2015 A Permanent Mark Publication

the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art

19 JUNE - 16 AUGUST 2015

PUBLISHER

Gallery Services

Gallery Services, Townsville City Council

PO Box 1268

Townsville Queensland, 4810 Australia pinnacles@townsville.qld.gov.au

©Gallery Services, Townsville City Council and the authors 2015

ISBN: 978-0-949461-04-9

ORGANISED BY

Gallery Services

Shane Fitzgerald Manager Gallery Services

Eric Nash Curator

Erwin Cruz Exhibitions and Collection Coordinator

Michael Pope Education and Programs Coordinator

Rob Donaldson Digital Media and Exhibition Design Coordinator

Jo Stacey Team Leader Administration Gallery Services

Holly Grech-Fitzgerald Collections Management Officer

Carly Sheil Digital Media and Exhibition Design Officer

Andrea Schutz Digital Media and Exhibition Design Fellow

Sarah Welch Public Art Officer

Leonardo Valero Exhibitions Officer

Rurik Henry Exhibitions Officer

Petra Pattinson Education and Programs Officer

Jess Cuddihy Education and Programs Assistant

Wendy Bainbridge Administration Officer

Danielle Berry Arts Officer

Damian Cumner Gallery Assistant

Jillian Macfie Gallery Assistant

Sarah Reddington Gallery Assistant

Denise Weightman Gallery Assistant

Kelly Bianchi Gallery Assistant

FUNDING

A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland

CONTACT

Pinnacles Gallery

20 Village Blvd, Townsville QLD 4817 (07) 4773 8871

pinnacles@townsville.qld.gov.au

www.bit.ly/pinntcc

PUBLISHED ON THE OCCASION OF

the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art

PINNACLES GALLERY

19 JUNE - 16 AUGUST 2015

PROJECT MANAGER

Shane Fitzgerald

EXHIBITION CURATOR

Eric Nash

PUBLICATION DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Eric Nash / Shane Fitzgerald / Rob Donaldson / Carly Sheil

COVER

Photograph by Shane Fitzgerald

INSIDE COVER

Shawn Barber

Abstract Self Portrait 1 [detail] 2010 - 2012

Oil on canvas

91.44 x 172.72 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Shawn Barber

Research towards A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art has been supported through the Darling Travel Grants | Domestic, administered by the Gordon Darling Foundation

@TCC_Pinnacles /PinnaclesTCC

Opening Hours

Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm

Closed Mondays

FOREWORD

Since its relocation to the purpose-built Riverway Arts Centre in 2006, Pinnacles Gallery has prided itself on an engagement with cuttingedge and contemporary visual arts.

A plethora of exhibitions have been presented over the years addressing progressive concepts; prompting consideration of topical local, national and global issues and trends; and celebrating artists whom continue to push technical and technological boundaries, in the process challenging long-established fine art conventions.

The exhibition A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art is perhaps the most ambitious such project to date. Acknowledging the (in general terms, with some notable exceptions) broader acceptance of tattooing in modern Western society, the exhibition investigates the impact tattooing and tattoo culture has had on the contemporary art ‘industry’.

It encourages us to consider afresh the age-old, unsolvable question – ‘what is art, and is this it?’ Is general society’s acceptance of tattooing and tattoo culture putting it on the verge of greater acceptance as a legitimate art form ‘worthy’ of display in our finest arts institutions? Or is it fated to be considered a trade or craft forever more?

For certain, the contemporary arts industry is not at a point where tattooists are uniformly assumed to be ‘artists’, and perhaps nor should it be. That is a question the exhibition is not able to answer, as each tattooist approaches their practice differently, assigning varying levels of importance to the conceptual and technical elements of their work.

A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art does however assemble works by significant national and international artists operating at the intersect of contemporary art and the tattoo industry. These artists are already held in high regard within the arts industry, and their work has been impacted to varying degrees by tattooing and the tattoo industry.

It is significant that this exhibition is launched in 2015, a truly momentous year for the arts in Townsville. Winter is a particularly busy period that is sure to attract the nation’s attention.

Beyond A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art, Townsville will in this period host the largest biennial Strand Ephemera to date; will be the Australianexclusive venue of the mammoth WOW, World of WearableArt touring exhibition displaying nearly 30 years of the institution’s finest works; and will again deliver iconic annual events such as the Australian Festival of Chamber Music

Also presented in this period at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery will be the Gavin Wilsoncurated exhibition Country and Western: landscape re-imagined 1988-2013, featuring key works from numerous private, regional and state collections.

Of course projects such as A Permanent Mark require the vision and contribution of numerous parties to be successfully delivered. I must firstly extend my thanks to all staff and volunteers at Gallery Services and Townsville City Council. To all of the participating artists, and those individuals and institutions kindly loaning works, I am grateful for your time, effort, and generosity. Lastly but certainly not least, the exhibition’s success has been ensured by the funding contributed by Townsville City Council; the Gordon Darling Foundation through the Darling Travel Grants; and Arts Queensland through the Projects and Programs Fund.

I trust audiences will both enjoy and be stimulated by A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art, and like myself will look on with interest at the evolving influence of tattooing in the contemporary arts.

Shane Fitzgerald MANAGER, GALLERY SERVICES

Image: Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Untitled - Tā moko woman #3 2014

Aerosol on 300gsm printmaking paper

65.1 x 58.6 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

A PERMANENT MARK

There has been a dramatic rise in the popularity and acceptance of tattoos, particularly in Western society, over the past decade. In Australia, tattooing has shifted from a ‘fringe’ activity largely enjoyed by very specific and, in the view of many, unpalatable subcultures, to one that engages the broadest cross-section of our community. Those wanting to get ‘inked’ now ranges from youth to the elderly, bikies to doctors, students to politicians, and on a cursory glance it seems the tattoos being created are also increasing in size and complexity.

Townsville’s own ‘inked’ population is large and reflective of this trend. In fact, Townsville may be somewhat of an extreme example in its habitual tattooing. This could be due in part to the city’s large military population, an active music scene, hero-worshipping of tattooed local sporting identities, and a plethora of available tattoo parlours. Outside of these external factors exist abundant personal motivations.

Given this city-wide fascination with tattooing, it was considered extremely fitting for Townsville’s peak galleries to develop perhaps the first major exhibition in Australia to analyse the shifting attitudes towards tattooing, and encourage discussion about the resultant impact on contemporary art.

As a tattooed person myself, I have great admiration for the many talented tattooists plying their trade around the country. But this in itself raises a question – where does the ‘trade’ end, and a new tool being employed by contemporary artists begin? After all, one need not look too far back to a time when photography was not widely recognised within the arts as a legitimate art form.

Without realising until well into the development of A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art, my interest in this subject was likely piqued as far back as Art class in senior High School. A fellow student (and now good friend and occasional tattooist) was not an overly engaged student in the sense of academic performance, but was incredibly sharp and a prodigiously talented draftsman.

I vividly remember one Art class, during which I noticed him almost religiously rubbing his pacer lead on a table. Curious, I asked what he was doing and took a glance at the piece of paper he was working on. His work, which would become an obsession over a number of months, was a large marijuana leaf drawn over a number of pieces of notepaper he had taped together. On closer inspection, the drawing was in fact made up of hundreds of intricately detailed drawings, each measuring no more than a centimetre in

width or length, and the vast majority reflective of tattoo culture and iconography. Given the incredible detail within each miniature drawing, the need to rub his pacer lead into the smallest point possible became instantly clear. This was also probably my first insight into the patient, almost compulsive nature of many tattoo artists who place enormous value on detail.

The work, while indicative of his undoubted talent, was not assessed by the School’s Art teachers; this was a fait accompli given the subject matter of the drawing, but still a source of disappointment for the student. To the teachers’ credit, one took the time to encourage the student, helping him engage with new digital drawing technologies and steering him towards the tattoo industry. While this was extremely commendable and has likely contributed in some way to the student becoming a successful tattooist in his adult life, was the distinction made even at that young age between ‘art’ and ‘tattoo’?

One artist who bucked this distinction and helped blaze a trail of recognition and respect for tattooists is Australian painter eX de Medici, who in 1989 was the first artist awarded a grant from the Australia Council to undertake a tattoo apprenticeship.1 Medici’s art practice has been significantly influenced by the experience. Over the years she has forged a reputation as perhaps the country’s most exquisitely talented watercolourist; a medium that, like tattooing, offers no room for error.

de Medici’s work epitomises the importance many tattooists place on immaculate craftsmanship, as I first noted in the drawings of my Art class peer. Every millimetre of a de Medici work is meticulously detailed, and also handled with great finesse. She is an elegant observer and commentator of news and current events, and her works often deal with the delicate balance between life and death. To this end, the human skull has become a recurring motif for de Medici – fitting given it has both been used by artists as a symbol of mortality through the ages, particularly in Vanitas painting, and is ubiquitous with tattoo culture.

Though she grew up in Canberra’s punk scene, de Medici was only drawn to the tattoo industry after completing her studies in Fine Art at the Australian National University, where she became jaded with the sanitised nature of the arts industry. Commenting in 2008, de Medici revealed that, “the more I saw how conservative the art world was, the more interested I was in tattooing. A few people had said ‘oh you don’t want to do that – that is art world suicide’ and I thought ‘if you’re saying that, it must be really interesting.’ And so my contrary nature powered me on … plus I thought it was really sexy and art didn’t seem very sexy to me. There was an excitement quotient and a verboten quotient. I’d been working in decayable materials and the human is the most decayable of all things –it couldn’t be collected as an art object.”2

This final point of de Medici’s could also be a clue to the difficulty the art world feels it faces in dealing with and categorising tattoo; just as is the case with street art – how do we collect it?

Though executed in vastly different modes, conceptual threads present in de Medici’s works are paralleled in the art practices of Wim Delvoye and Richard Dunlop. Life, death, and decay are dominant themes in the works of Flemish neo-conceptual artist Wim Delvoye, a renowned provocateur whom many Australians will be familiar with due to his giant Cloaca installation.

Delvoye’s frequent engagement with tattooing comes in the form of his own ‘Wim Delvoye Tattoo Shop’, and the extensive tattooing of pigs with consumer logos and drawings referencing Western icons such as skulls and hearts. His swine marking began in the early 1990s by working on dead pigs, which would either be skinned or stuffed, and progressed quite controversially in 1997 to the use of live pigs. Speaking with French newspaper Le Monde, Delvoye explained, “I show the world works of art that are so alive, they have to be vaccinated…It lives, it moves, it will die. Everything is real.”3

Like de Medici, painter Richard Dunlop is intrigued by collecting and its relationship to tattooing, as particularly evidenced in the work Kylie (2006). Dunlop’s fascination with the human need to see the world through some contrived sense of order is perfectly illustrated in the study of entomology. To make this link, Dunlop presents the Kylie figure as a vessel, sensuously decorated with a series of butterfly tattoos, with each specimen identified and numbered, as they would be in a museum display.

Tattoo paintings haven’t been a constant in Dunlop’s oeuvre, but they have recurred intermittently since first being developed in 1992. His interest has been variously piqued by travels to Asia, and observations of the tattooed form in Western culture.

In Asia, the intricate patterning of traditional tattoos closely resemble those found on carvings, ornaments, utensils and dress. Dunlop sees tattoos in this context as not only signifying a cultural bond between the people, but also demonstrating that there is no perceived separation between “their bodies, the land, and everything around them – they’re all bound by the same symbology.”4

In Australia, the artist noted a resemblance between the backs of tattooed men at the gym, and the shapes of vases. Through an exaggeration of form, his paintings draw parallels between the human body and any other decorated vessel. His paintings extend upon this comparison by patterning nudes with blue painted tattoos that closely resemble markings on traditional ‘China’ porcelain wares.

In the tension between surface and form, there is an interesting dialogue between Dunlop’s paintings, and the beautiful busts of ChineseAustralian artist Ah Xian. Ah Xian has an enduring interest in the human form, which began with the creation of politically scrutinised nude drawings in China in the 1980s, and shifted towards figurative sculpture in the 1990s.5

Image: Richard Dunlop

Kylie 2006 Oil on linen, 180 x 120 cm Courtesy of the Artist, Richard Dunlop, and Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane

As in tattooing, Ah Xian uses the figure as a blank canvas, and from there engages with various traditional Chinese motifs and art forms. The human figure, which appears both enticing and haunting in the busts of Ah Xian, provides the artist with a comfortable point of access for viewers to consider universal notions of spirituality, and cultural and political frictions noted through his relationship with both China and Australia.

Ah Xian explains; “it’s quite natural to be interested in the nude and the body...There are many things one can do as an artist – look at the environment, look at society, at politics – there’s quite a lot of room to play in all of those fields, but the human body is absolutely inexhaustible as a subject. I have never lost interest in the figure...The reason why people are so seduced and drawn to it is not the body itself, but that place where it joins traditional decorative arts, and it is exactly there where the work has its appeal and where it actually succeeds – you pull it apart and it means nothing.”6

While artists such as Dunlop and Ah Xian utilise the human figure as an object to be ‘tattooed’ with symbology and concepts, it is not the only way in which contemporary artists are being influenced by tattooing. Others, such as Mexican artist Dr Lakra, American artists Shawn Barber, Scott Campbell, and Don Ed Hardy, and Australian Leslie Rice maintain a dual practice, making a clear definition between their work as a professional tattooist and as a contemporary artist. In each case however, the two practices remain invariably linked through representation and the use of tattoo culture iconography. Perhaps the most interesting development

is those artists using tattoo techniques and technology for the creation of contemporary art with few visual links to the mainstream tattoo industry. Qin Ga, emerging from the underground Chinese art scene, uses tattooing as a powerful and concise communication tool in The miniature long march film and series of 23 photographs, deliberately breaking with conventional and expected aesthetics.

