Collocations of terms with 5 dot tattoos

This network graph identifies tattoo designs which were collocated (located in the same tattoo description) as five dot tattoos. The darker the line, the greater the strength of the correlation. Each pair of terms must occur in at least twenty tattoo descriptions. Collocations help us understand the meanings of tattoos. The fact that 5 dot tattoos were often located alongside a tattoo of a ring, or with a 'stroke', suggests that 5 dots were often part of larger decorative designs, which we can no longer identify (given the very terse written descriptions which survive). Other, weaker correlations indicate that 5 dots tattoos were also located alongside a wide range of other designs.

Credit: Sharon Howard

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