Professional Identity and Career of Tattoo Artists in St. Petersburg: From Craft to Art

Institutional changes are gradually changing the modern labor market. The line between profession and non-profession, work and non-work is not always clear. This work represents an attempt to conceptualize professionalization through constructing career paths, professional standards and image of professionalism then realized in professional identity. The study used 28 in-depth semi-structured interviews with tattoo artists of St. Petersburg. On the basis of the interview, career paths of tattoo artists, shared standards of the professional field, as well as a subjective evaluation of the formation of professional identity were described. The results of the study show how modern non-organizational professional fields are forming nowadays. Key words: professionalization, professionalism, tattoo artists, professional identity.