American artist Amanda Wachob makes reference to the tattoo industry’s training techniques through the marking of oranges and fruit skins, but the true strength of the photographic series resides in the delicacy of the abstract marks. In sections, the black marks draw comparison with those of renowned printmakers such as Tate Adams and John Olsen. Wachob’s enthusiasm for the tattoo medium and its relatively untapped potential within the contemporary arts has already taken her in numerous directions; from tattooed colour field and abstract canvases, to abstract line works on hide, and photographic documentation of witty ‘disappearing’ water tattoos. The water tattoo photos in particular delicately balance the perceived notions of ‘high’ and ‘low’ art.

Emerging Townsville artist Rob Douma is another treading this path, particularly in his series of painted artificial skulls. Originally from Tasmania, Douma established the appropriately gruesomely titled warehouse studio Tsunami Death Cult in 2012,7 producing sinister paintings, sculptures and carvings that are reflective of the dark imagery synonymous with modern tattoo culture.

Self-taught, Douma gained recognition by winning the People’s Choice Award in the 2014 Glencore Percival Portrait Painting Prize. He challenges audiences to find a place for his work – be it as a fine art work or consumer designer product – by finely balancing fine craftsmanship with ‘kitsch’ iconography.

The popularisation of tattooing has also seen the practice increasingly viewed as a fashion statement or accessory. The fashion item status of tattoos is particularly evident in the works of Chinese photographer and digital artist Chen Man, who has in the past been commissioned by notable multi-national fashion companies such as Nike, Max Factor, and L’Oreal.8 Her works speak to a dangerous underground culture, but are firmly placed in the mainstream fashion industry that has seen tattoo culture become increasingly separated from this very place.

The collision of tattoo, contemporary art and fashion was demonstrated by the extreme popularity of the Ed Hardy fashion label upon its launch, and has never been more evident than Garage magazine’s 2011 project commissioning some of the world’s best-known contemporary artists to create works on ‘willing canvases’. The project was conducted for the magazine’s inaugural issue, and participating artists included Jeff Koons, John Baldessari, and Damien Hirst. Hirst’s tattoo was completed on the genitalia of a female model, and quickly became infamous (as is the artist’s want). A black and white photo of the tattoo featured on the magazine’s cover, obscured by a colour ‘peel-and-reveal’ butterfly sticker.9

Another artist engaging with the uneasy relationship between tattoo and fashion is Dr Lakra. The Mexican artist’s altered magazine pin-up girls call into question popular conceptions of ‘beauty’ by juxtaposing 1950s glamour against facial tattoos imbued with cultural traditions and significance.

The fashion industry is of course in equal parts a creative and commercial venture, and with the rise of tattoo as a personal fashion statement came the inevitable connection to advertising. This was no more evident than the ‘body billboard’ phenomenon which arose during the dot com boom of the early 2000s. With web start-ups flush with cash, many paid average citizens huge sums to tattoo their web URLs and logos on their faces, arms, legs, backs and torsos. Now ten to fifteen years on, the move brings to light the permanence of tattoo, with many of the advertisements having outlasted the companies themselves. 10

Around the same time of the dot com tattoo advertising was a confrontational tattoo performance by Spanish public performance artist and provocateur Santiago Sierra. The performance, entitled 160cm Line Tattooed on 4 People (2000) was just one work in the artist’s divisive Line series.11 As in the tattooed advertisements, Sierra’s performance queried the value people place on the sovereignty of their own bodies.

In describing the tattoo performance, Sierra stated, “Four prostitutes addicted to heroin were hired for the price of a shot of heroin to give their consent to be tattooed. Normally they charge

2,000-3,000 pesetas, between $15-$17 for fellatio, while the price of a shot of heroin is around 12,000 pesetas, about $67.”12 Sierra’s work has often been viewed as exploitative or predatory, preying on vulnerable sections of society to test psychological, emotional and physical boundaries; causing discomfort and distress to perhaps elicit similar feelings in comparably privileged audiences. Despite Sierra’s engagement with – or exploitation of – the underprivileged, tattooing has generally moved beyond the fringes of society in which it had traditionally resided.

This is evident in the work of Holly Grech. Her elegant portraits reference the popularly held belief that hand, face, and neck tattoos were formerly taboo in monarchist nations as any such marking of these body parts was considered defacement of the Crown. While some tattooists still resist or refuse to do tattoos on people’s hands, necks or face for various reasons, there exists no formal or legal judgement to preclude such activity.

With the popularisation and acceptance of tattoo, however, comes a natural degree of resistance, and some individuals and subcultures now push against the art form’s ‘watering down’. While many media commentators and certainly professional tattooists denounce the practice of ‘backyard’ tattooing (and with cause given the associated health risks), it is in these very settings that some artists have been inspired and begun the process of learning and perfecting their discipline.

A somewhat unlikely advocate for (safe) backyard tattooing is found in professional tattooist and artist Leslie Rice, who sees great value in the unrestricted creativity and enjoyment associated with groups of friends learning through experimentation with the medium.13 Perhaps a more likely source of support for home tattoos is found in the Townsville-based RUN Collective, a group of like-minded street artists and creative types with a deep commitment to DIY-culture and a healthy distaste for the establishment.

The RUN Collective are an adaptable group of artists, regularly mixing elements of their formal art training with self- or peer-taught techniques and practices across mediums as diverse as aerosol, stencil, screen printing, photography, digital art, zines, oil and acrylic paintings, drawing, sculpture, film, and installation.

Experimentation is key to the group’s collective practice – celebrations of creativity amongst friends resulting in wildly varied bodies of work – and this experimentation has in recent years extended to tattooing.

The underground, DIY ‘reclaiming’ of the tattoo medium by the RUN Collective also draws parallels between the tattoo industry and activity in Australia’s street art landscape. General society’s adoption of tattooing is akin to the popularisation and art world ‘legitimisation’ of street art experienced in the past two decades, which some artists in the field believe detrimental to its purity of expression.

Regan Tamanui – likely the nation’s most (in)famous stencil artist operating under the moniker HAHA – is another street artist to have engaged with tattooing, both on his skin, and in some of his portraits. One of his own tattoos is of Ned Kelly, a symbol inseparable from the artist’s stencil practice.

Tamanui explains that, despite his Maori and Samoan heritage, “none of my tattoos are linked to my culture. I’ve got a lot of street art...all the tattoos I’ve got are like a journey; images I like with a story behind it. The Ned Kelly story is one that I like and identify with, I feel an affinity with the concept of bushrangers, particularly being a street artist. The whole idea of street art is doing stuff illegally that people like...I believe that street art is like the 21st century bushranger if done illegally.”14

While Tamanui’s tattoos are not traditional Maori or Samoan tattoos, it is in his stencil art that he draws on this heritage. Particularly in Tamanui’s early works, he has depicted figures with traditional Maori tattoos, Tā moko. Cultural identity expressed through body markings is also a point of interest for artists such as Tama tk Favell, Fiona Pardington, and New Zealand photographer and digital media artist Lisa Reihana. Reihana’s depictions of modern Maori culture “revise negative notions about the past, and provide positive imagery for present generations.”15

With mainstream society’s adoption of tattoo, including those steeped in cultural traditions, questions abound about the impact of this re-appropriation and re-interpretation. For instance, does the adoption of Tā moko by non-Maoris damage or diminish the culture it so powerfully asserts?

An equally powerful tattoo – a large figure from William Blake’s The Red Dragon – features in The lines are drawn, an etching by acclaimed Townsville printmaker Ron McBurnie. The artist uses the tattoo as a visual clue, a storytelling device in a tale of a man on the cusp of moving from one world to another.16

McBurnie is not only a skilled storyteller, but also a keen observer of people. With more tattooed people to observe than ever before, it was inevitable that one would be the focal point of a humorous etching from McBurnie’s Suburban Etchings series. The work He tattooed the names of each of his ten wives onto his right arm from A to Z from my toes to my head, a collaborative portfolio McBurnie produced with Juli Haas,17 jokingly deals with the permanence of tattoos and the regret stemming from an ill-considered design.

Other keen observers of people and their projection of identity through tattoos include photographers David Griggs, and Townsvillebased Holly Grech. Grech’s works investigate unique tattoo designs that represent personally defining moments or lifestyles. Her photographs are gripping contemporary portraits, examining the private lives of real people expressed through

their body art. Simultaneously, the works prompt consideration of the unfettered access we provide strangers to our private lives through tattoos, and by extension the conscious choices we make about the image we wish to portray of ourselves to the outside world. Further, the works ponder issues of ownership of one’s own body, and society’s insistence on having input as to what can and can’t be done with this property.

Broader acceptance of tattooing and visible tattoos in Western society has undoubtedly prompted an increased engagement by contemporary artists with the medium. The rapid advancements in tattoo technology have provided artists new horizons, while many trained tattooists are using the industry as a pathway to a contemporary arts practice.

Contemporary artists, as they have always been, are society’s commentators – its moral compass of sorts. By using tattoo as a visual device, artists have also been afforded the opportunity to take a fresh approach to their explorations of societal issues as broad as body image, personal identity, cultural belonging and appropriation, fringe cultures, mortality, permanence/impermanence and many others.

A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art draws together a number of these notable works to encapsulate how far and in what ways tattoo has permeated into the contemporary art sphere. Further, it queries how the contemporary art world now views a medium that is experiencing a masspopularisation.

Finally, the exhibition encourages viewers to pontificate as to how the intersect between the two industries, contemporary art and tattooing, will continue to evolve. In what ways will our contemporary artists utilise the medium in the future, and will the two fields continue to blur more closely together?

Eric Nash CURATOR, GALLERY SERVICES

Notes

1 ‘Sullivan+Strumpf: Artists’, eX de Medici <www.sullivanstrumpf.com/artists/de-medici-ex/>, viewed August 2014

2 Paul Flynn, ‘eX de Medici: Cover Story’. Artist Profile, Issue 5, 2008

3 ‘Belgium’, Wim Delvoye: Tattooing Pigs or the Art of Provocation <www.theculturetrip.com/europe/belgium/articles/wim-delvoyetattooing-pigs-or-the-art-of-provocation/>, viewed August 2014

4 Discussion between Richard Dunlop and exhibition Curator, Eric Nash, 9 August 2014

5 Suhanya Raffel and Lynne Seear, ‘Human human’. Ah Xian, Queensland Art Gallery, 2003, pp. 9

6 Rhana Devenport, with Linda Jaivin, ‘Dualism and solitary journeys: An interview with Ah Xian’. Ah Xian, Queensland Art Gallery, 2003, pp. 22

7 ‘Tsunami Death Cult’, About Me <www.tsunamideathcult.com/about-me/>, viewed August 2014

8 ‘Hai Gallery’, Biography: Chen Man < www.haigallery.com/biography-chen-man/?lang=en>, viewed August 2014

9 ‘GARAGE Magazine’, GARAGE Magazine No.1 Fall/Winter 2011 - Damien Hirst Cover <www.garagemagazine.bigcartel.com/product/fallwinter-2011>, viewed August 2014

10 ‘Daily Mail Australia’, Past their sell by dates: Meet the people branded for life with tattoos advertising websites that no longer exist <www.dailymail. co.uk/news/article-2209233/The-body-billboard-The-people-dotcomtattoos-advertising-websites-longer-exist.html>, viewed August 2014

11 ‘TATE’, Performance: Santiago Sierra < www.tate.org.uk/contextcomment/video/performance-santiago-sierra>, viewed August 2014

12 ‘Santiago Sierra’, 160cm Line Tattooed on 4 People < www.santiago-sierra.com/200014_1024.php>, viewed August 2014

13 Discussion between Leslie Rice and exhibition Curator, Eric Nash, 8 August 2014

14 Discussion between Regan Tamanui and exhibition Curator, Eric Nash, 10 August 2014

15 Lisa Reihana, email to exhibition Curator, Eric Nash, 7 August 2014

16 ‘Ron McBurnie’, Romantic Prints Page 1 <www.ronmcburnie.com/html/romantic.html>, viewed August 2014

17 ‘Ron McBurnie’, A-Z From my toes to my head <www.ronmcburnie.com/html/suburban-a-z.html>, viewed August 2014

Image: eX de Medici

Australia b.1959

The theory of everything 2005

Watercolour and metallic pigment on Arches paper

114.3 x 176.3 cm

Acc. 2005.244

Purchased 2005

Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Image courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art © eX de Medici

109 x 114 cm

Image: eX de Medici

Mother Skull 2006

Watercolour and metallic pigment on paper

Private Collection of Kate Dulhunty

© eX de Medici

SOME THOUGHTS ON TATTOO AND ART

Over 20 years ago I was tattooed in Fortitude Valley’s Fiveways building, affectionately known as ‘sin triangle’. The location of the tattoo shop, nestled among the brothels, conveyed a strong sense of the location of tattoo in our culture. Tattoo was still a deviant practice located among the dens of iniquity on the fringes of society. Today, Fortitude Valley is home to a tattoo studio that is also an art gallery and espresso bar. It is part of the revamped Fortitude Valley, a place of cafes, chic clubs and boutique stores (and many tattoo shops). Fortitude Valley has been gentrified, as has the symbolic neighbourhood of tattoo. Tattoo has moved from its position on the fringes of society to centre stage, and at the same time moved closer towards the realm of art. In this introduction I present my thoughts on this movement.

Let us begin with a brief history of tattoo. But which history of tattoo should we examine?

Tattoo has existed in almost all societies at one time or another,1 so it is possible to write many different histories of tattoo (see Hesselt van Dinter2 for a selection). However, it has been the Western3 history of tattoo that has most influenced discussions of tattoo in relation to art, so it is with this history that I am primarily concerned.

