Opinion ID: 175055
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Tattooing Process

Text: Our next task is to determine whether the process of tattooing is purely expressive activity. We hold that it is. Spence 's sufficiently imbued test has been reserved for processes that do not produce pure expression but rather produce symbolic conduct that, on its face, does not necessarily convey a message. Cohen, 403 U.S. at 18, 91 S.Ct. 1780. Burning a flag, see Johnson, 491 U.S. at 411, 109 S.Ct. 2533, burning a draft card, see O'Brien, 391 U.S. at 370, 88 S.Ct. 1673, and wearing a black armband, see Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 505-06, 89 S.Ct. 733, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969), can be done for reasons having nothing to do with any expression, and so require an interpretive step to determine the expressive elements of these processes. However, neither the Supreme Court nor our court has ever drawn a distinction between the process of creating a form of pure speech (such as writing or painting) and the product of these processes (the essay or the artwork) in terms of the First Amendment protection afforded. Although writing and painting can be reduced to their constituent acts, and thus described as conduct, we have not attempted to disconnect the end product from the act of creation. Thus, we have not drawn a hard line between the essays John Peter Zenger published and the act of setting the type. Cf. Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co. v. Minn. Comm'r of Revenue, 460 U.S. 575, 582, 103 S.Ct. 1365, 75 L.Ed.2d 295 (1983) (holding that a tax on ink and paper burdens rights protected by the First Amendment). The process of expression through a medium has never been thought so distinct from the expression itself that we could disaggregate Picasso from his brushes and canvas, or that we could value Beethoven without the benefit of strings and woodwinds. In other words, we have never seriously questioned that the processes of writing words down on paper, painting a picture, and playing an instrument are purely expressive activities entitled to full First Amendment protection. Tattooing is a process like writing words down or drawing a picture except that it is performed on a person's skin. As with putting a pen to paper, the process of tattooing is not intended to symbolize anything. Rather, the entire purpose of tattooing is to produce the tattoo, and the tattoo cannot be created without the tattooing process any more than the Declaration of Independence could have been created without a goose quill, foolscap, and ink. Thus, as with writing or painting, the tattooing process is inextricably intertwined with the purely expressive product (the tattoo), and is itself entitled to full First Amendment protection. We are further persuaded by the fact that the process of tattooing is more akin to traditional modes of expression (like writing) than the process involved in producing a parade, which the Supreme Court has held cannot be meaningfully separated from the parade's expressive product in terms of the constitutional protection afforded. See Hurley, 515 U.S. at 568, 115 S.Ct. 2338 (holding that [p]arades are . . . a form of expression, not just motion, and noting the inherent expressiveness of marching). Thus, we have no difficulty holding that the tattooing process is entitled to the same First Amendment protection as the process of parading. Moreover, it makes no difference whether or not, as the district court determined, the customer has [the] ultimate control over which design she wants tattooed on her skin. The fact that both the tattooist and the person receiving the tattoo contribute to the creative process or that the tattooist, as Anderson put it, provide[s] a service, does not make the tattooing process any less expressive activity, because there is no dispute that the tattooist applies his creative talents as well. Under the district court's logic, the First Amendment would not protect the process of writing most newspaper articlesafter all, writers of such articles are usually assigned particular stories by their editors, and the editors generally have the last word on what content will appear in the newspaper. Nor would the First Amendment protect painting by commission, such as Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel. As with all collaborative creative processes, both the tattooist and the person receiving the tattoo are engaged in expressive activity.