How can a tattoo be seen as a work of art?

By Dominic Johnson Arts Wednesday, 17 October 2012 at 2:18 pm

(c) Briony Campbell In late October, the tattooist Alex Binnie will create the second of two tattoos upon the skin of my hands, in a live performance called Departure (An Experiment in Human Salvage). Well be accompanied by three guest artists, whose performances will complement and perhaps complicate the attempt to shed new light on the status of tattooing as a practice on the contested border between fine art, folk art, or craft. How can the procedures of tattooing the painful depositing of layers of inks below the surface of the skin be reframed as performance? How can a tattoo be seen as a work of art? The use of tattooing in performance relates to a broader use of body modification techniques in visual art usually painful acts such as piercing and scarification most notably in the work of London-based artists Ron Athey, Franko B, or Kira OReilly. While such work is sometimes misread as a symptom of the artists masochism, the pain involved is somewhat incidental to the production of a lasting image: as a spectacle that has a lasting effect on its audiences, but also in the sense of a permanent trace on the skin of the artist. Tattooing takes its place alongside other similar techniques for puncturing, cutting, or otherwise marking the skin towards the production of strong imagery in art and performance. Commercial tattooing has undergone a boom in popularity over recent years, with the number of tattoo studios in Great Britain reportedly doubling in the last three years. This may suggest an increase in the acceptability and visibility of tattooing, partly due to the distancing of custom tattooing from their somewhat archaic association with sailors, soldiers, criminals, hookers, and other supposed neer-dowells, and also partly thanks to the growing prevalence of tattoos on the bodies of celebrities. However, the use of tattooing in or as performance is less familiar, but draws on an older, rich tradition of exhibition and display of tattooed persons in European culture. These include: the little-known figure of Jean Baptiste Cabris, a French sailor who exhibited his heavily tattooed body around Europe at the turn of the eighteenth century, after being tattooed in the Marquesas. Or the Great White Chief John Rutherford, an Englishman who was exhibited as a living specimen in aristocratic circles in the 1820s and 1830s, after supposedly being captured and forcibly tattooed in New Zealand. These histories of exhibition and display inspired me to develop a performance that put the experience of tattooing centre-stage, as it were, by privileging the live action of permanent mark-making, and the piece was first shown at Fierce Festival in Birmingham in March 2011. The framing of tattooing as the defining technique of an art practice has more immediate precedents, and constitutes a small subcultural history of visual culture. Indeed, the art historian Matt Lodder recently discussed some art works involving tattooing, reading them in terms of the ways they articulate the theme of affiliation and social bonds in interesting ways. He mentions an infamous performance by Santiago Sierra 160cm Line Tattooed on Four People (2000) in which the artist commissioned a tattooist to draw a permanent line across the backs of four participants. Sierras piece provokes serious and unresolvable ethical questions, and indeed this may be the key achievement of his practice (Claire Bishop argues as much in her recent book on participatory art, Artificial Hells). Other artists have appropriated tattooing in performance towards more ethically agreeable ends, in powerful and visually striking works.

Over a series of performance-installations, Sandra Ann Vita Minchin has commissioned a tattooist to recreate a painting by the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Jan Van Davidz de Heem. The resulting image which took 120 hours to create is a massive permanent image of the painting across her back. The theme of permanence is key to the work. The works title, Ars Longa, Vita Brevis (Art is Long, Life is Short), reminds us of the odd status of the tattoo as a living artwork, whose permanence conflicts with the ephemerality of performance. The images created in tattooing may well seem disconcertingly permanent which provokes anxiety and hand-wringing among commentators although its volatile permanence is generally limited to the life of the wearer, which is often shorter than that of conventional drawings and paintings (a problem Minchin has overcome by arranging for her skin to be preserved after her death). If the prospect of archiving skin seems macabre, its worth acknowledging that similar preserved tattooed canvases are available for viewing at medical museums, such as St Bartholomews Pathology Museum at Queen Mary, University of London, and the Wellcome Collection. In another striking series of performances, Mary Coble has had her whole body tattooed without ink using tattooing as the basis for a provocative feat of physical endurance. In Note to Self (2005), Coble collected information about homophobic attacks, and had the name of the victim and the location of her or his assault tattooed in a monstrous list across the back of her body, from her neck down to her legs. Coble intimates the physical hardship of a minority under continual attack, and she uses the controlled violence of tattooing to memorialise the suffering of others. In the second performance, Blood Script (2008), tattooing acts a metaphor for psychic endurance. She amassed an archive of words used in verbal assaults, and had them tattooed, verbatim, on the front of her body, in a large and bold gothic script. Tattooing without ink produces a crisp bloody line, and the marks fade with time to leave subtle scarring. However, as with all scars, Cobles flare up in coming months and years, reddening under heat or cold (she tells me that the word Bitch often emerges in a hot shower). I see this as a perfect metaphor for the experience of verbal assault, where the insult might leave a meagre (metaphorical) wound, but its aftereffects return to haunt the victim when one might least expect it to. In these and other examples, tattooing suggests a novel means of expanding the repertoire of artistic tools of the trade. These developments will make some audiences feel squeamish. Such discomfort should not suggest that artists are out to shock, or out to impress. Rather, the concomitant emotional or physiological reflexes the flinch, the shiver, the grimace are some of the potential feelings that might usefully take their place among an expanded range of sympathetic responses to the use of new techniques in art and performance. Tattoos: Eyecatching but are they art? Tattoos have gone mainstream. Up to a third of adult Britons are now thought to have at least one. But not our art critic. Could he be tempted by a flaming dragon for his shoulder, or an intricate spider web on his neck?
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Saturday 24 September 2011

Artist at work A woman adds to her collection of tattoos, watched by one of the 20,000 enthusiasts expected to join the London Tattoo Convention in Wapping docklands this weekend. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