The urge to decorate the body is as old as our species. Precisely when in Western history such decorations became permanent is a matter of debate. Skin, in most cases, is impermanent. However, on rare occasions extreme conditions will preserve skin, allowing us a window on the history of body decoration. The earliest definitive evidence of tattoo comes from ‘Ötzi the Iceman’, Europe’s oldest mummy (born c. 3300 BCE) who was preserved by the extreme cold of the Ötzal Alps (on the border between Italy and Austria). Other evidence suggests that tattoo was practised much earlier than this. For instance 12,000 year-old bowls with traces of pigment and sharpened flint instruments possibly used for tattooing were found in the Grotte des Fées (Fairy Grotto) in Châtelperron, France.2

For at least five millennia, tattoo, the puncturing of the skin to insert pigment, has been a practice of the West. However, the Western practice of tattoo has not been continuous as there were periods when tattoo was absent. These breaks led to times when tattoo was ‘rediscovered’. In short, the Western history of tattoo is not purely a matter of continuous practice, nor is it solely a matter of importation, but rather it is a complicated matter of convergence and reinforcement.1

The ancient groups of the British Isles, such as the Picts, practised extensive tattooing.4 Occupying Roman soldiers adopted the practice and tattoo continued in Rome until, in the third century, Emperor Constantine banned tattoo after his conversion to Christianity.4 Centuries later Anglo-Saxon nobility were decorated with religious tattoos or devotions to loved ones before the practice was again banned by the Church from the eighth century.4 While there is some tenuous evidence of tattoo surviving on the fringes of Christian Europe,1 it was not until the Crusades (from the late eleventh to the thirteenth centuries), that Westerners were tattooed in significant numbers. “Crusaders had themselves marked with the crucifix or other religious symbols to insure a Christian burial should they die in a foreign land”.4 Until the eighteenth century, this form of religious tattooing was the only form of tattooing performed in Western societies.4

The modern history of tattoo begins with the voyages of Captain James Cook in the South Pacific (1768-1779). Cook introduced the Tahitian word ‘ta-tu’ (which soon became ‘tattoo’), meaning ‘to strike’ or ‘to mark’, to the English language through his description of Tahitian practices.5 Pacific tattoo was briefly described by earlier explorers, but it was not until the return of Cook’s Endeavour in 1771 that tattoo really entered into modern European consciousness.6 Sailors and officers of the Endeavour received tattoos from Tahitians to commemorate their adventures stimulating a tradition of maritime tattooing (which continues to this day). On his second voyage

to the Pacific, Cook returned to England with a heavily tattooed Tahitian prince who was exhibited as an object of great curiosity to members of the British upper class.4 He was the first of a series of tattooed people on display in Western aristocratic circles at the end of the eighteenth century.4 By the 1850s a number of heavily tattooed Europeans were making a living exhibiting themselves to the public and medical associations, initiating a lively tattoo fad in Europe.4 By the end of the nineteenth century the fad of tattoo was being felt amongst the highest European social classes with individuals such as Tsar Nicholas II and Winston Churchill becoming tattooed.

In Australia, tattoo has been practised since colonisation.7 Estimates suggest that as many as one third of convicts arriving to Australia in 1831 were tattooed.8 These working-class men and women were tattooed with a relatively narrow range of symbols such as their own or other’s names or initials, anchors, mermaids, hearts, stars, and the crucifixion. Over the nineteenth century, Australians were exposed to the tattoo practices of the Maori, Pacific Islanders and Japanese pearl divers resulting in Australians becoming gradually accustomed to tattoo.9 There are little records of tattoo from this time, perhaps because Australians “slowly absorbed”9 the practice rather than it becoming a more sudden and notable fad as was the case in Europe and America.

The tattoo fad of Europe crossed the Atlantic by the late nineteenth century, but by the early twentieth century tattoo lost favour with the North American elite who began to consider it vulgar.4 Tattoo was culturally downgraded and became a practice of the lower classes. The downturn in acceptance of tattoo in Europe and America was given academic weight by the theories of Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso who suggested that the tattooed were not civilised and prone to criminality.10 Interestingly, it was about this time that tattoo became increasingly popular among North American prisoners.6

In early twentieth-century North America the first tattooed people appeared in circuses and sideshows and were presented as vicious, savage and even subhuman freaks.11 From this time until the 1960s tattoo existed on the fringes of respectable society. Those who were tattooed were predominantly working-class men such as servicemen and seamen, prisoners and members of the newly formed outlaw motorcycle clubs. They were tattooed by other working-class men who worked in tattoo shops located in places of poverty.11 Tattoo shops relied on passing trade and thus had eye-catching store fronts.12 Usually a small and complete tattoo was applied by a tattooist, and later another small, complete tattoo would be applied elsewhere on the body by a different tattooist. The inevitable result of prolonged tattooing was a chaotic collage of discrete and unconnected elements, often lacking in aesthetic value.9

Tattoos at this time were characterised by a heavy black outline and the use of limited colours (black, red, green, brown, yellow and occasionally white).12 The tattoo designs were standardised and formulaic. There was a narrow range of stock designs, and unique pieces were rare. Customers chose from sheets of ‘flash’ (sheets of standard designs usually with prices attached) which tattooists displayed on the walls of the parlour or in books. Designs were largely maritime and military (e.g. pin-up girls, nautical stars, anchors, ships, swallows, and mermaids) and Americana (e.g. eagles and flags). The tattoos of the bikers introduced a more mischievous and frightening element to tattoo (e.g. skulls), and an increasing Japanese influence through the work of people like Sailor Jerry introduced symbols such as dragons to the repertoire.

The tattoo renaissance

From the 1960s movements such as the punk, hippy, new age, women’s and gay liberation movements encouraged people to think of their bodies and their adornment in new ways. The increasing popular appreciation of other cultures opened symbolic doors to the West. The stage was set for changes to the practice of tattoo.

The dramatic changes that resulted were so significant that it has been termed the ‘tattoo renaissance’.13 A feedback relationship was initiated when more affluent, older, educated, middle-class, and artistically sophisticated individuals, many of whom were women, began to be tattooed. These new groups demanded

more artistic tattooing which spurred changes in the practice which in turn encouraged a wider segment of the population to become tattooed, who demanded more changes to tattoo, and so on.

Customers began to demand more unique tattoo designs, and gradually custom tattoos (designs created by the artist in consultation with the customer) began to replace tattoos that were stencilled from flash. As a result of changing demands tattoo began to breed a new generation of practitioners. The new breed was more likely to be university or art-school trained and to prioritise artistic concerns over financial. They began to be selective and would only tattoo images that they felt matched their creative vision. Less ‘walk-ins’ were tattooed and increasingly tattoos were applied by appointment. Tattoos began to be priced by the hour rather than by the piece.

The custom tattoos created were often large pieces and careful consideration was given to their placement on the body so that they complemented the shape and movement of the body part. Placement was important as individuals began to think more about tattoos as an ongoing project rather than as isolated instances. Tattoo projects were often planned (sometimes meticulously) far into the future.

During the renaissance tattoos became much more unified. Backgrounds began to be used to join tattoos together. Body parts started to become unified tattoo scenes and terms such as ‘back job’ (referring to a tattoo that covers the entire back) and ‘sleeve’ (referring

to a tattoo that covers the entire arm) became more common, particularly in the 1990s.9 Part of this more unified aesthetic was due to the increased tendency of customers to return to the same tattoo artist and establish an ongoing relationship. Talk of tattoo ‘collectors’ became more common as individuals collected tattoos from certain prized artists, sometimes travelling internationally to do so.

Tattoos in general became more detailed and three-dimensional with the beginnings of photorealism in tattoo. The range of symbols employed in tattoos became much broader as a result of the increase in unique, custom pieces. New styles of Western tattooing, such as tribal (bold, black designs reminiscent of non-Western tattoo styles) became very popular.

The number of tattoo colours available increased dramatically during the renaissance. Prerenaissance tattoos consisted of only about 5 or 6 colours: black, red, green, brown, yellow and occasionally white.12 At the start of the renaissance Sailor Jerry Collins introduced a good blue and purple although these were initially only in the hands of a few artists.12 During the renaissance new colours were produced until in the 1990s the colour range had expanded to include “nearly every hue generally available in the painter’s repertoire”.12 During the renaissance the black outline which had previously been a defining feature of tattoo began to be omitted from some tattoos. Images from fine artists such as van Gogh and Dali began to be etched on skin.

Image: Dr Lakra

Collection of Tatiana Bilbao

In what I believe to be the peak of the renaissance, the 1990s, tattoo began to increase its cultural and aesthetic legitimacy. The term ‘body art’ entered into popular usage and was increasingly employed by the mainstream media to describe tattoo. From the mid-1990s tattoo art exhibits began to be held in the highly influential New York art world, and in 1996 the National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian Institute) added tattoo design work to its permanent collection14 indicating that tattoo has attained a certain level of aesthetic-cultural legitimacy.15 In 2000 the Australian museum held an exhibition exploring ‘body art’.

The cultural upgrading of tattoo was reflected not only in the use of the term ‘body art’ to describe tattoo, but also in other changes to our language. ‘Tattooists’ began to be referred to as ‘tattoo artists’. Tattoo ‘shops’ or tattoo ‘parlours’ began to be referred to as tattoo ‘studios’. Tattoo began to be discussed as art, displayed as art, and was for the first time given serious consideration by academics.

Post-renaissance tattoo

Twenty-first century tattoo has in many ways continued the trends of the tattoo renaissance, but in other ways it has involved a backlash against these trends. Because of this, and the massive increase in the mainstreaming of tattoo in the twenty-first century, I suggest that at approximately the turn of the century, tattoo entered a ‘post-renaissance’ phase.

During the late twentieth century, thanks to the processes of cultural upgrading described previously, tattoo began to lose some of its cultural baggage. In the twenty-first century, we have seen unprecedented normalisation of tattoo. Tattoo (to a certain extent at least) has been mainstreamed. It has become much more common for celebrities (e.g. actors, musicians, athletes) to be visibly tattooed. There have been numerous reality TV shows on tattoo created that have emphasised the tattooed as normal, middle-class people with meaningful body art. The media no longer only employ images of the tattooed to indicate deviance, but also to indicate a new norm. For example, images of the tattooed are used to sell all manner of things such as underwear, perfume, painkillers, frying pans, energy, supermarkets, and even financial institutions, indicating that at least a large segment of the population are now expected to identify with the tattooed. Indeed some Australian government brochures aimed at youth even feature tattooed individuals.

Since the turn of the century tattoo has spread to the broadest cross-section of the community ever, crossing gender and class boundaries, until individuals of every demographic are now tattooed.16 I myself have had the pleasure of talking to many tattooed people, from punks to public servants, from outlaw bikers to police, from metal-heads to senior clergy.

In the twenty-first century in some ways we have continued the processes initiated in the tattoo renaissance, and as a result tattoo has been brought closer to the realm of art.

There are some who are designing and placing their tattoos with more concern for aesthetics than ever. There are some artists who are creating impressionist, pointillist, cubist and art nouveau tattoo designs. Galleries and museums are now exhibiting both photographic reproductions and living samples of exemplary tattoo art.4 Some tattoo artists are working in other mediums such as paint, and display canvases on their studio walls and in tattoo magazines.

Over the last five years tattoo studios that are also art galleries have emerged indicating that tattoo has achieved a new level of culturalaesthetic legitimacy. Tattoo studios are also popping up in upper-class suburbs. One studio I know of is so exclusive that they won’t give their exact address until they approve your desired tattoo and agree to tattoo it. The highly visible tattoo storefront of the pre-renaissance has been replaced with an invisible storefront. No more walk-ins, but rather a clientele carefully selected by a discerning artist.

But twenty-first century tattoo seems also to involve a backlash against the tattoo renaissance, and a symbolic return to times when there was a much larger gap between tattoo and art. In the twenty-first century there was a distinct drop in the popularity of tribal tattoo, and a resurgence in popularity of ‘old school’, pre-renaissance tattoo designs such as maritime and military tattoos (e.g. pin-ups, swallows, nautical stars, anchors, ships), Americana (e.g. eagles, flags), and black and grey designs (reminiscent of gang or prison tattoos e.g. spider’s web on the elbow). Sheets of flash of these pre-renaissance style designs

are making a comeback in some tattoo studios and magazines. There has been a return, in some modern tattoo projects, to the narrow range of symbols employed in pre-renaissance tattoo. There has also been a return to a pre-renaissance aesthetic in terms of placement. Many of these ‘old school’ tattoo projects seem less unified than the tattoos of the renaissance (in particular the tattoos of the 1990s). A sleeve today can be made up of a dozen or more separate designs applied in a seemingly haphazard way with no background to unify them. The result is a pre-renaissance style ‘chaotic collage’.

In some cases deliberate efforts are made to replicate pre-renaissance tattoos by employing, for example, a heavy black outline, a basic repertoire of colours such as red, blue and green and a largely two dimensional design consisting of one part black, one part colour and one part skin. However, it seems that in many cases it is important that the pre-renaissance symbolism is modernised. For instance ‘new school’ tattoos are tattoos of pre-renaissance subject matter but done in a modern way, such as with more detail, a three dimensional appearance, a greater range of colours, and bolder shading and transitions between colours.

China b.1971

The miniature long march [detail] 2002 - 2005

Type C photograph on paper, 23 sheets: 75.5 x 55 cm (each)

Acc. 2007.009.001-023

Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund

Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Image courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

Image: Qin Ga

Today

Today, tattoo is more complicated and varied than ever. The legacy of the tattoo renaissance is still being felt and issues like originality, placement and unification are paramount in some tattoo projects. In other tattoo projects the post-renaissance ‘old school’ aesthetic dominates and a narrower range of symbols are employed resulting in similarity between tattoo projects. Tattoo symbolism appears to be simultaneously broadening and narrowing.

Very recently there has been some evidence of a return of tribal tattoo, albeit with a modern twist. With the return of tribal it seems that tattoo practices are currently drawing on the entire modern history of Western tattoo: from colonialism through the pre-renaissance ‘rebel’ and ‘working-class’ eras,11 to the renaissance and post-renaissance eras. It seems tattoo is performing a kind of postmodern reflection on its own history. Tattoo has moved across ethnic boundaries, gender boundaries and class boundaries. It appears to be a time of free play with all that has come before.

