The Tattoo: drawing and the body

Some of the oldest drawings we have evidence of were done on human bodies. Tattoos have been central to the way humans communicate meaning through drawing for tens of thousands of years and have been used by cultures across the world. So perhaps it is about time this blog looked at such a fundamental area of drawing. It is interesting in terms of my own self-awareness that I have not posted on tattoos before. Perhaps I'm still at the back of my mind suffering from that old high/low culture divide and an art form that if I look around me is ubiquitous, has somehow been not taken as seriously as it should have been, because at some point in my past it was introduced to me as an art form only taken up by criminals and sailors. It is in fact one of the most vital and living art forms around; it supports the making of wonderful images and it clearly works as a communication tool.

Scythian mummy tattoo, Pazyryk, Russia. 200 to 400 BC

Drawings of other Scythian mummy tattoos

One of the oldest examples I am aware of is this Scythian mummy tattoo from Pazyryk in Russia from around 200 to 400 BC. It is a very rare thing to find a tattoo as old as this, and what interested me was how zoomorphic junctures, or the mixing of one animal with another is central to the design. I have been thinking a lot recently about our position in the world and if we see ourselves as another animal like others, perhaps we might be more sympathetic to our fellow creatures and less likely to treat them simply as things to do with as we may. One reading of this tattoo is that it represents the fluid nature of animal identities and that there were no clear distinctions between them and people in the mind of the person who had been tattooed. The world of the shaman, often dissolved the differences between people and animals or landscapes, moving beyond empathy into a positive energy giving relationship that gave people meaning. I would like to think that these tattoos were part of the communication to one's self and others of something of that nature. Animism and other early pre-organised religious ways of coming to terms with the world, seem to me to link these very early ideas of how we relate to the world and each other, with contemporary thinking in relation to how we are responding to an awareness of the Anthropocene. (The name we are all becoming more aware of for the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment)

I think it's fascinating that someone in Leeds can walk into a tattoo parlour and ask for a Maori tattoo design. These designs use 'Manawa' lines which represent your life, or life journey during your time spent on this Earth. This idea which seems so similar to the idea of the 'wyrd', a Northern European tradition from pre-Christian times, feels as if it is really needed in a society where so many people feel uncoupled from the world and anxious because their lives lack meaning. Branching out from the 'Manama' lines are 'Koru'  lines and these can represent both people and new growth. Their shapes originally deriving from the tiny spiral growth shoots of a New Zealand Fern plant. As 'Koru' or growth lines are added, important people are linked into your life journey, such as mothers, fathers, children, loved ones etc. 

A contemporary tattoo based on a 'koru' form

It could be argued that taking an idea from one culture and using it within another is a debased concept. But I'm not so sure. If something is needed in one culture and an answer for that need can be seen as part of another culture, I see no reason to argue against it. I would rather celebrate it and help to communicate a wider cultural awareness of what the symbolism might mean. For instance if a Fern type image represents new growth and new relationships, shouldn't this be part of a ritual that celebrates the fact? 

People that involve themselves in tattoo culture are part of a unique collaborative art form. The person that has their body tattooed will build a close relationship up between themselves and one or several tattoo artists. It is a relief to see that each image does not come associated with a tattooist's signature, there being some sort of recognition that this is a proper collaborative art form. 

A full body tattoo combining a variety of styles.

This full body tattoo combines eastern mysticism with western Op Art and old style symbolism. Bi-lateral symmetry gives overall compositional coherence to the imagery and the effect is very powerful. 

Eastern symbolism 

Eastern symbolism dominates this torso, but other images such as a picture of Big Ben are also used to give a global worldwide cultural expression to the projected image. 

The all over animal

The old animist urges are still around and I was surprised at how many tattoos are designed to create some form of metamorphosis between human and animal forms. 

I am only just beginning to research this area of drawing and the more I do so the more interesting I think it is. Especially in the cross fertilisation of tattoo images from various cultures. Homi K Bhabha's 'The Location of Culture' could be rewritten in relation to the way that various traditions have now been morphed into totally new forms (what Bhabha termed at the time, "hybridisation"), because of the need for contemporary cultures to find expressive forms that can do justice to the various needs that people have within them. I have been recently doing some work with a jewellery designer who has long been aware of the power of body decoration, so I have been making my own drawings for the body. I shall in the near future put up more posts on my growing awareness of body decoration as time goes on, but for now I just wanted to break through an old mental barrier, one that had me thinking that tattoos were something for other people; outsiders, not things that are central to nearly all world cultures, and which in some instances, seem to be the dominant form of inter-personal communication.

Auschwitz number tattoo

Tattooing was introduced at Auschwitz in the autumn of 1941, and this may be why I have avoided looking at tattoos before now. I had long associated tattooing with branding, with a way of numbering people, so that they were demeaned and reduced to a disposable thing. I need to both never forget this and yet at the same time respond to the fact that many people  find the tattoo a way of deepening their ability to make meaningful inter-personal communication. 

The tattooist Inaki Aires is an interesting example of an artist that has decided to use the tattoo as his selected platform and his spiritual diagrams are very clearly of an interest to a growing community of the tattooed. 

Inaki Aires 

I have been working on ideas myself but they are not yet properly realised.

See also:

The fine art of the tattoo
Paper and skin