A blue and red flowering, sinuous, inky design written permanently into the skin of bare legs may be eyecatching but is it art? Amy Savage thinks so. She explains how she got the tattoos on the backs of her legs from Xam, a noted tattoo artist who works at London's Exmouth Market. She and companion Eddie Boxell, who has equally rich and beautiful tattoos covering most of his left arm, "collect" their tattoos from noted practitioners: "It's an art thing, a collecting thing," says Boxell. They are early arrivals among the 20,000 or more visitors expected to attend this weekend's International London Tattoo Convention at Tobacco Dock in Wapping. The expansive halls of this converted warehouse have become a fantasy realm of tattoo parlours, tattoo museums and supply stores, with alternative fashion boutiques, a rockabilly club and performance stages to entertain the decorated multitudes when they tire of photographing and praising one another's illuminated flesh. they are participants in a cultural wave as huge as the Pacific surf, the islands from which the word "tattoo" originated. Chiara and Fabio are part of the same movement or fashion or compulsion: they have come from Italy especially for the convention, parading faces completely covered in phantasmagoric designs finished off with piercings. At its extreme, tattooing might seem a radical subculture that defines your whole existence, but the growing popularity of tattooing belies any such assumption. Chances are that you, a family member or a friend has tattoos. Once associated with sailors, gang members, or circus performers, these markings are now a mainstream cultural force. If you don't have tattoos close to home, you surely see plenty of people around who sport the kinds of spectacular, highquality inkings that are walking around this convention floor. Sally Feldt, editor of Total Tattoo magazine, has seen the change happen. She got her first tattoo 30 years ago and has had a ringside seat at the cultural explosion. "It's definitely more socially acceptable, more creative. It encompasses every age now, every walk of life." It is not only young people who are taking the plunge, she stresses: "I know people in their 60s getting their first tattoo." Feldt admits there are no official figures on the growth or scale of tattooing. "Guesstimates vary: between 20 to 30% of the adult British population now have a tattoo." That figure takes it well outside the limits of a subculture and into the mainstream. One proof of this success is her glossy magazine that sells in Smiths and at supermarkets. In the past five years the magazine has gone on sale at Morrisons and Asda, evidence that a once-rarefied passion is approaching the norm. But again is it art, as visitors to the London convention claim? The answer is a flaming dragon of a yes. Not only is this an art, it is one of humanity's most ancient arts. The once-salty docksides of Wapping provide a historically resonant place to stage this festival, for it was sailors who were known for their tattoos in the 18th and 19th centuries. The European "discovery" of tattooing dates from Captain Cook's exploration of the Pacific in the 18th century. Cook took artists and scientists on his voyages, and on the islands in the Pacific they encountered peoples for whom it was habitual and ritualistically important to decorate the body using a bone needle to force natural dye deep into the skin. Modern tattooiwhich is being done all around me at the convention by parlours offering state-of-the-art markings, is just a more hygienic (hopefully) and technological version of this ancient method. Tattooing flourished in the inhabited Pacific islands, yet each practised a different style: Maoris combined tattooing with facial scarification, Marquesas islanders wore full-body tattoos, Samoans preferred them on buttocks and thighs. The word for this art was "tatau".

For the first European visitors, these islands, above all Tahiti, seemed paradisiacal dreamlands of free love and unashamed physical beauty. In 1789 the crew of the Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty, seduced by the alternative society they saw among the islanders of the south seas, mutinied against the formidable Captain Bligh. As an expression of their radical choice to stay in the Pacific and reject their Britishness, they got tattoos. Since then, tattooing has become a nautical stereotype, then the stuff of 1950s fairground subculture, and now a mainstream body art celebrated in picture books and conventions. In fact, the historical curiosity of today's tattoo enthusiasts leads them to look far earlier than the Pacific encounters of Cook and Bligh. At the convention, Japanese tattooing is on offer the origins of tattooing in Japan go back into prehistory. At a tattoo museum tucked in among the stalls, it is stressed that some form of tattooing is universal among ancient peoples, including the blue woad-covered Britons described by ancient Roman historians. It was also customary in Rome to tattoo slaves. Is the rise of tattoo, then, a return to our roots, a modern tribalism? The trouble with such catch-all theories is the self-consciousness of tattoo enthusiasts about their art. There are "tribal" tattooists here, but that is just one genre. Savage, for instance, says she tattoos in a "neo-traditional" style, specialising in figures such as Gypsies that she renders in a convincing, precise manner. Entranced as I am by the strange beauty of blue, green and red limbs in the sun that filters through the Tobacco Dock skylights, I cannot imagine getting a tattoo myself. Perhaps understanding my own resistance is a way to understand other peoples' acceptance. My first boundary is the obvious one. "It all relatively hurts," says Savage, "but some hurt more than others." So, there's the pain. And the more extensive, rich, careful and beautiful the work of art that is pounded by a needle into your body, the longer you have to endure that pain. That makes tattooing a rite of passage: and so it was among the Polynesians before Christian missionaries discouraged them from marking their flesh. Getting a ritual tattoo in the pre-modern Pacific was a way of becoming a man, a warrior, a chief. It was considered erotic, bu paradoxically repelled the god who ruled Paradise. Before he could be buried, a tattooed chief in the Marquesas had to have his skin removed postmortem to be allowed in heaven. It is the weight of ritual, the sense of undergoing something that changes you, that stops me personally from ever considering a tattoo. But it must also be part of its attraction. Just by visiting a tattooist such as the celebrated Danish artist Eckel you can change who you are. The change is permanent. You are a work of art. In he Pacific, anthropologists have associated tattoos with a fragmented conception of identity, a belief that a person is not one but many things. Putting on the shining painted skin of a warrior changes your nature. Are people now seeking to change their natures, to become fabulous new beings? Perhaps there is something digital and post-human about it all, a new sense of self that is no longer bounded by being inside your own skin, but penetrated as by a needle by social media and constant internet information, so you feel part of a larger entity, that imprints itself on your body. Well ... that's as maybe. What I actually feel at the London Tattoo Convention is a seductive sense of adventure, exoticism and fun. It has the feeling of a fantasy world, an escape from workaday reality. Rockabilly is playing, people are parading their opulent chromatic skins, and to be honest, if I stayed here much longer, I might start to get tempted by those parlours after all. The modern art of tattoo is beguiling,

magical and sexy. Why would people not be lured into its fantastic alternative universe, where spider webs sprout on backs and flowers on elbows? Outside is the economic news. As the world gets tougher, the appeal of some kind of escapism grows. Like getting a 1940s hairstyle (also popular here) or reading fantasy stories, being tattooed is a way of breaking out. It's just a bit more permanent and dramatic, and therefore more intense and efficacious. "You must change your life", as the poet Rilke wrote, looking at a nude statue of Apollo. The convention is open today and tomorrow at Tobacco Dock, 50 Porters Walk, Wapping, London History of tatoo Humankind has always tried to enhance their looks. Therefore, jewelry, clothes and other accessories have been present since time incarnate. One of the oldest ways of decorating oneself known to human kind was the tattoo. Tattoos have been used for all kinds of purposes ever since the dawn of time. Over the years, they have served as symbols of rights, symbols of rank and seniority or being juniors, symbols of spirituality, devotion, religion, rewards and awards for bravery, amulets, talismans and security. Tattoos were also used as a symbol of punishments, being outcast, slavery and conviction. Tattoos have been one of the most frequently used body arts. The word tattoo is derived from the Polynesian word, 'tatao', which literally means to tap or to mark someone. The word was coined by Captain James Cook in 1769. The original way of creating tattoos was definitely much more brutal than it is today. A sharp-pointed comb would be dipped into lampblack and then moved around on the body. The fad then spread from the Polynesian and Tahitians to the Europeans. Proof of tattoos being used as long as five thousand years ago has now been uncovered. Modern archeology has found proof of tattoos being used in the Egypt, Roman, Greek and Japanese regions. Greeks normally used the tattoos to indicate slavery. The Mayas, Incans and the Aztecs are known to use tattoos. Tattoos were sometimes also used as a mark or symbol of belonging to a tribal group or tribe. Tattoos have had other uses in different regions. Tattoos in Egypt can be found as early as before the Pyramids were made. The Greeks used the tattoos primarily to transmit messages between their spies. The Asian world used tattoos to denote a woman coming of age or her marriage. Japan used tattoos for religious purposes and other ceremonial purposes. Tattoos were also used to induce the sexuality in a person. The tattoos of Japan were prepared by the women of Borneo. The women of Borneo were the first to use tattoos to denote the status and place in life of the owner of the tattoo. The re-induction of the tattoo to the west was the handiwork of William Dapher. He was a traveler of the South Seas. He introduced a heavily tatooed Prince Giolo to the western world, known as the Painted Prince. Later on, his exhibitions gave immense popularity to tattoos.A hundred years later, the tattoo became famous in America. The Chatam Studio in New York City is considered to be the birthplace of the American style tattoo. The first tattoo machine in America was patented by Samuel O'Reilly. He had set up shop in the Chatam Studio area, then a haven for working class rich people. The first machine was based on Edison's electric pen, which punctured paper. With the death of Samuel O'Reilly, it was his apprentice, Charles Wagner took over the business. Wagner teamed with Lew Alberts.