I believe that it is precisely this reflexive phase of tattoo that has attracted contemporary artists towards employing tattoo symbolism in their art. Through tattoo they are given fertile ground to problematise boundaries. Employing tattoo symbolism allows them to draw on a complex history of cultural appropriation, of traversing class and gender boundaries, of reinvention.

Tattoo and art

Over time, tattoo has been increasingly discussed as art, but there remains some resistance to defining tattoo as art, at least in some circles. Why is this the case?

I believe that there were several important changes to the practice of tattoo during the renaissance that encouraged people to begin considering tattoo as art. Indeed the peak of the renaissance (1990s) coincides with the beginnings of tattoo’s aesthetic-cultural legitimacy. Perhaps the most important change was the shift from flash to custom and the broadening of the range of symbols employed. There was also an increase in technical proficiency (such as the ability to produce detailed, three dimensional images in a range of colours), and a concern with placement so that tattoos complemented each other and the body part. All of these things, I believe, moved tattoo closer to the realm of art.

However, in the twenty-first century we have seen some evidence of a return to flash, and many tattoos drawn from a very limited repertoire of symbols. We have also seen a return to basic styles of tattoo with heavy black outlines, little detail, and simple use of colour. In some tattoo projects placement seems to be haphazard and not determined by aesthetic concerns. Do these changes make tattoo less artistic? While original, or singular works are more likely to be defined as art,4 is there any reason that art cannot draw on a limited range of symbols?

Today, sheets of flash, or more commonly images from the internet or magazines, are used for tattoo inspiration. As I understand it the image is almost always changed, at least slightly, before being tattooed. How much does an image need to differ from another for it to be considered unique and original? Do tattoos need to be technically complex to be considered art? Can art not be simple? Do tattoos have to be unified and coherent to be art? Does the placement of the tattoo on the body always have to be painstakingly thought through to be considered art, or can it be more spontaneous?

Regardless of the answers to these questions, there are other factors that impact on our ability to define tattoo as art. There is the difficulty of displaying — and harder yet, selling — a work that eats, sleeps and ultimately dies.17 Aside from the possibility of displaying skins in galleries it is difficult to overcome the problems of display and longevity. The issue of selling tattoo art is even more problematic. However, other practices with a limited lifespan and that are difficult to display or sell have been defined as art, for example process and conceptual art. So is there any reason that tattoo cannot be considered art?

There is one good reason why tattoo has not achieved widespread acceptance as art, and that is class. “As folk art whose iconography has long been linked to the military, prison culture and alternative lifestyle subcultures, Western-style tattooing has remained a resolutely low-brow medium attracting little institutional interest.”17

The class of those who have produced and collected tattoos has led to value judgments about tattoos as art. But with the gentrification, or the aesthetic-cultural upgrading, of tattoo that has been occurring since the 1960s we are making strides towards ridding tattoo of this cultural baggage.18 A different class of people has begun to produce and collect tattoos19 and this is increasing the likelihood that tattoo will be accepted as art.

At this point in time tattoo has achieved a ‘quasilegitimate’ status as art.15 Tattoo has been granted a degree of aesthetic-cultural legitimacy, but it is yet to be exhibited in primary art museums as ‘high’, ‘fine’ or ‘legitimate’ art.15 At the moment tattooists have to also work in other mediums to be considered artists, but the day when tattooists are recognised as artists for their tattoo work alone is, as Dr Lakra17 states, “really close”.

Tattoo is a technique for producing art, not art per se. It is an artistic medium as is painting or sculpture. Whether or not an image should be considered art, should not be determined by the cultural baggage attached to the chosen medium, but rather the artistic merit of what is produced.

To me my tattoos have always been art. Whether applied in a seedy parlour or a swanky studio, it was always art that was being done. But, I am not an artist and I have never studied art at university. I am not of ‘the art world’ and thus I do not have the power to confer the status of ‘art’. However, should the cultural upgrading of tattoo continue those with that power may soon place tattoos in the realm of art, as I, and many others, do.

Mair Underwood PhD (Anthropology) THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

Notes

1 Caplan, Jane 2000 Written on the body: The tattoo in European and American history, Reaktion: London.

2 Hesselt van Dinter, Maarten 2005 The world of tattoo: An illustrated history. KIT Publishers: Amsterdam.

3 “The West” is a problematic term for many reasons which are beyond the scope of this paper. However, as I can think of no better term for my purposes, I am employing it here to distinguish the tattoo histories of Europe and various former European colonies (including Australia and the United States of America) from the other tattoo histories of Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

4 Sanders, Clinton R. (with D. Angus Vail) 2008 Customizing the body: The art and culture of tattooing. Temple University Press: Philadelphia.

5 Prior to this tattoo was termed “pricking” in the West.4

6 DeMello, Margo 2000 Bodies of Inscription: A cultural history of the modern tattoo community, Duke University Press: Durham.

7 The Aborigines, like most dark-skinned people, practised tattoo’s sister art, scarification.

8 Kent, David 1997 Decorative bodies: The significance of convicts’ tattoos, Journal of Australian Studies 21(53):78-88.

9 Cohen, Tony 1994 The Tattoo, Outback Print: Mosman.

10 Lombroso, C. 1896. The Savage Origins of Tattooing, Popular Science, April: 793-803.

11 Atkinson, Michael 2003 Tattooed: The sociogenesis of a body art University of Toronto Press: Toronto.

12 Hardy, Don Ed 1995 Tattooing as a medium, in Pierced Hearts and True Love: A century of drawings for tattoos, The Drawing Center: New York.

13 Rubin, Arnold 1988 Marks of civilization: Artistic transformations of the human body, Museum of Cultural History, University of California: Los Angeles.

14 Halnon, K.B., and Cohen, S. 2006 Muscles, motorcycles and tattoos: Gentrification in a new frontier, Journal of Consumer Culture 6(1):33-56.

15 Kosut, Mary 2006 ‘Mad artists & tattooed perverts: Deviant discourse and the social construction of cultural categories’, Deviant Behavior, 27(1):73-95.

16 Heywood, W., Patrick, K., Smith, A., Simpson, J., Pitts, M., Richters, J. and Shelley, J. 2012 Who gets tattoos? Demographic and behavioral correlates of ever being tattooed in a representative sample of men and women, Annals of Epidemiology, 22:51-56.

17 Mifflin, Margot 2012 Inkside out, ARTnews December:92-97.

18 In fact the Tattoo Parlours Act recently instituted in New South Wales (2012) and Queensland (2013) may be seen as an effort to rid tattoo of its cultural baggage. It seems that it is an unapologetic push to rid the practice of tattoo of outlaw motorcycle club members (an integral part of Australian tattoo history). The Act requires tattoo artists to obtain a license which does not prove technical competence (there is no legal requirement in this regard) or adherence to health requirements (other pre-existing licenses cover this), but only that the artist is not associated with certain criminal organisations. It is described by the government as an effort to curb money laundering by outlaw motorcycle clubs. It encourages, whether intentionally or not, the cultural upgrading of tattoo.

19 While some have talked about the gentrification of tattoo as a pushing out of the lower classes and the transformation of the symbolic neighbourhood into a middle-class one (e.g. Halnon and Cohen 2006), I prefer to think of the gentrification of tattoo as involving the cohabitation of the newly entered middle class with the pre-existing lower class. To a large extent it was the gentrification of tattoo that spurred academics to write about Western tattoo history, with publications on tattoo becoming more common from the late 1980s. I believe that accounts of recent tattoo history (e.g. renaissance onwards), including my own, are biased towards the middle class and tend to omit the continued practice of tattoo by the lower classes. The middle classes are new to tattoo which makes them an exciting topic of investigation for academics who themselves tend to be middle-class.

Image: Ah Xian

China/Australia b.1960

Human human - Bust no.5 2002

Hand-beaten copper, finely enamelled in the cloisonné technique 43 cm (ht.)

Acc. 2009.218

Purchased 2009 with funds from Tim Fairfax, AM, through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Image courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

AH XIAN

Chinese-Australian artist Ah Xian has a profound interest in the human figure. He describes the human figure as, “what we are most familiar with and always fascinated about…we are some of the most beautiful, yet ugly creatures…”1

Ah Xian, born in Beijing in 1960, is all too familiar with the ugliness of humanity, having sought political asylum in Australia following the events of Tiananmen Square in 1989.2 With the political landscape having since settled, he splits his time working between Australia and China, explaining, “If I’m in Australia for a long time –one or two years or even two or three months – I become rather impatient. At the same time, when I’m in China for a couple of months I become so busy trying to deal with so many aspects that I’m not very comfortable, and I feel extremely exhausted and can’t wait to come home and rest.”3

Fittingly, Ah Xian’s sculptures are beautiful vehicles through which he explores the relationship between East and West (most notably in the tension between the sculptural form and the painted or carved surface designs), identity, and the effects of cultural dislocation. To do so, he frequently engages with traditional Chinese media, including porcelain, jade, and lacquerware.

While Ah Xian isn’t directly engaging with tattoo art or techniques, the works take on the appearance of being wrapped or tattooed in his designs. They draw close parallels to the tattoo medium through the use of the human body as a canvas for storytelling and the presentation of culturally significant symbology, and certainly borrow from the permanence associated with tattoo to reinforce the notion of the lasting impact of one’s cultural heritage in spite of any displacement.

He hints at his use of the body as a canvas by explaining his view on the body and art as being joined;

“There are many things one can do as an artist – look at the environment, look at society, at politics – there’s quite a lot of room to play in all of those fields, but the human body is absolutely inexhaustible as a subject. I have never lost interest in the figure…The reason why people are so seduced and drawn to it is not the body itself, but the place where it joins traditional decorative arts, and it is exactly there where the work has its appeal and where it actually succeeds – you pull it apart and it means nothing.”4

Notes

1 Suhanya Raffel and Lynne Seear, ‘Human human’. Ah Xian, Queensland Art Gallery, 2003

2 <http://www.acmi.net.au/2006/artists/ngv/ahxian.html>

Accessed 22 October 2014

3 Devenport, R & Jaivin, L, 2003, Dualism and solitary journeys: An interview with Ah Xian, from Suhanya Raffel and Lynne Seear, ‘Human human’. Ah Xian, Queensland Art Gallery, 2003

4 Devenport, R & Jaivin, L, 2003, Dualism and solitary journeys: An interview with Ah Xian, from Suhanya Raffel and Lynne Seear, ‘Human human’. Ah Xian, Queensland Art Gallery, 2003

Scratch

Scratch

Image: Amanda Wachob

2 2012

Type C Photograph of Tattooed Blood Orange 23 x 16.5 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Amanda Wachob

Images - Overleaf: Amanda Wachob

3 - 10 2012

Type C Photograph of Tattooed Blood Orange 23 x 16.5 cm each

Courtesy of the Artist, Amanda Wachob

AMANDA WACHOB

Living and working in Brooklyn, Amanda Wachob balances her time as a tattooist and as a contemporary artist, pushing the boundaries of tattoo technology and challenging conventions of traditional tattoo design.

Wachob has been tattooing for over a decade, having spoken to “a friend that was working in a tattoo shop who suggested I come in and speak with the owners because they were looking for an apprentice. I had just graduated from art school and had no idea what I was going to do with my photography degree. I was open to trying anything new, anything art-related, so I met with them and got the apprenticeship. As soon as I started, I was hooked.”1

Inspired by George Burchett, Ed Hardy, and Cynthia Witkin, Wachob’s practice is hugely varied, seemingly only unified by an engagement on some level with tattooing. The artist explains that, “it’s all tattoo-related, but I don’t just stop at skin. I tattoo canvas, fruit, leather, etc. I want to expand the idea of what a tattoo can be. It’s my intention to push the boundaries.”2

Her photographic series of tattooed fruits are particularly interesting. While the abstract mark making is reminiscent of some fine printmakers, it is the understated commentary on the tattoo industry and permanence of the medium that fascinates. In tattooing fruits, she references time honoured training techniques used by aspiring tattoo artists. Of course, fruits rot at an accelerated rate when compared to the human body, belying the lasting nature of the medium (excusing developments in tattoo removal technologies).

However, by presenting these fruit tattoos as a photographic series, Wachob reclaims their immortality, beyond that even of tattoos that are committed to skin.

Wachob’s experimentations with abstract drawings and works on canvas using tattoo machines also challenge the figurative and representational traditions of tattoo design. They both present a contemporary vision for future tattoo design, and a relatively untapped re-purposing of the medium in the contemporary art world.

Notes

1 <http://www.inkedmag.com/artists/amanda-wachob/>

Accessed 13 October 2014

2 <http://www.inkedmag.com/artists/amanda-wachob/>

Accessed 13 October 2014

Image - Above: Amanda Wachob

Whip Shade 1 2010

Tattoo on vegetable tanned leather side

111.76 x 182.88 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Amanda Wachob

Image: Amanda Wachob

Whip Shade 3 2010

Tattoo on vegetable tanned leather side

111.76 x 182.88 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Amanda Wachob

Image: Amanda Wachob

Whip Shade 5 2010

Tattoo on vegetable tanned leather side

114.3 x 182.88 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Amanda Wachob

DON ED HARDY

Born in Southern California in 1945, Don Ed Hardy is perhaps the biggest name in the tattooing world today, a status that was heightened by the 2004 launch of the international fashion label Ed Hardy which featured the artist’s iconic, Japanese-influenced tattoo illustration style.

Hardy combined his early tattoo learnings under Phil Sparrow with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1967, and in 1974 opened the city’s first parlour at which you could get custom-designed work. Hardy tattooed professionally for more than 40 years before his retirement.

Hardy Marks Publications was formed by the artist and his wife Francesca Passalacqua in 1982, while he also continues to mentor and support artists at the studio Tattoo City in San Francisco. In 1986, upon moving to Honolulu, Hardy began to re-focus on his traditional fine arts practice which includes drawing, painting, ceramics and printmaking.

