Biopolitical Tattooing As a Policy Paradigm: Securitization Creep and the Governance of the Contemporary State

Critical security studies scholars and political sociologists have increasingly drawn attention to the problem of securitization as an instrument of public policy, not only for individual invocations of “public security risks” as impetus for emergency powers, but also for the forward momentum that a security policy can create. As the invocation of security becomes institutionalized as a tool of public policy development, the space of public political discourse is reshaped. Giorgio Agamben’s theory of the biopolitical tattoo offers a paradigm for understanding the forward creep of security in contemporary politics, as well as the limitations placed on political discourse as a result of the granting of emergency powers. As the invocation of security becomes institutionalized as a tool of public policy development, the space of public political discourse is reshaped. While many scholars discussing the claim of emergency powers in securitization theory have engaged Agamben, his theory of biopolitical tattooing receives only passing mention in securitization literature. The concept of biopolitical tattooing arises as an historical complement to Agamben’s earlier theoretical arguments on the relationship of sovereign power to bare life. This paper builds on these prior works that have used Agamben’s theories of bare life and sovereign power, as well as the literature on “spillover securitization” and “iterative securitization.” By conceptualizing the public policy programme of the contemporary state through a paradigm of biopolitical tattooing, we are able to understand the ways in which these policy prescriptions relate to the state’s claim to sovereign power over the citizenry whose security it claims to protect.