Perhaps the most famous tattoo subject has been the Dragon. There are around three kinds of dragons, which are picked by almost every tattoo artist due to the variety these tattoos give. Furthermore, dragons are universally known and have a universal appeal. Dragon tattoos also look very good on the skin as compared to others. Dragon tattoos can be prepared in color as well as black and white. Today, tattoos are used by people of all walks of life. Previously, only people from the working class used to get themselves tattooed. The well heeled crowd would shy away from tattoos. Previously tattoo parlors were less on hygiene and were one of the major reasons where people could get skin infections or even aids. Today, though, tattoos have become more or less hygienic and offer their clients sufficient safety from skin and other diseases previously attributed to tattoos.

Should Tattoos be Regarded as an Art Form? Posted by businessboombolton on 28/05/2012 2 Comments People say that tattoos look trashy and cheap, subjected to those who practice the art with either no or a small amount of artistic ability or poor handling of the machines as they are heavy and tend to shake due to needles motion of up to eighty times per second. It is nothing to do with the general art form as there are many talented artists who are still working to perfect the art, they should not be tarred with the same brush as lazy, incompetent so-called artists as the majority of tattoo artists are skilled practitioners who take their work very seriously. Tattoos are judged negatively because of previous owners, as they used to solely belong to the skin of prisoners and pirates. They were a mark of pride to prove to the community of their criminal reputation. Symbols such as a tear applied just below eyes, and religious imagery was a popular choice if the criminal had found God during conviction. These were very common prison tattoos. When tattoo artists and enthusiasts alike are questioned; they have a completely different outlook on the practice. Tattoo art conveys individuality, as the choice of image, design and artist communicates the persons interests and significance of their own imagination. Andy Bowler from Derbyshire tattoo studio Monki Do enthused that its best when people [research tattoo art] themselves. He also commented that it is a good change in the tattoo world that customers use their own imagination with real input into their ideas and desired ink. Prison tattoos do show the persons experiences but as tattoo art is expanding and becoming more popular, it isnt just prisoners that are showing their true colours; images and text can show interests of music, family, reminiscence among many other topics. Now that integration of multiple styles has been taken, people are better informed and much more accepting of the past time. An increasing number of people are interested in tattoos as they see it as an art form rather than a mark of the wicked or a specific tradition. As a result of this, tattoo conventions have been arranged all around the world to provide a service for enthusiasts to meet and discuss their passion. Artists worldwide work at the conventions for a chance to meet idols and promote their own work, and also share ideas and find inspiration. As a worldwide phenomenon, tattoo conventions are growing increasingly as copious amounts of shows are being arranged. Tattoo Freeze hold the National

Tattoo Photography Awards for those who have a keen eye for photography, thus, showing the positive reception of tattoos and how other art forms are being integrated together. Japanese tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy, best known as The Godfather Of Modern Tattoo, brings an interesting statement to the discussion on the reputation of tattoos in a recent interview; its not fun to be looked down on its always going to be that way, you are always going to be judged by the way you look. You see someone who is covered in tattoos, and its like, you dont expect people to accept you for the beautiful person you are inside, they are going to judge you for your tattoos. He also adds that every generation does through that. This is the harsh reality of discrimination and prejudice against tattoos, though it should not be this way. More so nowadays; tattoos are seen as a sign of expression, extrovert personalities and freedom these are factors associated with art in general. Female bodies decorated with tattoos are still a concern for most people. Condescending views have been made about women who love and wear tattoos, including scrutiny of their sexuality, class and job roles. Men are virtually accepted into the community with tattoos covering them, so what is the difference with women? Throughout history, women have constantly been regarded as less important than men, and continuously; women have fought for their equal rights on issues such as voting and job roles. Women have proved that they are equal regarding these matters; therefore this should be the same with opinions of tattooed females. Jo Harrison; a famous tattoo artist breaks the stereotypes for the typical female she is a Suicide Girl. She is part of an alternative-modeling agency for heavily tattooed and pierced women. Suicide Girls are seen as the modern soft porn pin-up girls with an alternative edge. These type of agencies are ones who aim to satisfy the needs of the audience who are accepting of the alternative culture, and this is growing daily. People admire alternative women for their confidence and view of disregarding the negative things people say or think about them. This attitude is one that will assist the mainstream public into accepting these women for who they are, as well as how beautiful and expressive tattoo art is, rather than judging them to be tacky and lower class. TV series such as Miami Ink have increased the popularity of the tattoo industry, but due to the media and editing of the programme; tattoo enthusiasts have commented that these shows convey the wrong impression about life of tattoo related labour. The programme shortens time it takes to draw/free-hand a stencil of a tattoo, as well as the time it takes to actually do the tattoo itself. This is giving a false impression that can lead to complications when a naive customer visits a shop expecting their piece to be completed in less than an hour. Despite this set back, I feel that these multiple TV series have helped the tattoo industry immensely regarding the increasing numbers of customers. Through the years, tattoos are gradually becoming more accepted to the mainstream society, with negative opinions decreasing every year. Copious amounts of people want to involve themselves in the lifestyle and labour of the tattoo industry, thus creating an ever-growing competition for the prior artists to up their game if they want to maintain their reputation and customer reception. Mainstream advertising agencies are boasting tattoos. Magazine agencies are buying into the love of tattoos, as there is a vast and varied audience to address, Jazz Publishing is the main contender with famous publications such as Skin Deep Skin Shots and Tattoo Master. Advertising is using tattoos in this manner Yahoo published a billboard of a mans tribal sleeves as well as Juicy Couture; male models covered in tattoo sleeves. More recently, fashion brand Diesel have launched a tattoo edition of their aftershave Only The Brave trademarked and well-known for its fist sculpted container. The tattoo edition has script embellished across the hand of the bottle, mimicking a popular tattoo craze.