Hardy’s desire to become a tattoo artist began at the age of 10, and was driven in his young adulthood by “a combination of economic necessity and artistic curiosity. It was an option that would give me both a challenge and an opportunity to be an independent agent and develop its potential as an expressive medium.”

“At the same time, its ‘outsider’ status was hugely compelling. Tattooing in the 1960s was the most formally undeveloped and socially provocative medium I could think of, relegated in the public perception to the underworld of sailors, bikers and criminals.”1

Hardy’s views on the development and broad popularisation of the tattoo industry - having helped pioneer its development for so many years - are particularly interesting, stating;

“In some ways, the popularity of tattooing has backfired for me. My goal was to achieve some public recognition of its potential to be more than some stewbum’s antisocial flailings; now it’s become stereotyped in different ways. The tattoo world has expanded to include nearly every visual form imaginable, and is pervasive worldwide. Its fad status overwhelms or negates most of the assumptions on which I based my career; maybe it’s a search for authentic experience in an increasingly ‘visual’ world. Nevertheless, the whole thing for me was about erasing outmoded boundaries and celebrating or emphasising what we have in common as a species. To a degree, that’s worked.”2

Notes

1 Hardy, DE 1999, Tattooing the Invisible Man: bodies of work, 1955-1999, Hardy Marks Publications and Smart Art Press, California, USA

2 Hardy, DE 1999, Tattooing the Invisible Man: bodies of work, 1955-1999, Hardy Marks Publications and Smart Art Press, California, USA

Image: Don Ed Hardy

Red Tiger [detail] 2006

Oil paint, etching, and digital printing layered in resin on mounted board 129.54 x 106.68 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Don Ed Hardy

Image: Dr Lakra Sin titulo / Untitled (Mano odio) 2005 Ink tattoo on plastic hand 4.8 x 18.5 x 8.7 cm

Collection of Luis Alvarez

DR LAKRA

Dr Lakra rose to prominence in the 1990s as a tattooist, and has since gained an international following for his altered 1940s and 1950s magazine covers, pin-ups, wrestling posters and medical lithographs – paving the way for artists such as Belgian practitioner Jean-Luc Moerman.

These works fully exploit Dr Lakra’s talents as a supremely skilled draughtsman and transform those depicted from clean-skinned, ‘pure’ figures of community adoration, to ‘grotesque’ and marginalised embodiments of the tattoo subculture. Dr Lakra’s altered figures are covered from head to toe in Dr Lakra’s drawings of recognisable tattoo icons – such as bats, spiders, Chicano, Maori, Thai, and Philippine cultural markings, snakes, skulls, crosses, the devil, the Virgin Mary, and roses – in what amounts to a form of human graffiti. In doing so, the artist undermines the air of innocence, or the depiction of refined beauty, that was so readily portrayed through the media of the era.

Simultaneously playful and provocative (both politically and sexually), it comes as no surprise that Dr Lakra relishes the opportunity to subvert such sanitised images, with his name roughly translating to ‘Dr Delinquent’.1 Lakra can also, fittingly in the context of his work and the way in which sections of society may view those he depicts, mean ‘scar’ or ‘scum’.2

Born in 1972, Dr Lakra, whose real name is Jerónimo López Ramirez, grew up in Mexico as the eldest son of the anthropologist and poet Elisa Ramírez Castañeda and the painter

Francisco Toledo, a leading cultural figure in Mexico.3 He followed in his father’s footsteps, moving towards a career in the arts by studying under Gabriel Orozco, before being inspired to build his own tattoo machine. He explains, “…I didn’t know exactly how to use it. It was totally different. I had to learn how to draw again with this machine.’’4 His penchant for carrying his tattoo equipment in a black bag would see the term ‘Dr’ become part of his artist moniker.

He quickly became one of the most sought after tattoo artists in Mexico, however the popularity of his tattoos would eventually lead him back to painting.

“I was working for two years in this shop — it was like McDonald’s, we go as fast as we can make it. I think one day I made, like, 25 tattoos in one day, and I reached a point where I wasn’t interested in doing tattoo for a living, and I decided to do more painting,’’5 Dr Lakra explains.

And while he seldom tattoos anymore, save for the occasional firing up of his machine in his Oaxaca home studio, his practice remains invariably marked by his interest in the medium.

Notes

1 <http://www.artspace.com/dr_lakra> Accessed 21 October 2014

2 <http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/04/16/dr_ lakra_discusses_the_development_of_the_art_of_his_tattoos/>

Accessed 21 October 2014

3 King, Carol. A Tattoo Master, Off the Street, Into the Gallery New York Times, 24 Mar. 2011. Web. 4 Mar. 2012.

4 <http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/04/16/dr_ lakra_discusses_the_development_of_the_art_of_his_tattoos/>

Accessed 21 October 2014

5 <http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/04/16/dr_ lakra_discusses_the_development_of_the_art_of_his_tattoos/>

Accessed 21 October 2014

Untitled (Salomé) 2013-2014

Ink on vintage magazine, 34 x 24.5 cm

DL9047

Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Photograph:

Untitled (Todo/Nada) [detail] 2009

Ink on vintage lithography, 18 x 11 cm

DL1758

Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City

A Permanent Mark the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art

Image: Dr. Lakra

Estudio Michel Zabé

Image - Opposite: Dr. Lakra

Image - Above; Details on previous 5 pages:

Dr. Lakra

Untitled (Ladies) 2013-2014

Watercolour on vintage magazine

Set of 5: 26.2 x 22.5 cm each

DL9051

Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Untitled (Tab. 25) 2009

Ink on vintage lithography, 18

Image: Dr. Lakra

x 11 cm

Collection of Tatiana Bilbao

Untitled (Tab. 27) 2009

Ink on vintage lithography, 18 x 11 cm

Collection

Image: Dr. Lakra

of Tatiana Bilbao

EX DE MEDICI

Born in the Riverina region of New South Wales in 1959, eX de Medici currently lives and works in Canberra1 and is an Australian pioneer for the exploration of the tattoo medium in a contemporary art context.

de Medici grew up in the Canberra and New South Wales punk scenes, before completing a Fine Arts Degree at the Australian National University where she focused on performance, installation and photographic works and collaborations. Despite being surrounded by punks with all manner of tattoos, it wasn’t until seeing one specific tattoo that she became interested in the medium.

“I remember meeting somebody who had a really odd tattoo – tattooing had never entered my mind until then – and I thought the surface was really interesting. I was going to Melbourne to work on a film with my friend Tony Ayres and I got my first tattoo while I was down there while I was working on that film,”2 de Medici explains.

In 1989, de Medici became the first tattooist in Australia to complete a Formal Apprenticeship in tattooing through a grant from the Australia Council. The apprenticeship took place in Los Angeles, “under a woman, Kari Barber, because I’d seen the male dominated scene in Australia and the attitude to women [was] just appalling. I found a much different outlook when I went to L.A.”3

de Medici’s early works exploring tattoo culture included a series of 120 portrait photographs, “sort of life sized, of both people who I tattooed and people who I photographed in various tattoo shops that I’d worked in,”4 which was displayed at the Canberra Contemporary Arts Space before being shown in various locations around Australia.

Now, she is most revered for her exquisitely detailed, subversive watercolours, which display the patience and detail exhibited by the finest tattooists, and also explore themes such as the relationship between life and death by using visual icons such as skulls so commonly linked to tattoo culture.

These exquisite drawing and painting skills certainly exceed those possessed by the Melbourne tattoo artist who worked on de Medici’s first tattoo, with the artist recalling it was “an absolute disaster – the guy was drunk. The only time I could get the tattoo was after the shoot at 11pm. Tony accompanied me saying ‘don’t do it, don’t do it’. We got there and I was so excited that I didn’t notice how many beer bottles were rolling around on the floor. My drawing skills were a billion per cent on that guy, I’m telling you.”5

While she still has the tattoo, de Medici admits it needed to be, “changed and remade…half of it fell out. There’s a lot of technical skill you need for it to stay in there and look good over a long period. In that time I researched getting [Australia Council] funding to go and live in America to learn tattooing.”

“When I was younger I was a bit more contrary, less judicious. After I left art school I was disappointed because I thought the art world was going to be a really great place to hang out – the more I saw how conservative the art world was, the more interested I was in tattooing. A few people had said ‘oh you don’t want to do that – that is art world suicide’ and I thought ‘if you’re saying that, it must be really interesting.’ And so my contrary nature powered me on … plus I thought it was really sexy and art didn’t seem very sexy to me. There was an excitement quotient and a verboten quotient. I’d been working in decayable materials and the human is the most decayable of all things – it couldn’t be collected as an art object.”6

While the art world grapples with the ‘collectability’ of tattoo, de Medici has had no such issue, amassing her own personal collection of tattoo memento ‘monoprints’. This collection has been amassed over the course of over 25 years, from her clients in Australia and abroad. These works, displayed in the exhibition as an installation entitled The Blood of Others, are blood transfers onto paper towel which the artist has taken immediately after tattooing her clients. Individually packaged in clip-seal bags, these are visceral works that evidence a direct relationship between tattoo and contemporary art; track the artist’s prolific tattoo practice over a large span of time; and provide a novel method of collecting in this field.

Notes

1 <http://sullivanstrumpf.com/artists/de-medici-ex/>

Accessed 20 October 2014

2 <http://sullivanstrumpf.com/images/docs/271010115802.pdf>

Accessed 20 October 2014

3 <http://sullivanstrumpf.com/images/docs/271010115802.pdf>

Accessed 20 October 2014

4 <http://sullivanstrumpf.com/images/docs/271010115802.pdf>

Accessed 20 October 2014

5 <http://sullivanstrumpf.com/images/docs/271010115802.pdf>

Accessed 20 October 2014

6 <http://sullivanstrumpf.com/images/docs/271010115802.pdf>

Accessed 20 October 2014

Images - Opposite and Overleaf: eX de Medici

The Blood of Others [detail]

Ongoing collection, 1989-2015

Paper, plastic, human blood

19.5 x 18 cm each

Collection of the artist

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

Image: eX de Medici

Gun(n)s ‘n Styx 2005

Watercolour on paper 114 x 178.6 cm

Collection of the artist © eX de Medici

Red (Colony) 2000

Watercolour on paper 114.1 x 152.1 cm (irreg.)

2002.35

Winner of National Works on Paper Acquisitive Award with funds from BeleuraMornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Collection

© eX de Medici

Image: eX de Medici

HOLLY GRECH

Townsville-based photomedia artist Holly Grech’s new series of works, They belong to the Crown, is the result of an enduring interest in the tattoos people get on their hands, neck, and face, and the rights we have to do as we please with our own bodies. Grech explains, “it is said that an archaic monarchist law still exists whereby any citizen of the Commonwealth is unable to permanently mark his or her own hands, face or neck as these are considered ‘property of the Crown’. I found this concept intriguing and the obvious implications of such a law remaining enforceable in modern society, particularly considering that tattoo, body modification and body adornment is now commonplace.”

“My initial impetus in the development of a new body of works exploring a “They belong to the Crown” ideology was to seek out confirmation that such a law exists or existed in the first-place. This, as it turns out, is not such an easy undertaking. My research has led me to further anecdotal evidence of the supposed law, however it remains unclear whether or not it is fact or rather an ‘urban myth’ that has prevailed since the Georgian Period. It became clear to me over time that the validity of the law becomes less relevant, or should I say less critical, to the basis of the series of works. The simple truth that the perception of such a law existing in the first place and, considering that it is so widely acknowledged in modern society, is intriguing in and of itself.”

Image: Holly Grech

They belong to the Crown – Subject 1 [detail] 2015

Fujiflex print on board

Image: 88 x 100 cm; Sheet: 98 x 110 cm

Edition: Artist’s proof

Courtesy of the Artist, Holly Grech

© Holly Grech

“The concept of a law that allows the Commonwealth to have such power over a human beings body in the past may have been customary but nowadays it seems – at the very least - barbaric and irrational,”1 Grech surmises.

Grech’s extensive research into the purported ‘property of the Crown’ law has also unearthed a wealth of information about early Australian convict tattoo practices. “There are specific cultural imperatives and practices that explicitly link tattoos with criminality, particularly with convicts sent to the Australian penal colonies from 1788. Many references on the British laws that pertained to convicts sentenced to the Australian penal colonies suggest a separation between the British law system and the governing ideologies of the Governors of each Colony. Convicts were sentenced under British law, however when they arrived in Australia they became subject to the arbitrary laws meted out at the whim of the Governors and Magistrates in charge at that time. Preliminary research shows that the laws were created to reinforce the penal system and provided clear identifiers of an individual – marking them as a convict. Therefore it is plausible that the law on tattooing was established in Australia and alleged to be a Commonwealth law to reinforce its validity, allowing officers in charge to develop more and more indiscriminate rules (one rule was that convicts could not put their hands in their pockets2),”3 Grech explains.

They belong to the Crown – Subjects 2 & 3 2015

Fujiflex print on board. Image: 81 x 100 cm; Sheet: 91 x 110 cm

Edition: Artist’s proof

Courtesy of the Artist, Holly Grech

© Holly Grech

They belong to the Crown – Subject 2 2015

Fujiflex print on board. Image: 71 x 100 cm; Sheet: 81 x 110 cm

Edition: Artist’s proof

Courtesy of the Artist, Holly Grech

© Holly Grech

Image - Top: Holly Grech

Image - Bottom: Holly Grech

“Many 19th century tattoos were linked to indictment through the use of tattooing of prisoners (to catalogue and identify them), in order to claim prisoners for the British state, often-documenting conviction, transportation dates and sentence periods. ‘In pre-1988 historiography, convicts had no bodies; they were merely unpleasant objects in an unpleasant system.’4”

“Around one in every four male convicts had tattoos on his body. Some tattoos were made to remember loved ones left behind or whom passed on the voyage...other tattoos were made to symbolise courage or strength, or to protect the wearer from danger or evil spirits. Convicts tattooed themselves to show that they belonged to a particular group or clan. In 1717 branding [such as of deserters with a ‘D’ burnt on the left flank of the trunk5] was abolished and replaced with tattooing. This was marked on the soldiers as a sign of disgrace as part of the punishment, therefore meted out by monarchical rule. Adultery, also, was punished in this way in some parts of Britain; ‘BC’ was tattooed on the subject as a sign of ‘Bad Character’. These tattoos were then altered or embellished by the convicts on the long passage to Van Diemen’s Land – the ‘Land of Sorrows’, in an act of rebellion or to re-instate their reputation.”

