At a party on Saturday this girl felt the need to proclaim her disgust with tattoo’s; after hearing me out about mine and making the error of seeing a 8 in a roman-numeral 13. Stating the dreary ‘I understand that people want to decorate their bodies, but …’
'Mau Moko: The World of Maori Tattoo' by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
decorate? tattooing is more than mere ornamentation. You – or at least I and nearly everyone I know who has tattoo’s – feel the need for this thing, They feel hole by having it. I never imagined myself without ink and I’m not a full on suicide girl, but still.
Body art has been present in nearly all cultures and can define the status that a person holds within that culture. For instance, having a moko tattoo on you’re face means your a hero in a Maori society and having one on any other place of you’re body signifies that your a warrior. It is culture, and not a frivolous nonsensical exorcise. Culture might also be reduced as such but it is a means to understand and give meaning to the world (see Ortega y Gasset). If you wanted to you could reduce it all down so that in the end this whole life would be frivolous and without meaning, and you are justified to do so, but let us express it in ink.
‘Skin’ was a project that took place in May of last year and attempted to fuse the world of fine art with that of tattooing. The body as a canvas, as you will. Artist from the field of the fine art making a design for tattoo’s.
May 2011, conceptual questions.
However, this same girl at the party might not even like or get Damien Hirst. “O, well.”