This highlights acceptance; yet the female is regarded as butch if she was covered with tattoos. Ed Hardy clothing, for both men and women, offers womens leggings that sport tattoo designs on them - as if they were realistic! Could this be the continued effort of instigating moral acceptance of tattooed females? Or merely fashion? Time will tell. Is this media fascination with tattoos just a mere fashion trend that will cease to exist in years to come? And people who like to jump on the bandwagon will regret their choices of ink. Or does this continued growth of interest in tattoos mark a start of acceptance and improvement of societys view of abnormal appearances, leading onto notions such as banning discrimination within the workplace and social circles. Art forms should not be ridiculed nor degraded, art from different cultures are admired and inspiring Tattoos are an art form. Hence they should be treated with the same respect and admiration as other forms of art as they are methods of expression and creativity. Tattoos: Eyecatching but are they art? Tattoos have gone mainstream. Up to a third of adult Britons are now thought to have at least one. But not our art critic. Could he be tempted by a flaming dragon for his shoulder, or an intricate spider web on his neck Artist at work A woman adds to her collection of tattoos, watched by one of the 20,000 enthusiasts expected to join the London Tattoo Convention in Wapping docklands this weekend. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian A blue and red flowering, sinuous, inky design written permanently into the skin of bare legs may be eyecatching but is it art? Amy Savage thinks so. She explains how she got the tattoos on the backs of her legs from Xam, a noted tattoo artist who works at London's Exmouth Market. She and companion Eddie Boxell, who has equally rich and beautiful tattoos covering most of his left arm, "collect" their tattoos from noted practitioners: "It's an art thing, a collecting thing," says Boxell. They are early arrivals among the 20,000 or more visitors expected to attend this weekend's International London Tattoo Convention at Tobacco Dock in Wapping. The expansive halls of this converted warehouse have become a fantasy realm of tattoo parlours, tattoo museums and supply stores, with alternative fashion boutiques, a rockabilly club and performance stages to entertain the decorated multitudes when they tire of photographing and praising one another's illuminated flesh. It is a skin thing, you notice, as more and more people with ever-more impressive markings flow into Tobacco Dock. You find yourself ignoring clothes and looking at an inky foot, a spider-web neck, a dragon shoulder. The decorations shine up skin, make it different and mysterious. They lead your eyes and hold your gaze. A Japanese geisha portrayed on someone's arm; a woman going by with elegant tattoos all over her arms and on her legs, under her tights. People who are into tattoos know that it's an art," emphasises Savage. She is a tattooist herself, and is here to shop for equipment as well as survey the scene. She and Boxell both got their first tattoos when they were below the legal age of 18. They were 16 and 14 respectively, so they have a lifelong love affair with emblazonment. But what they both admit began as "rebellion" has matured into aesthetic wonder and appreciation.

They are participants in a cultural wave as huge as the Pacific surf, the islands from which the word "tattoo" originated. Chiara and Fabio are part of the same movement or fashion or compulsion: they have come from Italy especially for the convention, parading faces completely covered in phantasmagoric designs finished off with piercings. At its extreme, tattooing might seem a radical subculture that defines your whole existence, but the growing popularity of tattooing belies any such assumption. Chances are that you, a family member or a friend has tattoos. Once associated with sailors, gang members, or circus performers, these markings are now a mainstream cultural force. If you don't have tattoos close to home, you surely see plenty of people around who sport the kinds of spectacular, highquality inkings that are walking around this convention floor. Sally Feldt, editor of Total Tattoo magazine, has seen the change happen. She got her first tattoo 30 years ago and has had a ringside seat at the cultural explosion. "It's definitely more socially acceptable, more creative. It encompasses every age now, every walk of life." It is not only young people who are taking the plunge, she stresses: "I know people in their 60s getting their first tattoo." Feldt admits there are no official figures on the growth or scale of tattooing. "Guesstimates vary: between 20 to 30% of the adult British population now have a tattoo." That figure takes it well outside the limits of a subculture and into the mainstream. One proof of this success is her glossy magazine that sells in Smiths and at supermarkets. In the past five years the magazine has gone on sale at Morrisons and Asda, evidence that a once-rarefied passion is approaching the norm. But again is it art, as visitors to the London convention claim? The answer is a flaming dragon of a yes. Not only is this an art, it is one of humanity's most ancient arts. The once-salty docksides of Wapping provide a historically resonant place to stage this festival, for it was sailors who were known for their tattoos in the 18th and 19th centuries. The European "discovery" of tattooing dates from Captain Cook's exploration of the Pacific in the 18th century. Cook took artists and scientists on his voyages, and on the islands in the Pacific they encountered peoples for whom it was habitual and ritualistically important to decorate the body using a bone needle to force natural dye deep into the skin. Modern tattooing, which is being done all around me at the convention by parlours offering state-of-theart markings, is just a more hygienic (hopefully) and technological version of this ancient method. Tattooing flourished in the inhabited Pacific islands, yet each practised a different style: Maoris combined tattooing with facial scarification, Marquesas islanders wore full-body tattoos, Samoans preferred them on buttocks and thighs. The word for this art was "tatau". For the first European visitors, these islands, above all Tahiti, seemed paradisiacal dreamlands of free love and unashamed physical beauty. In 1789 the crew of the Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty, seduced by the alternative society they saw among the islanders of the south seas, mutinied against the formidable Captain Bligh. As an expression of their radical choice to stay in the Pacific and reject their Britishness, they got tattoos. Since then, tattooing has become a nautical stereotype, then the stuff of 1950s fairground subculture, and now a mainstream body art celebrated in picture books and conventions. In fact, the historical curiosity of today's tattoo enthusiasts leads them to look far earlier than the Pacific encounters of Cook and Bligh. At the convention, Japanese tattooing is on offer the origins of tattooing in Japan go back into prehistory. At a tattoo museum tucked in among the stalls, it is stressed that some form of tattooing is universal among ancient peoples, including the blue woad-covered Britons described by ancient Roman historians. It was also customary in Rome to tattoo slaves.