“It might also be metaphorical, that the body of the subject belongs to the Commonwealth and therefore is the last remnant of the ‘body politic’ overseas. As such the body did not belong to the person but had been forfeit to the Crown.”

“This could be connected to laws stretching back to the Magna Carta, connected to feudal ideas about hierarchy and possession of tenants, heirs and property ownership and upholding the law as the physical ways in which the body belonged to the country and the monarch.”

“Whatever may be the case, modern society has shifted so dramatically in its views on bodily adornment, and no longer are such embellishments seen with disdain, but rather are a contemporaneous symbolic expression of individualism, culture and lineage. The ‘human vessel’ is the ultimate canvas and belongs to self, and in a world that is increasingly becoming homogenous our own bodies are becoming the only form of self-expression that we feel complete dominion over. This is in stark contrast to the archaic use of tattoo during colonisation and marks a paradigm shift in our society that no longer do ‘They belong to the Crown’,”6 Grech concludes.

A common thread in Grech’s practice is a macro view of her surroundings, and this remains true for this most recent series of portraits. Having identified suitable and willing participants for her photographic works – spending time not only photographing them, but also interviewing and recording their thoughts and experiences of being tattooed – Grech presents her ‘subjects’ “as ‘marked’ biological structures; impersonal, unattached to the ‘being’, reinforcing the notion that [the hands, neck and face] are not one’s own, but belong to the Crown and the Commonwealth.”7

Notes

1 They belong to the Crown, Artist Statement, Holly Grech, 9 May 2015

2 <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/ 10314619208595895> Accessed 10 May 2015

3 They belong to the Crown, Artist Statement, Holly Grech, 9 May 2015

4 Behold the Man: Power, Observation and the Tattooed Convict, Australian Studies 01/1997; 12(1), Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and James Bradley

5 Behold the Man: Power, Observation and the Tattooed Convict, Australian Studies 01/1997; 12(1), Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and James Bradley

6 They belong to the Crown, Artist Statement, Holly Grech, 9 May 2015

7 They belong to the Crown, Artist Statement, Holly Grech, 9 May 2015

LESLIE RICE

Being involved in A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art is a three hundred and sixty degree experience for Leslie Rice, a ‘spiritual homecoming’ of sorts. The acclaimed artist and two-time Doug Moran Portrait Prize winner, who also owns and operates two LDF Tattoo studios in the Sydney suburbs of Marrickville and Newtown, explains he “learnt to draw and tattoo images in Townsville. I’ve taken it somewhere else now, but it’s still important to me that it’s where I’ve come from.”1

His path to the tattoo industry seemed a fait accompli, with his father beginning his own legendary tattoo career in 1959 in Fortitude Valley. Les Senior travelled extensively for thirty years, which saw Les Junior born in Liverpool, before the family arrived in Townsville in the early 1980s.

“I grew up in tattoo shops, and it was always considered that that was what I would do. It was never really a question that I’d do anything else. I tattooed for 10 years before I came to art school,”2 Rice recalls.

Interestingly for a tattooist and artist of Rice’s standing, he sees a clear and vital distinction between the two practices, though this has not always been an easy separation to maintain.

“Until recently, I saw myself as a tattooist who makes paintings, and now I feel like a painter who makes tattoos. At this point I’m pretty much semi-retired from tattoos because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to balance the two. You can’t ride two horses,”3 Rice professed.

Rice’s leaning towards his contemporary art practice also comes at a time when he has become somewhat dispirited with the direction of contemporary tattooing. While he tips his hat to the passion of the many young tattoo artists coming through the ranks, he’s been around long enough to note a shift in the culture. “It used to be a sort of underground pocket of devotees but now it has gone pop. It’s kind of killed it in a way, which comes back to why I love home-made tattoos, because it kind of flies in the face of the pop.”4

In spite of the clear delineation between ‘Rice the tattooist’ and ‘Rice the contemporary artist’, the two practices are evidently and understandably heavily influenced by each other. “In terms of influence, when I started making paintings you can only really make them from a point of something that you really know intimately…I’m so steeped in the tattoo industry that it was part of my visual language and it seeped in naturally, so I thought there was no reason to fight it… it’s something I was born into, it would be more difficult to shed it. I had to live and breathe it, so to eradicate it now would be kind of difficult.”5

The rest of St. John the Baptist [detail] 2013 Acrylic on velvet 102 x 76 cm

Image: Leslie Rice

Courtesy of the Artist, Leslie Rice

Rice’s paintings – dark, brooding, and highly detailed works on black velvet – balance the gruesome symbolism synonymous with the tattoo industry, and compositional and conceptual elements harking back to Renaissance and Baroque artists such as Peter Paul Rubens. The delicate interplay between dark and light is entrancing, and extends beyond the aesthetic of the work, playing a pivotal role in their conceptual development.

Rice sees his work as dealing with meeting points – “the bit where light turns into dark and shadow”6 – perhaps a subconscious recognition of the convergence of his own distinct practices. “It’s about the penumbra, which is the transitional point of two extremes…this is where I want my work to live; in between being works of fine art and flea market velvet paintings.”7

This tension between high and low art accounts for part of Rice’s interest in Greek mythology, explaining that the hybrid creatures he depicts are in part a metaphor for this collision.

But above all, it’s the artist’s prerogative to explore the impossible and the awe-inspiring through art that draws him to the genre. “Art’s not truth. It deals with it, but not a thick, factual truth, and I enjoy that…Mythology is far more interesting than truth.”8

Image - Above and Overleaf: Leslie Rice

Bacchanal (a Luncheon on the Grass) 2013 Acrylic on velvet 92 x 122 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Leslie Rice

Notes

1 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 8 August 2014

2 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 8 August 2014

3 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 8 August 2014

4 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 8 August 2014

5 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 8 August 2014

6 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 8 August 2014

7 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 8 August 2014

8 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 8 August 2014

tattoo

Image: Leslie Rice

The rest of St. John the Baptist 2013 Acrylic on velvet 102 x 76 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Leslie Rice

LISA REIHANA

As a leading multimedia artist of Maori descent, Lisa Reihana’s work explores themes related to Maori culture, history and lore through a contemporary gaze and with reference to modern societal issues. In this, the body and face markings – Tā moko – central to Maori culture often feature on the models she photographs and films.

Such cultural signifiers are particularly evident in the lauded Digital Marae (meeting place) series which presents Maori ancestors in modern settings or as the proud embodiment of underrepresented groups. In doing so, the past and present meet, and the Maori culture remains strong, resilient, and proud.

Reihana explains, “The Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907 had dire consequences for Maori, amongst which was an end to many creative practices including Tā moko.”

“Tā moko is an obvious way of asserting identity – and if my photographs attain integrity and dignity, then I revise negative notions about the past, and provide positive imagery for present generations. Making space for takatāpui within my contemporary wharenui was so important to me; creating a place for my friends to stand tall. Takatāpui is ‘a person whose special friend is the same sex’. So takatāpui is not a gendered word - it’s

Dandy (from Digital Marae series) [detail] 2007

used by men and women who wish to speak to their cultural identity as well as their sexuality.”1

Reihana suggests a link between the rise in the popularity of tattooing and the growth in the plastic surgery industry, which she sees as resulting in the acceptance of any and all types of body modification. Tattooing’s rise in popularity has led to popular culture appropriations of the Tā moko however, which Reihana remains both concerned and philosophical about.

“It concerns me that people use Tā moko, but then I am inspired by other forms not my own. Perhaps it creates interest and a starting point for dialogue. When I see particularly bad examples it does make me laugh or cringe. However, there are amazing practitioners here, who travel abroad a lot, so there are opportunities to wear something authentic.”2

The work Dandy from the Digital Marae series features within the exhibition, and is indicative of the deep narratives present in Reihana’s works, and carried on through the traditions of Tā moko. Dandy draws its inspiration from a story told to Reihana by the work’s model, Victor Biddle, which Reihana recalls begins “when early European ships arrived in Aotearoa; the takatāpui men were sent out as the emissaries.”

Image: Lisa Reihana

Digital colour print on Fuji Crystal Flex paper and mounted on aluminium. Exhibition print. 190.5 x 127 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Lisa Reihana

© Lisa Reihana

“Imagine these strange colonial apparitions, Māori didn’t know who or what was on-board the boats, nor what language they spoke, so, takatāpui were the mediators, they retain their own spiritual knowledge and insights beyond binary model of male and female.”

“Victor told me takatāpui were heavily tattooed with equivalencies with Arioi. The Arioi were a secret religion of the Society Islands marked from head to toe with tattoo. They included men and women of all social strata. The Arioi venerated the war god ‘Orothe founder of their order. Entrance was granted for those with physical beauty, religious knowledge, and skills in recitals, dance and pantomime. With the initiation, the new member earned the right to wear tapa in certain colours and with certain tattoos, beginning with a small ring-shaped pattern on the ankle. As the member ascended, the tattoos became increasingly large and ornate. Arioi lived in sexual freedom as long as they weren’t married.”

“So, perhaps I am promoting acceptance, a love of my culture, and making space for further possibility. Dandy integrates different cultural norms. It offers something new to counter the prevalence of colonial imagery. Dandies were a class of elite gentlemen and philosophers who heralded in modes of new thinking in the late nineteenth century. The elegant Tā moko was created by Tim Worrall, and much of the design’s appeal is due to the lightness and space, as well as the placement on Victor’s handsome face.”3

Notes

1 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 7 August 2014

2 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 7 August 2014

3 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 7 August 2014

Image: Lisa Reihana

New Zealand b.1964

A Maori dragon story [still] 1995 DVD: 15 minutes, colour, sound Acc. 2002.182

Purchased 2002. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery Image courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

Image: Lisa Reihana Waltz [still] 1998

Film, MiniDV format: 6 minutes 43 seconds, colour, sound Courtesy of the Artist, Lisa Reihana © Lisa Reihana

tattoo

Image: Lisa Reihana

Dandy (from Digital Marae series) 2007

Digital colour print on Fuji Crystal Flex paper and mounted on aluminium. Exhibition print.

190.5 x 127 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Lisa Reihana © Lisa Reihana

Photograph: Aaron Ashley

MATT ELWIN

Born in Brisbane, Matt Elwin was raised in Townsville, bar a short stint when his military father was deployed to the regional New South Wales city of Wagga Wagga.

His interest in music was piqued at the age of eight, however, it wasn’t until 2006 when he completed a Bachelor of Music majoring in Performance through Townsville’s James Cook University that his mind, “was opened to every type of music; where I was strictly interested in classical works prior to studying, I’m now into all kinds of weird shit.”1

While still active with more conventional forms of music through his involvement in the band Three Mile Road, he has recently started to publicly explore his interest in more experimental soundscapes.

“Soundscapes are a bit of a new territory for me. Basically I’m a selfish composer – I write for myself, but the fact I haven’t released much of the more experimental stuff comes with the fact that I’m a perfectionist and never happy with the work. Working on Sinew2 was a good way to spur more activity in this area for me,”3 Elwin explained.

For A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art, Elwin further examines his interest in the adaptability of sound, the possibilities of interdisciplinary pieces, and the fallibility of the human brain.

Leaning on the visual works included in the exhibition, Elwin’s looping soundscape/musical score is an ambient work that replicates the aural experience of walking into a tattoo parlour, though many of the samples used aren’t actually of tattoo machinery.

The work is punctuated by sections of interviews with the artist’s tattooed acquaintances, each recounting their first tattoo experience. The intent of the work is to position the listener as somebody getting their own first tattoo, and to sonically translate some of the stresses and fears this experience can trigger.

“The work is essentially about the inner thoughts and feelings of someone with a phobia of needles; recalling friends talking about their tattoos before having their own first experience in the tattoo parlour,”4 Elwin explained.

Notes

1 Interview between the artist Matt Elwin and Curator Eric Nash, 29 October 2014

2 Elwin teamed with performance artist Tegan Ollett, photo-media artist Holly Grech, and digital projection artist Aaron Ashley to present Sinew, a multi-disciplinary performance piece performed at Townsville’s Umbrella Studio contemporary arts. In this work, Elwin contributed a 30 minute soundscape in response to Grech’s photomedia works, Ashley’s graphics, while also performing elements of the track live in concert with Ollett’s movements.

3 Interview between the artist Matt Elwin and Curator Eric Nash, 29 October 2014

4 Notes from the artist Matt Elwin, 5 May 2015

Image: Matt Elwin

Image:

Qin Ga

China b.1971

QIN GA

Qin Ga’s landmark performance art project, The miniature long march (2002-2005), calls on the power of tattoo as a permanent tool of remembrance, and one through which the artist can ‘explore the relationship between private feeling and public memory’.1

Born in 1971 in Inner Mongolia, Qin Ga originally trained as a sculptor2, and throughout the 1990s was a key figure in Beijing’s underground art scene.3 His developing interest in performance art was underpinned by an eagerness to utilise the human body, explaining, “…What I am interested in is the relationship between body and nature.”4 Early works such as Drug Bath, Freeze, and Disinfect present morbid scenes where the human body is in itself the artwork.

