Flesh and Stone Revisited: The Body Work Landscape of South Florida

Abstract

This article seeks to demonstrate the value of producing still photographs as a way of comprehending the growth of the ‘body work economy’. It documents the body work landscape of contemporary capitalism through exploring the ubiquity, appearance and scale of body work enterprises and employment in two localities of south Florida. It focuses on health, social care and other services for the ageing population of retirees in southeast Florida, as well as on tattooing and other body work services for younger, fashionable residents of and visitors to South Beach, Miami. The article sees the photographs of body work enterprises it deploys as a kind of ethnographic evidence, similar in status to quotations from a fieldwork diary or interviews, and suggests that they may help to pinpoint issues that require further analytical exploration, in this case the role of body work as a component of economic development and patterns of employment. The article goes on to explore the reasons for the growth of the body work economy in south Florida.

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