Is the rise of tattoo, then, a return to our roots, a modern tribalism? The trouble with such catch-all theories is the self-consciousness of tattoo enthusiasts about their art. There are "tribal" tattooists here, but that is just one genre. Savage, for instance, says she tattoos in a "neo-traditional" style, specialising in figures such as Gypsies that she renders in a convincing, precise manner. Entranced as I am by the strange beauty of blue, green and red limbs in the sun that filters through the Tobacco Dock skylights, I cannot imagine getting a tattoo myself. Perhaps understanding my own resistance is a way to understand other peoples' acceptance. My first boundary is the obvious one. "It all relatively hurts," says Savage, "but some hurt more than others." So, there's the pain. And the more extensive, rich, careful and beautiful the work of art that is pounded by a needle into your body, the longer you have to endure that pain. That makes tattooing a rite of passage: and so it was among the Polynesians before Christian missionaries discouraged them from marking their flesh. Getting a ritual tattoo in the pre-modern Pacific was a way of becoming a man, a warrior, a chief. It was considered erotic, bu paradoxically repelled the god who ruled Paradise. Before he could be buried, a tattooed chief in the Marquesas had to have his skin removed postmortem to be allowed in heaven. It is the weight of ritual, the sense of undergoing something that changes you, that stops me personally from ever considering a tattoo. But it must also be part of its attraction. Just by visiting a tattooist such as the celebrated Danish artist Eckel you can change who you are. The change is permanent. You are a work of art. In the Pacific, anthropologists have associated tattoos with a fragmented conception of identity, a belief that a person is not one but many things. Putting on the shining painted skin of a warrior changes your nature. Are people now seeking to change their natures, to become fabulous new beings? Perhaps there is something digital and post-human about it all, a new sense of self that is no longer bounded by being inside your own skin, but penetrated as by a needle by social media and constant internet information, so you feel part of a larger entity, that imprints itself on your body. Well ... that's as maybe. What I actually feel at the London Tattoo Convention is a seductive sense of adventure, exoticism and fun. It has the feeling of a fantasy world, an escape from workaday reality. Rockabilly is playing, people are parading their opulent chromatic skins, and to be honest, if I stayed here much longer, I might start to get tempted by those parlours after all. The modern art of tattoo is beguiling, magical and sexy. Why would people not be lured into its fantastic alternative universe, where spider webs sprout on backs and flowers on elbows? Outside is the economic news. As the world gets tougher, the appeal of some kind of escapism grows. Like getting a 1940s hairstyle (also popular here) or reading fantasy stories, being tattooed is a way of breaking out. It's just a bit more permanent and dramatic, and therefore more intense and efficacious. "You must change your life", as the poet Rilke wrote, looking at a nude

How can a tattoo be seen as a work of art?

By Dominic Johnson Wednesday, 17 October 2012

(c) Briony Campbell In late October, the tattooist Alex Binnie will create the second of two tattoos upon the skin of my hands, in a live performance called Departure (An Experiment in Human Salvage). Well be accompanied by three guest artists, whose performances will complement and perhaps complicate the attempt to shed new light on the status of tattooing as a practice on the contested border between fine art, folk art, or craft. How can the procedures of tattooing the painful depositing of layers of inks below the surface of the skin be reframed as performance? How can a tattoo be seen as a work of art? The use of tattooing in performance relates to a broader use of body modification techniques in visual art usually painful acts such as piercing and scarification most notably in the work of London-based artists Ron Athey, Franko B, or Kira OReilly. While such work is sometimes misread as a symptom of the artists masochism, the pain involved is somewhat incidental to the production of a lasting image: as a spectacle that has a lasting effect on its audiences, but also in the sense of a permanent trace on the skin of the artist. Tattooing takes its place alongside other similar techniques for puncturing, cutting, or otherwise marking the skin towards the production of strong imagery in art and performance. Commercial tattooing has undergone a boom in popularity over recent years, with the number of tattoo studios in Great Britain reportedly doubling in the last three years. This may suggest an increase in the acceptability and visibility of tattooing, partly due to the distancing of custom tattooing from their somewhat archaic association with sailors, soldiers, criminals, hookers, and other supposed neer-dowells, and also partly thanks to the growing prevalence of tattoos on the bodies of celebrities. However, the use of tattooing in or as performance is less familiar, but draws on an older, rich tradition of exhibition and display of tattooed persons in European culture. These include: the little-known figure of Jean Baptiste Cabris, a French sailor who exhibited his heavily tattooed body around Europe at the turn of the eighteenth century, after being tattooed in the Marquesas. Or the Great White Chief John Rutherford, an Englishman who was exhibited as a living specimen in aristocratic circles in the 1820s and 1830s, after supposedly being captured and forcibly tattooed in New Zealand. These histories of exhibition and display inspired me to develop a performance that put the experience of tattooing centre-stage, as it were, by privileging the live action of permanent mark-making, and the piece was first shown at Fierce Festival in Birmingham in March 2011. The framing of tattooing as the defining technique of an art practice has more immediate precedents, and constitutes a small subcultural history of visual culture. Indeed, the art historian Matt Lodder recently discussed some art works involving tattooing, reading them in terms of the ways they articulate the theme of affiliation and social bonds in interesting ways. He mentions an infamous performance by Santiago Sierra 160cm Line Tattooed on Four People (2000) in which the artist commissioned a tattooist to draw a permanent line across the backs of four participants. Sierras piece provokes serious and unresolvable ethical questions, and indeed this may be the key achievement of his practice (Claire Bishop argues as much in her recent book on participatory art, Artificial Hells). Other artists have appropriated tattooing in performance towards more ethically agreeable ends, in powerful and visually striking works. Over a series of performance-installations, Sandra Ann Vita Minchin has commissioned a tattooist to recreate a painting by the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Jan Van Davidz de Heem. The resulting image

 which took 120 hours to create is a massive permanent image of the painting across her back. The theme of permanence is key to the work. The works title, Ars Longa, Vita Brevis (Art is Long, Life is Short), reminds us of the odd status of the tattoo as a living artwork, whose permanence conflicts with the ephemerality of performance. The images created in tattooing may well seem disconcertingly permanent which provokes anxiety and hand-wringing among commentators although its volatile permanence is generally limited to the life of the wearer, which is often shorter than that of conventional drawings and paintings (a problem Minchin has overcome by arranging for her skin to be preserved after her death). If the prospect of archiving skin seems macabre, its worth acknowledging that similar preserved tattooed canvases are available for viewing at medical museums, such as St Bartholomews Pathology Museum at Queen Mary, University of London, and the Wellcome Collection. In another striking series of performances, Mary Coble has had her whole body tattooed without ink using tattooing as the basis for a provocative feat of physical endurance. In Note to Self (2005), Coble collected information about homophobic attacks, and had the name of the victim and the location of her or his assault tattooed in a monstrous list across the back of her body, from her neck down to her legs. Coble intimates the physical hardship of a minority under continual attack, and she uses the controlled violence of tattooing to memorialise the suffering of others. In the second performance, Blood Script (2008), tattooing acts a metaphor for psychic endurance. She amassed an archive of words used in verbal assaults, and had them tattooed, verbatim, on the front of her body, in a large and bold gothic script. Tattooing without ink produces a crisp bloody line, and the marks fade with time to leave subtle scarring. However, as with all scars, Cobles flare up in coming months and years, reddening under heat or cold (she tells me that the word Bitch often emerges in a hot shower). I see this as a perfect metaphor for the experience of verbal assault, where the insult might leave a meagre (metaphorical) wound, but its aftereffects return to haunt the victim when one might least expect it to. In these and other examples, tattooing suggests a novel means of expanding the repertoire of artistic tools of the trade. These developments will make some audiences feel squeamish. Such discomfort should not suggest that artists are out to shock, or out to impress. Rather, the concomitant emotional or physiological reflexes the flinch, the shiver, the grimace are some of the potential feelings that might usefully take their place among an expanded range of sympathetic responses to the use of new techniques in art and performance. SACRED at Chelsea Theatre starts on 19 October 2012, Dominic Johnsons Departure (An Experiment In Human Salvage) is on Thursday 25 October 2012. For more information visit www.chelseatheatre.org.uk