In her research paper, Indexing Death in Seven Xingwei and Zhuangzhi Pieces, Meiling Cheng describes Freeze;

“...an adolescent girl, propped up by two crutches on a floor overlaid with ice bricks. Qin puts a pair of sunglasses on the girl and sculpts on her naked body legions of sores, symptomatic of the inflammation often seen in patients suffering from the terminal phase of AIDS. Scattered inside the ice bricks are crimson red rose petals, frozen in sterility. As complementary visual tropes, both the female corpse and the rose petals reinforce the theme of premature

The miniature long march [detail] 2002 - 2005

Type C photograph on paper, 23 sheets: 75.5 x 55 cm (each)

Acc. 2007.009.001-023

Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund

Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Image courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

suspension – her life cut short by an untimely death, like the rose petals fallen in their prime. Her young body, abject and grotesque, juxtaposed with the traditional symbol of love in the colour of blood, appears as a chilling imago for the Chinese homophonic translation of AIDS as ‘ai zi bing’, which may be transliterated back into English as ‘love’, ‘to grow or to multiply’, ‘disease’.”5

Through his use of tattoo as a mark-making tool in The miniature long march, Qin Ga is utilising the human body as both the artwork itself in a performative sense, and as a moving canvas for the artwork. This duality is emphasised by the still and moving footage documentation produced through the project.

His participation in the Long March Project’s Walking Visual Display began with the donation of his skin as a canvas in 2002.6 The project recreated the famous route of the Long March (1934-1935), a pivotal moment in Chinese history when the Red Army of the Communist Party of China retreated to skirt the advances of Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party). Qin Ga remained in his Beijing studio, communicating with the project’s participants and marking their progress on a miniature map of China tattooed across his back.

The project prematurely ended at Luding Bridge in Sichuan province, leaving Qin Ga’s tattoo of the Long March incomplete. In 2005, he resolved to complete the journey from Luding Bridge, a commitment that would see him endure extreme physical hardship due to the elements as he embarked upon what Rachel O’Reilly described as “an arduous journey through the snowy mountains, grassy plains and remote villages of west and northern China immortalised in Long March mythology.”7

Setting out with his tattooist and three cameramen, the artist completed the journey, having it etched into his skin on location. Through The miniature long march, Qin Ga engages with the, “interplay between empirical facts, allegories and acts of imagination,”8 although having seen first-hand the story’s profound and lasting effect on the locals he encountered throughout the trek, he also, “recognises the Long March as a story that taps into a more universal cultural motivation for betterment and change.”9

There could be no more appropriate medium for Qin Ga to have documented his journey with than tattoo; in doing so he demonstrates the connection between body and nature; the individual and our shared culture, customs and history; and, as with many great tattoos, forever commemorates a defining personal experience.

Notes

1 <http://www.qinga-studio.com/entext.aspx?id=13&t=n&page=0>

Accessed 22 October 2014

2 <http://www.qinga-studio.com/entext.aspx?id=13&t=n&page=0>

Accessed 22 October 2014

3 <http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/asiapacifictriennial5/artists/artists/ long_march_project/qin_ga> Accessed 22 October 2014

4 O’Reilly, R 2006, Qin Ga: A Story of Bodies Transformed, from the publication: Raffel, S & Seear, L 2006 The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, Brisbane, Australia

5 Cheng, M 2006, Indexing Death in Seven Xingwei and Zhuangzhi Pieces, Performance Research 11(2), © Taylor & Francis Ltd 2006

6 O’Reilly, R 2006, Qin Ga: A Story of Bodies Transformed, from the publication: Raffel, S & Seear, L 2006 The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, Brisbane, Australia

7 O’Reilly, R 2006, Qin Ga: A Story of Bodies Transformed, from the publication: Raffel, S & Seear, L 2006 The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, Brisbane, Australia

8 O’Reilly, R 2006, Qin Ga: A Story of Bodies Transformed, from the publication: Raffel, S & Seear, L 2006 The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, Brisbane, Australia

9 O’Reilly, R 2006, Qin Ga: A Story of Bodies Transformed, from the publication: Raffel, S & Seear, L 2006 The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, Brisbane, Australia

A Permanent Mark the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art

Images: Qin Ga

China b.1971

The miniature long march sites 1-23 [stills] 2002 - 2005

Betacam SP: 40:20 minutes, colour, stereo

Acc. 2007.010

Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Image courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

China b.1971

The miniature long march [detail] 2002 - 2005

Type C photograph on paper, 23 sheets: 75.5 x 55 cm (each)

Acc. 2007.009.001-023

Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund

Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Image courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

Image: Qin Ga

Image: Qin Ga

China b.1971

The miniature long march [detail] 2002 - 2005

Type C photograph on paper, 23 sheets: 75.5 x 55 cm (each)

Acc. 2007.009.001-023

Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund

Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Image courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

REGAN ‘HAHA’ TAMANUI

Australia’s ‘most prolific and notorious stencil artist’1, Regan Tamanui, aka HAHA, is a selftaught artist who has graduated from spraying stencils on the streets to having his work presented in leading art galleries throughout the country.

Tamanui’s work addresses mass media and popular culture, and he is renowned for highly detailed stencil portraits, often produced using in excess of 40 layers. Previous portraits have included depictions of Maori chiefs with prominent facial tattoos, which referenced lithographs and sketches from the late-1800s. Tamanui states that, being of Maori descent, the traditional facial tattoos were of interest as they allowed him, “to reflect on my culture, and help understand who I am by making art about my culture. The tattoos are symbolic and have meaning; they’re a way of communicating, without speaking.”

“The proper term for the traditional tattoos is Tā moko, and they pretty much explain who you are. So it’s kind of like another language, but through visual communication. For men it tells you the status in your culture or in your tribe, jobs, how many wives you’ve had, your star sign, and information about genealogy. For women, it pretty much says the same thing, but it’s a more basic form because men were considered to be more complicated and women more spiritual. For me it’s about rediscovering who I am through my art by creating images of Maori.”2

With the rise in popularity of tattooing in Western culture, there has been a considerable amount of cultural appropriation, with large numbers of people electing to be tattooed with iconography significant to a culture that they aren’t directly connected to by blood. While some find this unusual or even damaging to the cultural significance of the tradition, Tamanui is more receptive to this practice.

“My personal belief is that anyone can have a Maori tattoo, it’s just a way of communicating. It’s like a family tree and your lineage, it’s just information and data about who you are, where you come from, and what you believe; I think it should be able to transcend other cultures as well.”3

He points to his own tattoos to support this opinion, including one of his iconic stencils of Ned Kelly, explaining, “I’ve got a few tattoos, but none of them are linked to my culture. I’ve got a lot of street art, and tattoos that relate to sacred geometry. All the tattoos I’ve got represent a journey, so images I like with a story behind it. The Ned Kelly story is one I identify with; the concept of bushrangers, particularly being a street artist, and the whole idea of street art is doing stuff illegally that people like. I believe that street art is like the 21st century bushranger when done illegally.”4

Image: Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Untitled - Tā moko man #3 - King Tāwhiao 2014 Aerosol on 300gsm printmaking paper 70.2 x 54.6 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

For A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art, Tamanui is intent on continuing his exploration of archetypal and cultural dualities, explaining that, “because I’m Maori and also Samoan, I’m interested in bringing those cultures together and the traditional tattoos and markings from those two cultures. I’ve also got German in me, and I’ve discovered that the coat of arms is a form of tattoo, but not on the skin. It’s more like an emblem. The series is a mixture of ideas that I’m playing with, investigating myself and my ancestors.”5

Notes

1 <http://www.regantamanui.com> Accessed 13 October 2014

2 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 10 August 2014

3 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 10 August 2014

4 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 10 August 2014

5 Quote from an interview with the artist conducted by Curator Eric Nash, 10 August 2014

Images - Opposite (clockwise from top left):

Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Untitled - Tā moko man #1 2014 Aerosol on 300gsm printmaking paper

68.8 x 58.6 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Untitled - Tā moko woman #4 2014 Aerosol on 300gsm printmaking paper

70.7 x 59.3 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Untitled - Tā moko woman #1 2014 Aerosol on 300gsm printmaking paper

54.7 x 59 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Untitled - Tā moko woman #2 2014 Aerosol on 300gsm printmaking paper

70 x 58.5 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

Image: Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Untitled - Tā moko man #4 2014

Aerosol on 300gsm printmaking paper

71.9 x 58.9 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

Image: Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Untitled - Tā moko man #2 2014 Aerosol on 300gsm printmaking paper 68 x 58.6 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

RICHARD DUNLOP

Richard Dunlop has forged a successful career as a contemporary artist for a sustained period of more than twenty years. In this time, he has been at the forefront of painting’s resurgence in popularity and appeal, and has never been shy of breaking with established art conventions, such as his blending of elements from botanical illustration with still life and landscape traditions.

While it is these luminous works - elegantly built up using countless thin veils of colour - for which he is best known, tattoo iconography has been a regular theme throughout his oeuvre. He explains, “The image of tattooed bodies has been a discrete and recurrent theme in my own career development, and first began in 1992.”1

Initially not envisaged as a cohesive body of works, Dunlop was encouraged by his commercial gallerist to develop the works further, culminating in the 2003 solo exhibition Tattoo: New Paintings, and subsequently the 2006 exhibition entitled The First Cut is the Deepest.

Dunlop’s conceptual engagement with tattoo imagery, which includes his interest in entomology as discussed in the central essay, is multi-faceted, explaining, “I am particularly interested in the function of tattoos to fix a person’s identity in a voluntary manner, to never have a chance to forget something or erase it easily from view, and for the links between this and ancient back scarification practices of particular cultures in the Asia-Pacific region.”2

Importantly, the tattoo paintings created by Dunlop are not a garish adjunct, but a seamless means to introduce a figurative element to his landscape and still life explorations. Backs of men are tattooed with various foliage; the figure enveloped by the overgrown vegetation. Delicately rendered reclining and suspended nudes are marked all over with the porcelain vessels that occupy the shelves of his still life triumphs.

In this, Dunlop explores the interconnectedness of things; of nature, people, our creations and customs, and also of the timeless art genres of landscape, the nude, and still life.

Notes

1 Letter from the Artist, 25 July 2013

2 Letter from the Artist, 25 July 2013

Image - Opposite:

Richard Dunlop

Kate’s Favourite

Balancing Trick [detail] 2002 - 2008

Oil on linen, 180 x 120 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Richard Dunlop, and Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane

Image - Overleaf:

Richard Dunlop

Goldie’s Favourite

Balancing Trick [detail] 2002 - 2008

Oil on linen, 120 x 180 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Richard Dunlop, and Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane

Image: Rob Douma

Society, Ink. [detail] 2015

Acrylic on cement skulls

120 x 120 x 16 cm

ROB DOUMA

Born in Tasmania, Rob Douma is a self-taught artist that works primarily in acrylics. Douma largely paints dark and brooding surreal and stylised images, however he is equally adept at realist portraits. Currently working in Townsville under the pseudonym ‘Dooms’ - a reference to his surname though equally applicable to his chosen imagery - Douma established the small warehouse studio Tsunami Death Cult in February 2012. Since its establishment, Douma has accepted commissions from as far as Europe and the United States of America.1

In 2014, his varied practice saw him selected as a finalist in the Glencore Percival Portrait Painting Prize - an exhibition in which he received the People’s Choice Award - before also winning the Acrylic Award in the 59th Townsville Art Awards

Douma is himself heavily tattooed, and skulls - synonymous with both tattoo culture and the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos - form an integral part of his visual language. Often the focal point in his large, vibrantly coloured paintings, Douma has also taken to creating ornamental and functional skull replicas. The skull sculptures have been produced both with the intent of being art objects, and as functional items such as candle holders, ash trays, and business card holders, and are finely decorated with anchors, spider webs, crosses, floral designs, script, cherry blossoms and oriental designs, and other symbols in a manner which mimics the tattoo process; etching bone deep below the skin.

It is fair to assert that Douma’s imagery would be labelled ‘kitsch’ within some circles. This, combined with his production of functional objects, is countered by his refined painting ability and the work’s display as a sophisticated installation in a gallery setting. In doing so, the artist cleverly elicits consideration as to the work’s position as either a high or low art object; particularly at a time when the art world is already grappling with tattoo art straddling the two fields.

Douma’s work - an installation of many of his embellished skulls - also investigates the transformation of meaning and adoption of symbols over time, particularly through religious iconography.

The link between Douma’s practice and tattooing extends beyond the imagery chosen, with the process itself reflecting tattooing. Douma sees, “a direct parallel between the process of designing tattoos, and the challenges presented by painting on a three-dimensional surface, such as skulls, as opposed to on two-dimensional surfaces. Tattoo artists need to carefully consider how the end product will appear on the three-dimensional human form and as such compensate for the contours of the body in the design itself. ”

“There’s also a connection in that you can never fully see the design of one of the painted skulls from any one angle. Similarly, you rarely see the full extent of sombody’s tattoos, as you can’t see every angle of the human body at once, or in many cases they are obscured by clothing.” 2

Notes

1 <http://www.tsunamideathcult.com> Accessed 21 October 2014

2 Quote from a conversation with the artist, 7 May 2015

Courtesy of the Artist, Rob Douma

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

Image: Rob Douma Society, Ink. [detail] 2015 Acrylic on cement skulls 120 x 120 x 16 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Rob Douma

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

Image: Rob Douma Society, Ink. [detail] 2015

Acrylic on cement skulls 120 x 120 x 16 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Rob Douma

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

Image:

Ron McBurnie

RON MCBURNIE

Townsville printmaker Ron McBurnie was “born a baby boomer, a little too late to be a hippy but early enough to have observed and appreciated the music and visual art produced during that period.”1 His own artwork has since been displayed in galleries around Australia and internationally, notably in the major touring survey exhibition Metal As Anything, first shown at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in 2009.

McBurnie entered the Queensland College of Art in 1975, and is now a Senior Lecturer at James Cook University and founding Director of Monsoon Publishing. Best known for his etchings, McBurnie’s works are punctuated by his frequent referencing of art history, keen observations of the world around him, and a sharp sense of humour.

