of those who do it. It does not concern an order that is given, but rather one that may come to be.
Graceful	Enjoyment of what is seen and heard, caused by people or organizational artifacts, showing the refinement of work and people.

Name	Age	Time as a tattoo artist	City
Querubim	25	18 years	Torovieja, Spain
Picasso	33	16 years	Santa Maria (RS), Brazil
Rafael	32	13 years	Santa Maria (RS), Brazil
Caca	46	28 years	Santa Maria (RS), Brazil
Paulista	40	14 years	Ijuí (RS), Brazil
Tarsila	44	15 years	Frederico Westphalen (RS), Brazil
Ian	29	2 years	Ijuí (RS), Brazil
Guga	36	17 years	Santa Maria (RS), Brazil
Chico	42	21 years	Santa Maria (RS), Brazil
Bibi	32	16 years	Copenhagen, Denmark

Objective: To understand how and what knowledge constitutes the practice of tattooing in daily work
Guiding literature	Focus of observation
Organizational aesthetics Gherardi (2013)Gherardi, S. (2013). Prática? É uma questão de gosto! Revista Interdisciplinar de Gestão Social , 2 (1), 107-124. doi:10.9771/23172428rigs.v2i1.10047; Gherardi and Strati (2014)Gherardi, S., Strati, A. (2014). Administração e aprendizagem na prática . Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Elsevier.; Strati (1992Strati, A. (1992). Aesthetic underst anding of organizational life. Academy of Management Review , 17 (3), 568-581. doi:10.5465/amr.1992.4282009, 1999aStrati, A. (1999a). Organization and aesthetics . Londres: Sage., 2000Strati, A. (2000). The aesthetic approach in organization studies. In S. Linstead, H. Höpfl (Eds.), The aesthetics of organization (pp. 13-34). Londres: Sage., 2003Strati, A. (2003). Knowing in practice: Aesthetic understanding and tacit knowledge. In S. Gherardi, D. Nicolini (Orgs.), Knowing in organizations: A practice-based approach (pp. 53-75). Nova Iorque: M.E. Sharpe., 2007bStrati, A. (2007b). Organização e estética . Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Editora FGV.)	Identifying the presence of artifacts in carrying out the practice. How do subject-object interactions occur? How is taste produced? At what point does aesthetic judgment reveal itself? Identifying which sensible knowledge is activated in the practice of tattooing.
Knowledge at work Gherardi (2000Gherardi, S. (2000). Practice-based theorizing on learning and knowing in organizations. Organization , 7 (2), 211-223. doi:10.1177/135050840072001, 2006Gherardi, S. (2006). Organizational knowledge: The texture of workplace learning . Oxford: Blackwell., 2009Gherardi, S. (2009). Introduction: The critical power of the ‘practice lens’. Management Learning , 40 (2), 115-128. doi:10.1177/1350507608101225, 2011Gherardi, S. (2011). Organizational learning: The sociology of practice. In M. Easterby-Smith, M. Lyles (Eds.), Handbook of organizational learning, knowledge management (2a ed., pp. 43-65). Oxford: Blackwell., 2012Gherardi, S. (2012). How to conduct a practice-based study: Problems and methods . Massachusetts: Elgar., 2013Gherardi, S. (2013). Prática? É uma questão de gosto! Revista Interdisciplinar de Gestão Social , 2 (1), 107-124. doi:10.9771/23172428rigs.v2i1.10047); Gherardi and Nicollini (2001); Gherardi and Strati (2014)Gherardi, S., Strati, A. (2014). Administração e aprendizagem na prática . Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Elsevier.; Nicolini (2012)Nicolini, D. (2012). Practice theory, work, and organization: An introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press.; Strati (2003Strati, A. (2003). Knowing in practice: Aesthetic understanding and tacit knowledge. In S. Gherardi, D. Nicolini (Orgs.), Knowing in organizations: A practice-based approach (pp. 53-75). Nova Iorque: M.E. Sharpe., 2007aStrati, A. (2007a). Sensible knowledge and practice-based learning. Management learning , 38 (1), 61-77. doi:10.1177/1350507607073023); Rose (2007)Rose, M. (2007). O saber no trabalho: A valorização da inteligência do trabalhador . São Paulo, SP: Senac.	How is the practice performed? What are the knowledge and actions? What interactions are present in daily work? How does knowledge emerge from practice?

