I have been reading Roald Dahl since I was a small child, so I was excited to read his short story mentioned at the beginning of the reading, Skin. It portrayed very well the socioeconomic nuances of tattoos within the broader context of art. From a literary perspective, I thought it was interesting how Dahl had the old man and young boy\u2019s life trajectories be general opposites of each other. But it is also important to point out that the man never seems to have enjoyed the success of the young boy even at his peak. He never attracts the attention of the Parisienne elite, he never has his work exhibited on the Rue de Rivoli, and he is never as wealthy. This establishes a ceiling to the financial and artistic success of tattoos, a core theme for the rest of the reading, as well as the documentary by Ryan Hope, also called Skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another story line from Dahl\u2019s Skin I thought interesting was the debate of how to obtain, preserve, and monetize the tattoo on the old man\u2019s back. The dealer completely disregards the old man as an individual and cares only about the tattoo and the skin it is on, offering to hire a surgeon to remove the skin and tattoo. In contrast, the tall stranger offers to accommodate and pamper the old man, allowing him to become a living exhibit, living in a hotel while allowing the guests to see his tattoo. For the dealer, the old man is worthless, and all the value is held in the tattoo. The stranger, however, apparently sees that the tattoo has value even when it is still on the old man\u2019s back and the old man is still alive. The two men each delineate the two sides of the argument of where the tattoo stops and starts, another theme of both the reading and the documentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The old man eventually listens to the stranger but unfortunately, it seems the stranger was lying and has done exactly what the dealer said he would do. The tattoo shows up for sale in Buenos Aires \u201cnicely framed and heavily varnished.\u201d These additions tell a crucial story of how the stranger thinks the tattoo should be exhibited. A tattoo on the body has no true frame or borders. A frame closes off a painting from the environment while a frameless tattoo can interact with the body it\u2019s on. The addition of varnish is a rejection of the visual qualities of skin and an attempt to achieve the look of a painting. The stranger shows a lack of appreciation for how skin looks and how tattoos work. An intrinsic quality of a tattoo is how it sits under the upper layers of skin which may cause it to look dull. That is important context which makes a tattoo a tattoo. A tattoo, essentially by definition, will never have the vividity and clarity of a painting. This attempt to achieve the look of a painting also exposes the stranger\u2019s opinion on tattoos compared to paintings. He believed that the tattoo has more value when it is varnished like a painting, that paintings are more valuable than tattoos. That paintings are more of an art form than tattoos. This (incorrect) idea that one can stratify artistic methods and mediums based on their validity as an art form is the last of the themes which I resonated with strongly during the reading and documentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While reading Inkside Out and about artists’ attempts to exhibit their work in galleries, it reminded me of an article I read about tattoo artists beginning to sell their tattoos as NFTs. Whether a gallery or an NFT, I disagree with this developing popularity of removing tattoos from their intended context. I believe the tattoo, the skin, the individual, and even the individual\u2019s environment each contribute meaning to the tattoo as a whole. Cropping out these important elements as you please so you can exhibit your work more comfortably detracts from the beauty of tattooing as an art form. The same tattoo motifs and designs exist on multitudes of people but each person\u2019s individual story contributes to each tattoo, making it something truly unique. Tattoos were not meant to be viewed straight on, perfectly lit or edited, framed either literally by an actual frame, or figuratively by the meticulously curated environment of a gallery. Instead, observing a tattoo can be a lengthy, elusive, and somewhat intimate process. I think this experience of initially catching a glimpse of a tattoo, eventually seeing it fully, and then maybe asking a person about their tattoo is a beautiful and integral part of \u201cconsuming\u201d tattoos. Each time you uncover more information about the tattoo, the tattoo accumulates more meaning and value. And then maybe a tattoo on someone is dangerously close to a fresh scar or burn and now a story is told of a delicate dance between intentional and accidental modifications to the skin, allowing you to learn more about the person. Tattoos are more than the ink. They are elements of a story that is very much perpetually being told. Tattoos can only enjoy full meaning outside the perfect conditions of a gallery. Tattoos are living things not meant to be preserved or caged, but instead observed in their original context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While I do understand tattoo artists attempts to validate their tattoos as art by putting it in the same context as works more readily accepted as fine art, I think this thinking shows a fundamental understanding of how art is meant to be consumed, as well as the importance of different mediums filling different niches, demanding different experiences. While museums are an amazing way to exhibit art on a large scale to a large audience and allow guests to fully understand an artist\u2019s portfolio or an entire movement, it is not the pinnacle of how art should or can be consumed. An integral component of art, in my opinion, is the communication between the artist, the art, and the audience. Museums are one way to cast a wide net and communicate with a large number of people. Another option is exhibiting art in an environment that communicates with fewer people, but arguably on a much deeper level. There are multiple ways to communicate your art to an audience, each with their own nuances and purposes, but none are subjectively better than the other. Rather, it is important to understand what you are trying to communicate and choose the method of communication that best allows you to do that. Part of being a tattoo artist is understanding and investing in the idea that your tattoo and art will be communicated to an audience through personal interaction. It is important to fully buy into that and celebrate that, rather than diminish the art by trying to transplant the ink from a person\u2019s skin into a gallery. While tattoo artists can exhibit their work in a museum, it should not be with the desire to earn respect as an artist or to reach some artistic pinnacle, because that\u2019s not what museums are or should be for. It should be with the intent to take advantage of the fact that museums are a great way to reach a large audience. Artists should not rank the various ways to view or consume art, but instead they should see each one as a tool to augment the way they can communicate. Rather than looking to museums and galleries and feeling inferior as an artist, tattoo artists should instead celebrate their niche and take advantage of the fact that their method of communication is much more personal, lingering, and even whimsical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been reading Roald Dahl since I was a small child, so I was excited to read his short story mentioned at the beginning of the reading, Skin. It portrayed very well the socioeconomic nuances of tattoos within the broader context of art. From a literary perspective, I thought it was interesting how Dahl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":796,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions\/796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar473-fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}