Indeed, in his Metal As Anything catalogue essay entitled Ron McBurnie and the Humanist Tradition of Art, Professor Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA described McBurnie as, “a great observer of life and of the inequities and comic oddities which are encountered, these he presents graphically and sometimes humorously for our contemplation, but without a heavy dose of subjective moralising.”2

Given the artist’s penchant for light hearted observations of popular culture, it’s no surprise that - while not a particular focus - tattoos have featured in several of his works. The small 15 x 15cm work He tattooed the names of each of

The lines are drawn [detail] 2006

Etching

78.5 x 87 cm

Acc.2007.35

Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by the Artist 2007 City of Townsville Art Collection

Photograph: Michael Marzik

his ten wives onto his right arm, which formed a part of the A to Z from my toes to my head collaborative folio McBurnie produced with the late Melbourne artist Juli Haas, is one such work.

McBurnie highlights the permanence of tattoos by humorously pointing out that the central figure’s tattoos have outlasted each of his previous 9 marriages.

Another intimate and amusing etching, entitled All his worries he etched onto his skin so that he was free to cultivate the roses in Newfarm Park gardens, speaks to the at times hard exterior of tattoo culture, and also its cathartic nature. Perhaps more importantly for McBurnie, it was in this work that he was most deliberately exploring the, “direct relationship between the plate etching process with the inscribing of the body through the tattoo.”3

McBurnie’s works are generally created in distinct series, with Grishin also commenting that McBurnie, “likes to compartmentalise his works.”4

One such series is McBurnie’s Romantic Etchings, in which he departs from his witty observations of modern life to explore his “growing interest in the work produced by a small group of British artists known as ‘The Ancients.’ I had just purchased an etching titled The Herdsman’s Cottage by Samuel Palmer, the leader of the group.”

He tattooed the names of each of his ten wives onto his right arm 1999 Etching. From the artist book A to Z from my toes to my head by Ron McBurnie and Juli Haas, a folio of 27 etchings Edition of 20 15 x 15 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Ron McBurnie

Image: Ron McBurnie

Photograph: Michael Marzik

“In it I saw possibilities for bringing a sense of wonder and mystery back into the landscape where I lived.”5

From this series, the work The lines are drawn features a central male figure walking through an assembly of old mango trees along the banks of Townsville’s Ross River.

McBurnie explains that, “as I worked on the copper plate the idea of the walking path along the river changed into a directional device leading the viewer into the image. The male figure seen walking from this world into another has a large figure from William Blake’s watercolour, The Red Dragon, tattooed on his back.”6

Notes

1 <http://www.ronmcburnie.com/html/about-me.html>

Accessed 13 October 2014

2 Butler, R, Grishin, S, Thomson, F, & Wallace-Crabbe, R 2009, Metal As Anything: Ron McBurnie, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville

3 Email from the artist, 15 October 2014

4 Butler, R, Grishin, S, Thomson, F, & Wallace-Crabbe, R 2009, Metal As Anything: Ron McBurnie, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville

5 Butler, R, Grishin, S, Thomson, F, & Wallace-Crabbe, R 2009, Metal As Anything: Ron McBurnie, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville

6 Butler, R, Grishin, S, Thomson, F, & Wallace-Crabbe, R 2009, Metal As Anything: Ron McBurnie, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville

Image: Ron McBurnie

All his worries he etched onto his skin so that he was free to cultivate the roses in Newfarm Park gardens 1994 Etching. From Small Miracles, box set of 15 prints. 27 x 17.5 cm

Acc.2006.49 a-p

Gift of the Artist, 2006 City of Townsville Art Collection

Photograph: Michael Marzik

A Permanent Mark the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art

Image: The RUN Collective Collective Consciousness

[detail] 2015

Mixed media installation

239.5 x 180 x 130 cm

Courtesy of the Artists, The RUN Collective

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

THE RUN COLLECTIVE

The RUN Collective is a group of Townsvillebased multidisciplinary artists who have collaborated from their shared space The Cot since July 2007.

As one member of the group explains, the name RUN “was decided on accidentally, but it can be an acronym for ‘Radical Underground Network’ or the like.”1 The Cot, an underground haven within the Townsville arts scene, has been a hub of creativity since it formed, spawning numerous exhibitions, gigs, street art works, zines and publications, films and workshops. Members of the group are deeply protective of the studio, and explain that the name was coined as, “The Cot related mainly to the idea of nurturing emerging and underground arts and music culture in Townsville by having alternative arts events in the studio itself... [The Cot is] the most organic space, having maybe 80-plus ‘lives’ while we’ve been in there, from art exhibitions to themed wall murals for the bands using the space.”2

Self-directed, independent and experimental, the group has largely developed their reputation on the streets and away from the support of large arts institutions. Evidence of the regard with which they are held in north Queensland however, two major exhibitions of the group’s works have been displayed in recognised gallery venues; Tonite We RUN (2009) shown at Umbrella Studio contemporary arts, and an exhibition celebrating The Cot, Urban DK (2011), developed by the artists and Pinnacles Gallery.

Their emphasis on experimentation and collaboration has led them to utilise countless art mediums, including ‘self-inflicted’ tattoos.

The RUN Collective’s original tattoo designs are generally intimate in scale, and include depictions of masked figures, iconic RUN Collective characters, and damaged TV sets (a representation of their detest for and distrust of commercial mass media).

Their untrained tattoo experiments are further evidence of their DIY-mindset, and hark back to some members of the previous generation of tattoo artists who mastered their craft at home with friends and peers. Moreover, it pushes back against the sanitised mainstreaming of the tattoo culture that has risen up in the past decade. This trend parallels the widespread popularisation of street art which has also deeply impacted The RUN Collective’s practice.

For A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art, the group present a raw installation, including a video highlighting their tattoo experiments. Running throughout the small-scale cityscape installation of hand-built wooden structures and found items is a model train set. The group draw a parallel between the drawn lines of tattoos on skin, and the much larger marking of the land using train tracks. This symbol speaks of the connection between body and land, and also reinforces the comparisons between tattoo and street art, with the train having a rich global history of carrying street pieces to new audiences.

Notes

1 Media release created for The RUN Collective’s 2011 major exhibition at Pinnacles Gallery, entitled Urban DK

2 Media release created for The RUN Collective’s 2011 major exhibition at Pinnacles Gallery, entitled Urban DK

tattoo

Image: The RUN Collective Collective Consciousness [detail] 2015 Mixed media installation 239.5 x 180 x 130 cm

Courtesy of the Artists, The RUN Collective

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

tattoo

Image: The RUN Collective Collective Consciousness [detail] 2015 Mixed media installation 239.5 x 180 x 130 cm

Courtesy of the Artists, The RUN Collective

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald

SHAWN BARBER

Born 1970 in Cortland, New York, Shawn Barber currently lives and practices in Los Angeles, California. He has forged an international reputation over a number of years as a contemporary artist specialising in painting and portraiture with a particular focus on documenting tattoo culture.

Barber gained a Bachelor of Fine Art from Ringling College of Art in 1999, and has also played the role of teacher - lecturing in drawing, painting, and arts business practices at various art schools throughout the USA.

His work is defined by meticulous attention to detail, combined with expressive brushstrokes and a vibrant colour palette. Works such as the triptych Portrait of the Artist, Shige (Shigenori Iwasaki), 9 views are evidence of his mastery of the oil paint medium, and also penchant for creating large scale works.

With a strong catalogue of work investigating tattoo culture behind him, Barber added another string to his bow in 2006 by honing his skills with the tattoo machine, and in 2009 opened the Los Angeles tattoo parlour Memoir Tattoo with his partner Kim Saigh.

This was closely followed in 2012 by the release of his 256 page hard cover book, Memoir: The Tattooed Portraits Series Memoir contains full colour reproductions of works from Barber’s Tattooed Portraits series, which began in 2005 and includes paintings of Don Ed Hardy, Bob Roberts, Grime, Paul Booth, Marcus Pacheco, Kim Saigh, Jack Rudy, Thomas Woodruff, Aaron Cain, Mike Giant, Adrian Lee, Margaret Cho, Shige and Stanley Moskowitz.

As well as depicting such leading artists and figures in the tattoo world, Barber’s work explores the experience of tattooing and being tattooed, and the history of contemporary tattooing.

Tattooed Self Portrait at 39 [detail] 2010

Image: Shawn Barber

Oil on canvas

76.2 x 60.96 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Shawn Barber

Portrait of the Artist, Shige (Shigenori Iwasaki), 9 views 2010 - 2012

Oil on canvas

Triptych: 182.88 x 274.32 cm [182.88 x 91.44 cm each]

Courtesy of the Artist, Shawn Barber

Abstract Self Portrait 1 2010 - 2012

Oil on canvas

91.44 x 172.72 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Shawn Barber

Image - Previous Spread: Shawn Barber

Image - Above: Shawn Barber

Image:

Shawn Barber

Henry Lewis Head Studies (after Rubens) 2012 Oil on panel

38.1 x 76.2 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Shawn Barber

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Shane Fitzgerald MANAGER, GALLERY SERVICES

Appointed Manager of Gallery Services in 2013 following his move to Townsville from central Queensland, Shane Fitzgerald possesses over 20 years of experience in the arts. He continues to undertake an active and engaged career as an arts administrator, arts consultant and nationally recognised artist. Shane has been instrumental in the development and delivery of numerous visual arts initiatives including North Keppel Project, Other Dimensions: Contemporary Photomedia from Australia, China and Japan, and The Sentient Landscape: the art of Peter Indans. Shane has diverse and proven experience in the development and management of largescale touring exhibitions and multi-disciplinary projects, and has been the driving force behind the re-imagining of Gallery Services’ touring program through the recently adopted Visual Arts Strategy for the organisation.

Eric Nash CURATOR, GALLERY SERVICES

Born and raised in Logan, Eric Nash moved to Townsville in 2001 to complete his secondary schooling before enrolling in a Bachelor of Visual Arts at James Cook University. Upon the completion of his degree in 2008, Eric swapped the paintbrush for the keyboard and began working for Perc Tucker Regional Gallery as an Arts Administration Trainee. Since 2009 he has held several roles with Gallery Services, and following the delivery of a number of major exhibitions such as the 30th birthday Collection exhibition 30@30, he was appointed Curator in 2013. Since his appointment he has developed major Collection, local artist and thematic exhibitions, and been heavily involved in flagship projects such as Strand Ephemera, The Percivals, Screengrab International Media Arts Award, and the annual Glencore Children’s Exhibition

Mair Underwood PhD (Anthropology) THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

Mair Underwood is a lecturer in the School of Social Science at The University of Queensland. She is an anthropologist with a particular interest in bodies. Her research has investigated numerous aspects of the experience of bodies, but her particular passion is body modification and decoration. She is currently working on research examining tattoo as a window on Australian gender and class. Recognised as an expert on tattoo, Mair has contributed to public discussions of tattoo through dozens of print, radio and television features for the Australian and international media.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Pinnacles Gallery acknowledges the efforts of numerous individuals and organisations in helping to realise this major exhibition.

Firstly, to the artists, without whom there would be no show. Every artist involved has been a pleasure to work with, and we thank them for lending their talents so freely. Thankyou, Ah Xian, Amanda Wachob, Don Ed Hardy, Dr Lakra, eX de Medici, Holly Grech, Leslie Rice, Lisa Reihana, Matt Elwin, Qin Ga, Regan ‘HAHA’ Tamanui, Richard Dunlop, Rob Douma, Ron McBurnie, The RUN Collective, and Shawn Barber.

Thankyou to those generous organisations and private collectors who have willingly loaned, or assisted in researching and facilitating loans of works, including the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, particularly Desley Bischoff, Judy Gunning, Russell Storer, and Emma Schmeider; Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, particularly Jane Alexander, Wendy Garden, Narelle Russo, and Rowena Wiseman; Kate Dulhunty; kurimanzutto, Mexico City, particularly Amelia Hinojosa and Martha Reta; Tatiana Bilbao; Luis Alvarez; Lizzy McGregor from Kate MacGarry; Trevor Ewald; Laurie Steelink at Track 16; and the National Gallery of Victoria, particularly Catherine Leahy, Max Delany, Ieva Kanepe, Janine Bofill, and Julie Banks.

To Mair Underwood, we recognise and appreciate your expertise in this field, and consider ourselves very lucky that you were a keen participant in lending your thoughts through the major publication essay.

This publication was only made possible thanks to the agreement of all of the participating artists to publish the selected works, and also to a number of individuals who have assisted in sourcing suitable photographs, including our generous artists and lenders previously listed; Aaron Ashley; Shane Fitzgerald; TarraWarra Museum of Art and their Curator Anthony Fitzpatrick; Drill Hall Gallery and their Curator Tony Oates; Publication Manager Anne-Marie Jean and the team at Art Monthly; and Eve Sullivan and the team at Artlink.

We are extremely grateful for the professionalism and assistance of our freight providers, Global Specialised Services and particularly Clayton Sochacki who has overseen the international assembly, and Segue Art. The contribution of Segue Art’s Partners Kerrie Ann Roberts and Ross Brookes extends beyond the efficient management of the domestic artwork collections, transport and return, to the provision of helpful information and contacts which has truly enabled this exhibition to reach its fullest potential.

To those funding bodies who have enabled the development and presentation of this exhibition, please accept our deepest gratitude for having faith in the vision of this project. Funding was received through the Gordon Darling Foundation’s Domestic Travel Grant, which enabled an early curatorial research trip. Significantly, this project has also been supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland’s Projects and Programs Fund.

Finally, A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art would have been little more than a dream were it not for the contribution of Townsville City Council, both in funding Pinnacles Gallery and its program of exhibitions, and through the expertise of the organisation’s staff.

We thank all the personnel who have played a part in developing the show, from the staff and volunteers of Gallery Services, to everyone involved through Corporate Communications, the Media team, and Property Management.

Image: eX de Medici

Mother Skull [detail] 2006

Watercolour and metallic pigment on paper 109 x 114 cm

Private Collection of Kate Dulhunty

© eX de Medici