Theme	Description	Theoretical basis
Taste for drawing	Construction of knowledge that preceded the practice of tattooing.	Gherardi (2012Gherardi, S. (2012). How to conduct a practice-based study: Problems and methods . Massachusetts: Elgar., 2013Gherardi, S. (2013). Prática? É uma questão de gosto! Revista Interdisciplinar de Gestão Social , 2 (1), 107-124. doi:10.9771/23172428rigs.v2i1.10047); Gherardi and Strati (2014)Gherardi, S., Strati, A. (2014). Administração e aprendizagem na prática . Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Elsevier.; Strati (2007b).
Experiencing tattooing	First experience with the practice of tattooing, elucidating the moment when the individual discovers himself/herself as a practitioner.	Gherardi (2006Gherardi, S. (2006). Organizational knowledge: The texture of workplace learning . Oxford: Blackwell., 2013Gherardi, S. (2013). Prática? É uma questão de gosto! Revista Interdisciplinar de Gestão Social , 2 (1), 107-124. doi:10.9771/23172428rigs.v2i1.10047); Gherardi and Nicolini (2001)Gherardi, S., Nicolini, D. (2001). The sociological foundations of organizational learning. In M. Dierkes, A. Berthoin, J. Child, I. Nonaka (Orgs.), The handbook of organizational learning and knowledge (pp. 35-60). Oxford: Oxford University Press.; Nicolini (2012)Nicolini, D. (2012). Practice theory, work, and organization: An introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press.; Strati (2007b).
Becoming a tattoo artist	Knowledge is built on the relationships that occur between subjects and between subjects and objects. It is produced by practice and based on it, through a social, human, material, and aesthetic process.	Gherardi (2006Gherardi, S. (2006). Organizational knowledge: The texture of workplace learning . Oxford: Blackwell., 2009Gherardi, S. (2009). Introduction: The critical power of the ‘practice lens’. Management Learning , 40 (2), 115-128. doi:10.1177/1350507608101225); Gherardi and Miele (2018)Gherardi, S., Miele, F. (2018). Knowledge management from a social perspective: The contribution of practice-based studies. In J. Syed, P. A. Murray, D. Hislop, Y. Mouzughi (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of knowledge management (pp. 151-176). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.; Strati (2007b).
Professionalization	The practice of tattooing becomes refined by recombining behaviors and elements (material and discursive) and by the interaction between artifacts and practitioners, establishing an aesthetic judgment of right and wrong as well as imposing restrictions.	Gherardi (2012Gherardi, S. (2012). How to conduct a practice-based study: Problems and methods . Massachusetts: Elgar., 2013Gherardi, S. (2013). Prática? É uma questão de gosto! Revista Interdisciplinar de Gestão Social , 2 (1), 107-124. doi:10.9771/23172428rigs.v2i1.10047); Gherardi and Strati (2014)Gherardi, S., Strati, A. (2014). Administração e aprendizagem na prática . Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Elsevier.; Gherardi and Nicolini (2001)Gherardi, S., Nicolini, D. (2001). The sociological foundations of organizational learning. In M. Dierkes, A. Berthoin, J. Child, I. Nonaka (Orgs.), The handbook of organizational learning and knowledge (pp. 35-60). Oxford: Oxford University Press.; Strati (2007b).
From tattoo artist to tattoo artist	Communication of sensible experiences and sharing of ways of practicing institutionalized by norms of good practice.	Gherardi (2012)Gherardi, S. (2012). How to conduct a practice-based study: Problems and methods . Massachusetts: Elgar.; Gherardi and Strati (2014)Gherardi, S., Strati, A. (2014). Administração e aprendizagem na prática . Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Elsevier.; Strati (1992Strati, A. (1992). Aesthetic underst anding of organizational life. Academy of Management Review , 17 (3), 568-581. doi:10.5465/amr.1992.4282009, 1996Strati, A. (1996). Organizations viewed through the lens of aesthetics. Organization , 3 (2), 209-218. doi: 10.1177/135050849632004, 2003Strati, A. (2003). Knowing in practice: Aesthetic understanding and tacit knowledge. In S. Gherardi, D. Nicolini (Orgs.), Knowing in organizations: A practice-based approach (pp. 53-75). Nova Iorque: M.E. Sharpe., 2007bStrati, A. (2007b). Organização e estética . Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Editora FGV.).

[1] Associate Editor: Josiane Oliveira

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The Construction of Knowledge in the Work of a Tattoo Artist: A Look from the Perspective of Aesthetics

Abstract