23 March 2016

Tattoo


Tattoo

In 2014, Anne and Julien curated the exhibition Tatoueurs, Tatoues (‘tattooists, tattoos’), the first museum survey of the history of tattooing. The exhibition catalogue, Tattoo, is arguably the only book featuring equal coverage of ancient tattoos, twentieth-century tattoo culture, and contemporary tattooing.

Like Body Decoration (Geschmückte Haut, by Karl Gröning) and The World of Tattoo (De wereld van tatoeage), Tattoo discusses tribal tattooing from around the world. Tattoo covers Japan, Native America, Europe, Polynesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, and China; The World of Tattoo and Body Decoration have additional chapters on Africa, India, and South America. Like The World of Tattoo, Tattoo has an extensive bibliography.

The catalogue also covers tattooing in the modern era, with chapters on sideshows, prison tattoos, and tattooing in the military. The tattoo renaissance in San Francisco and New York is represented by interviews with Don Ed Hardy (reprinted from Modern Primitives, by Andrea Juno and V. Vale) and Lyle Tuttle, and correspondence from Sailor Jerry.

Tattoo’s illustrations are similarly wide-ranging, “retracing the ancient nature, ubiquity and diversity of forms of tattooing (first documented in The History of Tattooing) as well as the wealth and aesthetic quality of contemporary works.” Antique decorated skulls and tattooed skin fragments are followed by contemporary tattoo designs rendered on realistic silicone replicas of human body parts.

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