THE CHANGING CULTURAL STATUS OF THE TATTOO ARTS IN AMERICA As Documented in Mainstream U.S. Reference Works, Newspapers and Magazines By Hoag Levins America's core cultural reference books, professional journals,

newspapers and magazines recognize tattooing as a wellestablished art form that, over the last three decades, has undergone dramatic changes. In the 1970s, artists trained in traditional fine art disciplines began to embrace tattooing and brought with them entirely new sorts of sophisticated imagery and technique. Advances in electric needle machines and pigments provided them with new ranges of color, delicacy of detail and aesthetic possibilities. The physical nature of many local tattooing establishments also changed as increasing numbers of operators adopted equipment and procedures resembling those of medical clinics -particularly in areas where tattooing is regulated by government health agencies. The cultural status of tattooing has steadily evolved from that of an anti-social activity in the 1960s to that of a trendy fashion statement in the 1990s. First adopted and flaunted by influential rock stars like the Rolling Stones in the early 1970s, tattooing had, by the late 1980s, become accepted by ever broader segments of mainstream society. Today, tattoos are routinely seen on rock stars, professional sports figures, ice skating champions, fashion models, movie stars and other public figures who play a significant role in setting the culture's contemporary mores and behavior patterns. During the last fifteen years, two distinct classes of tattoo business have emerged. The first is the "tattoo parlor" that glories in a sense of urban outlaw culture; advertises itself with garish exterior signage; offers "pictures-off-the-wall" assembly-line service; and often operates with less than optimum sanitary procedures. The second is the "tattoo art studio" that most frequently features custom, fine art design; the ambiance of an upscale beauty salon; marketing campaigns aimed at middle- and upper middle-class professionals; and "by-appointment" services only. Today's fine art tattoo studio draws the same kind of clientele as a custom jewelry store, fashion boutique, or high-end antique shop. The market demographics for tattoo services are now skewed heavily toward mainstream customers. Tattooing today is the sixthfastest-growing retail business in the United States. The single fastest growing demographic group seeking tattoo services is, to the surprise of many, middle-class suburban women. Tattooing is recognized by government agencies as both an art form and a profession and tattoo-related art work is the subject of museum, gallery and educational institution art shows across the United States.

~~~ Main Report With Footnotes The state and local governments of New Jersey, like those of other regions across the United States, are being forced to alter their attitudes and laws in response to the changing cultural status and popularity of tattooing. For instance, in late 1997, Camden County, N.J., unveiled comprehensive new regulations for the growing numbers of tattoo artists operating within its borders. Located just east across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Penn., the county is a sprawl of suburban communities. In February, 1998, when local graphic artist Patrick Levins became the first person to be certified under the strict new tattoo regulations, he received a document authorizing him to "practice (his) profession as a registered tattoo arts operator" anywhere in the county. [1] It is a mark of the changing times that the county government chose to officially describe tattooing as both a "profession" and an "art." In fact, tattooing is widely recognized as one of humanity's oldest and most meaningful art forms. 30-Volume Dictionary of Art For instance, in its section, "Tattoo," the 1996 edition of the 30volume Macmillan Dictionary of Art explains: "The art is attested in almost every culture worldwide...the earliest surviving examples of tattooed human skin come from 12th -Dynasty Egypt (1938 BC), but representational evidence suggests that tattooing was practiced in Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt (4,500 BC)." "...In Europe and North America, until the late 20th century, tattooing was largely connected with two groups: members of the armed forces and prisoners...From the 1960s onwards, however, changes in the social status of tattoo art in Europe and North America has led to considerable experimentation with forms and styles. The repertory expanded to include designs influenced by other tattoo traditions, especially those of Japan and Oceania." [2] 16-Volume Encyclopedia of Religion In its extensive treatise on the subject, the 16-volume Macmillan Encyclopedia of Religion notes: "Tattooing resembles painting, with the face and body as canvas... In a religious context, as distinct from a purely decorative context, tattoo marks are clearly symbolic... Tattooing in preindustrial societies dominantly relates the tattooed person to a social group or totemic clan, age or sex category, secret society or warrior association... As societies grow

more complex and the division of economic and social labor becomes more refined, tattooing becomes more a matter of individual choice and serves the purpose of self-expression... As the technology of the art develops (for example, the invention of the electric tattooing needle), so do the designs and colors multiply, allowing considerable scope for self-expression and making statements about the self... Contemporary tattooed men and women wear on their bodies subtle and beautiful expressions of a continuous tradition that links deity, nature and humankind." [3] The Encyclopedia of Religion notes the changing nature of tattooing during the last several decades: "After World War II the practice subsided, but because of the influence of the 'counterculture' of the late sixties, the role of electronic media in bringing the practices of other cultures into the American home, extensive tourism, a general emphasis on individuality, and improvements in the techniques of professional tattooing, there has been a marked revival in the art." THE PUBLIC RECORD Over the last twenty years, a broad range of U.S. media has documented, analyzed and commented upon the dramatic changes that have altered the social status and cultural implications of the tattoo arts since the 1960s. Time Magazine In 1970, Time magazine was one of the first national publications to note the trend as part of a profile of San Francisco tattoo artist Lyle Tuttle, whose designs on singer Janis Joplin and members of the Rolling Stones were drawing national attention. "As an art, tattoos have been traced back 4,000 years to the Egyptians," Time reported. In contemporary times "they have adorned the arms and chests of sailors, roustabouts and construction workers. Now, after a decade or two of decline, tattoos are enjoying a renaissance. They have become the vogue of the counterculture." [4] Governor's Proclamation In 1982, as it prepared for an international convention of tattoo artists, the Governor's Office of California issued an official state proclamation that declared, "The tattoo is primal parent of the visual arts... It has re-emerged as a fine art attracting highly trained and skilled practitioners. Current creative approaches are infusing this traditional discipline with new vigor and meaning. At a time when these artists from around the

