Photos: Field Museum's 'Tattoo' Exhibit Illuminates An Overlooked Art
In 1936, Jessie Knight (1897–1994) became the first English female tattoo artist to open her own shop. The daughter of a tattoo artist, she trained under Charlie Bell and practiced her art for over 40 years. Her business card read “Lady Tattoo Artist – Expert at Free Hand". Photo: Haywood Magee/Getty Images
To convey the artistry and physical techniques of contemporary tattooing practice, the exhibition features sixteen life-size silicone body parts that have been tattooed by master tattooists from around the world. This female torso’s tattoo design was created by Tin-Tin, France’s most highly regarded tattoo artist. He is admired for both his hyperrealist technique and what he calls a “neo-Japanese” style. © musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, photo Thomas Duval
Tattoo artists in Kad Luang Market, Chiangmai, Thailand. Photo credit: Dow Wasiksir
Apo Whang Od (also known as Fang-Od Odday), now almost 100 years old, is one of the last master tattooists among the Kalinga people of the Philippines. She lives a traditional life in the mountains of central Luzon, and is in great demand as a tattoo artist. She is now training a new generation of Kalinga tattoo masters. Photo: Jake Verzosa
To convey the artistry and physical techniques of contemporary tattooing practice, the exhibition features sixteen life-size silicone body parts that have been tattooed by master tattooists from around the world. This silicone body form was tattooed by Ernesto Kalum, based in Borneo, Malaysia. Klum extensively researched the animist cosmologies of the Iban ethnic group of Borneo, and uses their traditional zoomorphic motifs in his designs. musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Photo: Thomas Duval
To convey the artistry and physical techniques of contemporary tattooing practice, the exhibition features sixteen life-size silicone body parts that have been tattooed by master tattooists from around the world. This silicone arm was tattooed by Xed LeHead of the United Kingdom. Some of the inks he used are visible only under “black light” (ultraviolet light). musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Photo: Thomas Duval
Born into a famous family of tattoo artists based in Switzerland, Filip Leu first began learning tattooing arts from his father at the age of ten. This cast of a male torso was created from a living model, and then tattooed by Leu as though it were real skin. Leu amplified traditional Japanese iconography on a bold scale for his design. musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, photo: Thomas Duval
A great master of traditional Japanese irezumi tattooing, Horiyoshi III designed and physically tattooed this silicone armfortheexhibition. Afteraneight-yearapprenticeship in the 1970’s with the tattoo artist Horiyoshi I, he eventually took the name Horiyoshi III. musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, photo: Thomas Duval
Born in 1961 on the island of Moorea in French Polynesia, Chimé is a major figure in the renewal of Polynesian tattoo arts. This 2013 design he created for this female leg recalls one that might have been made for a Marquesian woman at the end of the 19th century. Between the horizontal bands, stylized motifs represent turtles, sea eels, bonito fish tails, and sharks’ teeth. musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, photo: Thomas Duval
Now based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Leo Zulueta studied traditional hand-tool tattooing traditions of Borneo. To convey the artistry and physical techniques of contemporary tattooing practice, the exhibition features sixteen life-size silicone body parts that have been tattooed by master tattooists from around the world. musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, photo: Thomas Duval
This early twentieth century kit of tattooing needles was made from cactus needles in Argentina. musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, photo: Claude Germain
This charming female figurine, from St. Lawrence Island off the coast of Alaska, portrays the chin stripes once often worn by Yup’ik women. For thousands of years, indigenous women in the North American Arctic practiced tattooing. Chin stripes symbolized the skills necessary to be a wife and parent, as well as connections to ancestors and spirits. The Field Museum, photographer John Weinstein
This carving from Field Museum collections depicts scar tattooing, practiced by the Makonde people of Tanzania and Mozambique. Tattooists make an incision with a small knife and then apply black pigment to the cut. When the cut heals, it forms a darkened, slightly raised scar called a keloid tattoo. The Field Museum, photographer John Weinstein
This seventeenth-century stamp was used to imprint a design on a Christian pilgrim’s skin, for a tattoo to be received after a journey to Jerusalem. A tattooist would soak the olive wood stamp with ink made from candle soot, and press it onto skin. The design was then tattooed with a needle. musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, photo: Thierry Ollivier, Michel Urtado
This terracotta figure from Mexico has double lines of facial tattoos, extending from the hairline to the nostrils and circling the eyes. The forehead and cheeks are adorned with curved tattoos. musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, photo: Claude Germain
This sculpture portrays ta moko, a form of tattooing practiced by the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Intricate patterns represent a person’s accomplishments, genealogy, and social standing. Ta moko is worn on different parts of the body, including the face. musée du quai Branly, photo: Thierry Ollivier, Michel Urtado
To convey the artistry and physical techniques of contemporary tattooing practice, the exhibition features sixteen life-size silicone body parts that have been tattooed by master tattooists from around the world. Born in New Zealand in 1962 to the Maori tribe Te Aitanga a Hauiti, Mark Kopua first trained as a sculptor. He is a great practitioner of ta moko, traditional Maori tattooing. This tattoo design is a peha or “story on skin” of Uetonga, a mythological teacher of tattooing. musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, photo: Thomas Duval
Tattoos are personal. They're an ancient art form—wildly popular today, yet sometimes controversial—but it's rare for the public to get an education on the art form itself. That's about to change for those of us lucky enough to visit The Field Museum starting this Friday, as the Tattoo exhibit opens to the public.
Tattoo, a special exhibition first developed for Paris' musée du quai Branly, features an impressive collection of artifacts from the very beginning of the art to the beautiful, unique forms it's taking as technology progresses.
Tattoo offers a far-reaching look at the often overlooked art form. The exhibit explores more than five thousand years of creative skin-marking practice from around the globe, spanning from ancient Egypt to the modern era; and it starts to feel more and more like a gallery showing as you progress through its corridors. There are beautifully tattooed silicone forms, amazing artifacts from each corner of the world that follow tattooing's 5000-year timeline, and absolutely stunning photography, featuring some of the most intricate, amazing tattoos we've ever seen.
“The central message of the exhibition is about human creativity," Alaka Wali, curator of North American Anthropology, said in a release earlier this year. "It’s important to understand creativity’s different manifestations and not dismiss cultural practices and art forms because they were somehow stigmatized. The exhibition is going beyond the stereotype of tattoos to explore their aesthetics and artistry across cultures."
There's also a tattoo shop inside the exhibit—something that not even the original exhibit in France was able to accomplish. The shop, which is a work of art in itself, will be manned each weekend by one of six local artists, including Joel Molina of Chicago Tattoo and Lance Lloyd of Taylor Street Tattoo who was at the gun during Tuesday's press opening. The roster of high-profile artists also includes Tine DeFiore (Black Oak Tattoo), Stephanie Brown (the recently shuttered Butterfat Studios) and Zach Stuka (Deluxe Tattoo).
Spots for tattooing at the Field's shop filled up fast, but if you'd still like a chance to get inked in exhibit, you can sign up for the waitlist. It looks like it’s flash only, but that’s understandable considering the circumstances. Appointments cost $250 and include admission to "Tattoo." Check out booking and bio details here. And for those just curious, the shop offers a near-360-degree view of the artists in action
Tattoo represents an ambitious and thoroughly successful attempt by the Field Museum to educate people on the anthropological importance of tattooing, its global significance and how tattoos function as beautiful pieces of art and storytelling.
Tattoo opens to the public on Friday, Oct. 21 and will run through April 30, 2017. For more information, and to get tickets, click here.