ARTS FEATURE
MORE THAN SKIN DEEP
Behind the Ink tells many beautiful stories in multiple mediums
Pg. 8 DEC 15 - DEC 28, 2021 - QCNERVE.COM
BY NIKOLAI MATHER
The story of Behind the Ink, a years-long photography project from local arts organization Creating Exposure Through the Arts (C.E.A.) that has since spurred exhibits, a book and a documentary, began on a Saturday back in 2008, when Joseph Johnson was getting clowned by his friends. “They thought one of my tattoos was girly … They were giving me hell about it being a rose,” he recounted. C.E.A. executive director Mark Pendergrass, who had not yet founded his organization but was volunteering with the kids at a local youth center that weekend, aimed to make it a teachable moment. He asked Johnson to share the backstory of his tattoo. Johnson explained that his mother died when he was only 2 years old, and he wanted to pay tribute to her by getting a tattoo of a rose with her name. Pendergrass, who was teaching photography at the time, saw how youth responded to this compelling tale. Within a week, he had decided to work it into the curriculum. “We would do these workshops where if you had a tattoo, you’d come in and get a portrait,” he said. Portrait subjects — friends, family members, teachers, volunteers and the like — would pose for students, then share their reasons for getting their respective body art. Initially, these began as casual conversations — born out of small talk while waiting around to take pictures. Students would ask about the meaning behind their subjects’ tattoos, and Pendergrass began to recognize just how powerful these stories were in building context for the art itself. He began recording them to act as companions to the photographs. “We intentionally started capturing interviews a couple years ago, where we would talk to them about their stories,” he said. Since 2008, the idea has developed and branched into several different creative projects. And
since founding C.E.A. in 2012, Pendergrass has been able to put a stronger focus on the project. In addition to multiple exhibitions throughout Charlotte, select photos from the project have made it into a Behind the Ink coffee-table book. Though released in April, C.E.A. was finally able to celebrate the book release with an event in The Collector’s Room in South End on Dec. 7. The book features portraits and stories A ‘BEHIND THE INK’ COFFEE TABLE BOOK DROPPED IN APRIL. from many Charlotte folks, including tattoo artists like Crystana which were brought on by COVID-19. “Dutchess” Lattimore, a The film follows Fedelina Feliz, a young woman Charlotte Latin grad and former star of VH1’s Black Ink Crew who played a major role in the Behind affiliated with C.E.A., as she gets her first tattoo. She the Ink Project; photographer Justin “UncleJut” connects with Anthony Morrow, a former NBA player McErlian; rapper Deniro Farrar; former Panthers turned creative who introduces her to Lattimore, who gives Fedelina her first tattoo. linebacker Thomas Davis; and others. The journey is intercut with interviews in which At the Dec. 7 event, organizers also screened a other people with tattoos — a 70-year-old woman, documentary by the same name that also wrapped a mother working in the corporate world, a muralist, in spring 2021 after two years of delays, many of
and so on — share their stories. They describe their creative visions for their respective pieces of body art, the inspirations behind them and their advice for young people considering tattoos. Young C.E.A. affiliates were involved in every step of the process. They wrote interview questions, took photographs and shot the scenes with help from their adult mentors. Morrow, who interviewed Fedelina as part of the documentary, was struck by the students’ work. “When I was in the field with them, I got to really see how versed in the craft they all were,” he said. “I told them all, basically, like, ‘I’m really proud of all y’all.’ For these guys to come in and get into a position of purpose at a young age — that’s something.” C.E.A. didn’t stop with the documentary. Since its release, the team has hosted screenings, curated exhibits and competed in film festivals locally and nationally. In 2020, Pendergrass had several enormous banners with photos from their exhibitions printed out for the Charlotte SHOUT! street festival. Though the festival was ultimately canceled, he worked with the city to keep the street exhibit, which is currently still displayed on the outer walls of the soon-to-be-demolished Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Main branch in Uptown. It will remain up through the end of the year. The Uptown street exhibit includes QR codes on nearby signs, which lead interested passersby to a nine-minute clip from the documentary. Building new things continuously off of one idea is most gratifying to Pendergrass. “I’m most proud of the teamwork that it took to get this from images to documentary to the desire to make a docuseries,” he said. “There are so many images that we haven’t even shared yet … There’s so much that we can create with that people can enjoy.”
More than tattoos
CRYSTANA ‘DUTCHESS’ LATTIMORE (LEFT) AND HER DAD, RICKY LATTIMORE. PHOTO BY KEVIN ‘SURF’ MITCHELL
Behind the Ink has done more than just give young people a creative outlet. It has changed perspectives on tattoos. Some documentary subjects tell funny stories, like Morrow, who talks about his mother’s reaction to his first tattoo. “She went crazy until she saw it was her name!” he said. Others, like Charlotte artist DeNeer Davis, provide deep introspection. Davis recounted a suicide attempt that led her to getting inked out of a feeling of self-love and recovery. Morrow, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Davis, thought it was important to end the stigma around body art for those reasons. “For so long, we got shunned for having