world meet in California to share, teach and celebrate their skills, it seems appropriate to remind Californians that the tattoo is indeed one of the most ancient arts."[5] Wall Street Journal By 1986, tattoo arts had become a subject of interest even for such publications as the Wall Street Journal. That year, in the Journal's Leisure & Arts column, reporter Ed Ward wrote a succinct history of the changing tattoo art scene as part of the newspaper's coverage of the National Tattoo Association's annual convention in New Orleans. "Tattooing by the '60s was in a rut," Ward noted. "The same old designs that World War II had birthed were being chopped out in studios in every dingy port in the world...mediocrity was rampant." But by 1972 a new, "modern" tattoo art scene surfaced across the U.S. as an expanding group of artists combined fine art disciplines with fantasy motifs executed in the lush, highly detailed tattooing style of the Japanese. The results were tattoos that were more like rich bits of tapestry than the stark pen scratchings that had characterized U.S. tattoo art of the World War II era. The result, wrote Ward, was that "what was formerly considered a sleazy perversion...became just another form of self-expression and style."[6] Esquire Magazine In 1989, Esquire magazine reported: "Serious artists...are joining the ranks of tattooers and their designs are being exhibited in museums and featured in expensive coffee table books; fine-art tattooers are, furthermore, leading an effort to improve the image of tattooing....Fine art tattoos...appeal to an affluent, well-educated clientele...The new-style tattooee doesn't merely pick out a design from the tattooer's wall; he has an image in mind when he arrives at the studio and then discusses it with the tattooer, much as an art patron commissions a work of art. Fine-art tattoos are beautifully drawn; they reflect the Japanese influence in tattoos."[7] USA Today In March of last year, the national daily newspaper USA Today reported: "The once-rebel art of tattooing has achieved mainstream popularity in 90's America. Today's typical tattoo studio is clean and comfortable with tattooing areas that resemble medical-clinic rooms. The people who come in on any given day might be students, professionals, even senior citizens." [8] St. Louis Post Dispatch

The St. Louis Post Dispatch in Missouri reported last May: "Tattoo shops, once catering to bikers and bums, now ink middle-and even upper-class clientele....Now that more customers come from mainstream America, tattoo parlors have moved out of bars, back alleys and carnivals to Main Street."[9] Anchorage Daily News In March of this year, the Anchorage Daily News told Alaskan readers: "What is striking about body art -- even the terminology implies something of skill and value -- is how it has moved from society's margins to the mainstream. Models and MTV sparked the trend, making the outrageous seem cool. But mostly, middle-class adult women have fueled it, changing the definition of a tattoo from the sign of a deviant act to a just-slightly scandalous but quite public beauty mark."[10] SUBURBAN WOMEN Canada's Toronto Star reported in September of 1997 that when Beth Seaton, professor of mass communications at York University conducted a study of the clientele at one of Toronto's most popular tattoo art studios, she found that 80% of the customers were "upper middle-class white suburban females."[11] This trend -- the spreading popularity of tattooing among welleducated women in affluent suburban communities -- is one of the most striking aspects of the new attitudes about the art form. The medical journal Physician Assistant which circulates to doctors' offices throughout the country, has alerted its readers: "Tattoos were most common among motorcyclists, criminals, gang members, and individuals with psychiatric problems... However, these stereotypical associations have changed over the past 20 years... Tattooing in women has quadrupled, and it is estimated that almost half of the tattoos now being done are on women."[12] The daily Bismarck Tribune of North Dakota in November, 1997, took a closer look at the clientele patronizing tattoo art studios in and around Hazen, a middle-class suburb of Bismarck. Tribune reporter Lauren Donovan reported that the 30-40-year-old age group of "Soccer Moms" is the fastest growing demographic of the local tattoo market. She wrote that four typical clients included "two hockey moms, one figure skating mom and one figure skating coach" who were "women with full lives at home, church and in the community. They couldn't be less like the leather-wearing biker with skeleton tattoos on his chest." One woman wore a small rose tattoo on her shoulder; another had a tiny white baby seal on her ankle. [13]

The national marketing magazine About Women, Inc., in April of 1998, published an article that reported: "Tattooing is on the rise among adult women, including professional women; almost half of all tattoos are being done on women. Professor Myrna L. Armstrong of Texas Tech University School of Nursing told About Women, Inc., that several trends play into this interest in body art...for some young women, tattooing is an outward expression of the internal process of identity building...'a tattoo makes them feel good -- it makes them feel special, different,' says Armstrong." [14] THE MAINSTREAM MARKET The conservative weekly news magazine U.S. News & World Report, in November of 1997, informed its readers: "Tattoos ... have become widely acceptable, appearing on celebrities, in toy stores, and as games on the Internet. In the United States, tattooing was the sixth-fastest-growing retail business in 1996, after Internet, paging services, bagels, computer, and cellular phone stores. Since then, the industry has been expanding by more than one studio a day, a 13.9 percent increase in nine months." [15] Public Celebrities The same month, the Chicago Tribune reported: "Tattoos have begun to appeal to people from every walk of life...tattoo parlors are experiencing a growth trend due to three major changes in the tattoo industry: a greater number of tattoo ink colors, the fact that fine artists are entering the field and the proliferation of celebrity tattoos...because many famous, high profile people in music and sports have tattoos, they have become more socially acceptable." [16] Lawyers, Accountants and Homemakers Florida's Palm Beach Post, in November of 1997, explained that the local tattoo industry that once catered almost exclusively to "bikers, sailors and topless dancers," is now applying ornate art works to the skin of "lawyers, accountants and homemakers." [17] Professional Athletes "Professional athletes had a lot to do with the mainstreaming of tattoos," the Post said. "They made them visible, socially acceptable and desirable." Sports Illustrated noted: "Tattoos have become the sport's world's most flaunted form of self-expression. Ten years ago, only boxers or wrestlers had visible tattoos; today, they are everywhere, in every sport."[18] In 1997, when it conducted a preseason survey of all 29 NBA teams, the Associated Press reported that 35.1% of all NBA players

had tattoos. [19] Professional sports observers estimate that similar percentages of America's national league football, hockey and baseball players also have tattoos. Aside from raising the visibility of tattoos, these legions of sports figures -- who also constitute one of the country's largest groups of millionaires -- have had a major impact on the nature of the tattoo business. Much like millionaire rock singers, movie stars and fashion models, they have created a new market for high-end custom tattoo art studios geared to an affluent and demanding clientele that only patronizes vendors who provide high standards of service in clean, respectable surroundings. Madison Avenue Executives Other professional groups are also helping support the rise of a new upscale genre of tattoo art studios quite different from those seedy establishments once found only in urban tenderloin districts. For instance, in its May 1998 review of the development of the local tattoo art studios since that business was legalized in March of 1997, the New York Times reported "Tattooing in New York is coming of age...the art form has evolved from drunken-sailor initiation rite to quirky fashion statement...tattoos have moved beyond peace signs for hippies and skulls for bikers. A recent fashion in tribal designs -- inspired by the work of American Indians and tribes from places like Borneo and Thailand -- is now displayed on the ankles and arms of Madison Avenue executives."[20] MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES The tattoo-related arts are studied and celebrated by leading museums, galleries and art institutions across the country. In 1995, when she reviewed the tattoo-based art exhibit "Pierced Hearts" at the Drawing Center of New York City, Village Voice art critic Elizabeth Hess wrote "Every artist in town will want to see 'Pierced Hearts' because it's the real thing." [21] The show, which included 300 drawings of tattoo art from the 1800s to the present, turned out to be so successful that it went on a national tour, appearing in such institutions as Miami's Museum of Contemporary Art whose curator, Bonnie Clearwater, described the event as being about 'bringing a popular culture into a world of higher art'."[22] Meanwhile, that same year, "The Devil's Blue: American Art and Practice through the Port of New York, 1840-1961," another exhibit devoted exclusively to the art of tattoo designs, opened at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City. [23] Publications such as the New York Times have continued to cover tattoo art events. In a February, 1997, story, the Times reported:

