This paper advances recent theorisations of the body-as-infrastructure by exploring the premise that there are multiple bodily infrastructures at play at any one time. It focusses on three infrastructural formations – the body, the skin that encases the body, and tattoos as visual inscriptions on the skin – that jostle against each other for representational primacy. The layering of infrastructure-upon-infrastructure leads to understandings of the self that exist in a state of tension with societal norms and the illusions of self-representation. Indeed, it is the intersecting gazes of society and the self that cause these infrastructures to become disaggregated, and representational politics to emerge. I illustrate these ideas through an empirical examination of tattooed bodies in Singapore. Singapore is a socially conservative city-state in which the body is implicated in the capitalist logics of development, and the aesthetic-aspirational logics of the Singaporean family. Tattooed Singaporeans must constantly negotiate these infrastructural overlaps and divergences amidst the growing trend towards more individualistic forms of self-expression and realisation. I argue that whilst the infrastructure of ink might be considered illusory, so too does it help to stabilise the self during times of uncertainty.

本文通过探索在任何时候都有多个身体基础设施在发挥作用的前提，推进了身体作为基础设施的最新理论。它关注三种基础结构——身体、包裹身体的皮肤，以及皮肤上视觉铭文的纹身——它们相互争夺代表性的首要地位。基础设施的分层导致了对自我的理解，这种理解与社会规范和自我代表的幻想处于紧张状态。事实上，正是社会和自我的交叉目光导致了这些基础设施的瓦解，以及代表性政治的出现。我通过对新加坡纹身身体的实证研究来阐述这些想法。新加坡是一个社会保守的城邦国家，身体与资本主义的发展逻辑和新加坡家庭的审美诉求逻辑息息相关。在越来越个人主义的自我表达和实现形式的趋势中，纹身的新加坡人必须不断地协调这些基础设施的重叠和分歧。我认为，虽然墨水的基础设施可能被认为是虚幻的，但它也有助于在不确定的时期稳定自我。