This paper addresses Bucholtz and Hall’s (2016) call to focus on the
processes constituting ‘embodied sociolinguistics” by exploring the
complexity of marking both trauma and tattoos on the body. We report on
several months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Sydney area, following
the social networks of the second author, a tattoo artist providing pro
bono work for people bearing breast cancer surgery scars. Drawing on a
corpus of photography and audio/video interviews, our research explores
the relationship between tattooing and the physical reminders of breast
cancer. We probe the notion of corporal expressions of agency in
contexts where an individual paradoxically has none - and through this
paradox, interrogate the role of embodied semiotics in the process of
regaining spatial agency for non-normative bodies.