"Thousands of tattoo fans gathered in Detroit recently for one of the nation's biggest tattoo conferences. Once considered a back-alley art form, tattoos have been moving into the mainstream, bringing new profits to tattoo parlors and even attracting attention from art museums."[24] Later that year in Detroit, the Detroit Institute of Arts hosted a conference of scholars from around the country to study the tattoo arts. Speakers included anthropologist Margo DeMello of San Francisco University, folklore scholar Daniel Wojcik of the University of Oregon and art historian Dora Apel of Wayne State University. Isabela Basombrio of the museum's educational department pointed out to reporters that "the mainstreaming of the tattoo has produced a number of outstanding artists who have developed their own styles and are documenting their own history." [25] In its 1996 article on the subject, the medical journal Physician Assistant alerted its readers that cultural attitudes about tattoos in the U.S. have changed during the last two decades and that "Tattooing is a recognized art form in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington." [26] In fact, in 1986, the National Museum of American Art, a part of the Smithsonian, added pieces of tattoo design work to its permanent art collection. [27] In October of 1997, the Hallways Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo, New York, hosted a gathering and art exhibit entitled "Needlework: A Festival of Woman Tattoo Artists." It was not only evidence of the museum-quality treatments tattoo artwork is receiving around the country, but also of the growing numbers of female tattoo artists who are yet another group changing the nature of the art and atmosphere of the professional tattoo business. [28] The conference was organized in cooperation with Erie County officials who regulate local tattoo artists. In March of this year, the University of Colorado-Boulder museum mounted a cultural and anthropological exhibit of body art called "Tattoo." The Denver Post reported that the exhibit's opening drew 1,000 people and that "body art has captured the public imagination." [29] Art journals take serious notice of art created by tattoo artists as well as art derived from that genre of drawing. The July, 1997, issue of Art in America, for instance, featured an article on the work of Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick, whose etchings and drawings are based, in part, on tattoo art. Fitzpatrick is himself the founder of the World Tattoo Gallery in Chicago which showcases similar artists. [30] In April of 1997, in an article entitled "Preparing for a Career in

Illustration," School Arts magazine advised America's student counselors that the tattoo arts were a "growing field" offering job opportunities for students trained in fine art principles. [31] tattoo, permanent mark or design made on the body by the introduction of pigment through ruptures in the skin. Sometimes the term is also loosely applied to the inducement of scars (cicatrization). Tattooing proper has been practiced in most parts of the world, though it is rare among populations with the darkest skin colour and absent from most of China (at least in recent centuries). Tattooed designs are thought by various peoples to provide magical protection against sickness or misfortune, or they serve to identify the wearers rank, status, or membership in a group. Decoration is perhaps the most common motive for tattooing. If certain marks on the skin of the Iceman, a mummified human body dating from about 3300 bce, are tattoos, then they represent the earliest known evidence of the practice. Tattoos have also been found on Egyptian and Nubian mummies dating from approximately 2000 bce. Their use is mentioned by Classical authors in relation to the Thracians, Greeks, Gauls, ancient Germans, and ancient Britons. The Romans tattooed criminals and slaves. After the advent of Christianity, tattooing was forbidden in Europe, but it persisted in the Middle East and in other parts of the world. In the Americas, many Indians customarily tattooed the body or the face or both. The usual technique was simple pricking, but some California tribes introduced colour into scratches, and many tribes of the Arctic and Subarctic, most Eskimos (Inuit), and some peoples of eastern Siberia made needle punctures through which a thread coated with pigment (usually soot) was drawn underneath the skin. In Polynesia, Micronesia, and parts of Malaysia, pigment was pricked into the skin by tapping on an implement shaped like a miniature rake. In moko, a type of Maori tattooing from New Zealand, shallow coloured grooves in complex curvilinear designs were produced on the face by striking a miniature bone adze into the skin. In Japan, needles set in a wooden handle are used to tattoo very elaborate multicoloured designs, in many cases covering much of the body. Burmese tattooing is done with a brass penlike implement with a slit point and a weight on the upper end. Sometimes pigment is rubbed into knife slashes (e.g., in Tunisia and among the Ainu of Japan and the Igbo of Nigeria), or the skin is punctured with thorns (Pima Indians of Arizona and Senoi of Malaya). Tattooing was rediscovered by Europeans when the age of exploration brought them into contact with American Indians and Polynesians. The word tattoo itself was introduced into English and other European languages from Tahiti, where it was first recorded

by James Cooks expedition in 1769. Tattooed Indians and Polynesiansand, later, Europeans tattooed abroadattracted much interest at exhibits, fairs, and circuses in Europe and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. Stimulated by Polynesian and Japanese examples, tattooing parlours, where specialized professors applied designs on European and American sailors, sprang up in port cities all over the world. The first electric tattooing implement was patented in the United States in 1891. The United States became a centre of influence in tattoo designs, especially with the spread of U.S. tattooers pattern sheets. The nautical, military, patriotic, romantic, and religious motifs are now similar in style and subject matter throughout the world; characteristic national styles of the early 20th century have generally disappeared. In the 19th century, released U.S. convicts and British army deserters were identified by tattoos, and later the inmates of Siberian prisons and Nazi concentration camps were similarly marked. During the late 19th century, tattooing had a short vogue among both sexes in the English upper classes. Members of gangs frequently have identified themselves with a tattooed design. Tattooing has declined in many non-Western cultures, but European, American, and Japanese tattooing underwent a renewal of interest in the 1990s. Tattooing of both men and women became fashionable, along with a revival of body piercing. There are sometimes religious objections to the practice (You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you [Leviticus 19:28]). The health risks of tattooing include allergic reaction to pigments and, when tattoos are applied under less-than-sterile conditions, the spread of viral infections such as hepatitis and HIV. Methods of tattoo removal include dermabrasion, skin grafts or plastic surgery, and laser surgery. All such methods may leave scars. In the early 2000s a group of scientists developed inks made from nontoxic pigments that could be contained within nano-beads. These nano-beads, implanted in the skin using traditional tattooing methods, created a permanent tattoo if left alone. The tattoo was removable, however, by means of a single laser treatment that would rupture the nano-beads; the inks thus released were absorbed into the body, and the laser treatment itself left no scar.