The Art of Tattooing
For my most recent project, I have been researching Tattooing and its role in the past and today's society, asking big questions like why people get tattoos at all. though to some people, a tattoo is just a bit of ink in the skin but in this project, I wanted to highlight why tattooing as an art form is so unique and should be celebrated more often.
THE HISTORY BEHIND IT ALL
The oldest remains of a human with tattoos were of a man we have now named "Otzi". Otzi was found in a glacier on the Austrian-Italian border and was believed to be from as early as 3250 BC. What made this discovery even more fascinating was that Otzi had a whopping 61 tattoos! Interestingly enough, the spots where Otzi had his tattoos were typically acupuncture spots, which leads researchers to believe that tattoos were used as a form of treatment, most likely for arthritis.
However, later on in history, Tattoos became a symbol of wealth, tribal identity, social status, and even a sign of devotion to your religion. for example the Moai tribe and their iconic face tattoos (also known as Moko)
Unfortunately, over time, tattoos began to be seen as an indication that the wearer was involved in criminal activity or as a delinquent. This may have been caused during the Edo period in Japan when criminals, slaves, prisoners of war, etc were tattooed as a form of punishment and although this practice is no longer around some people still have this view on those who are tattooed
My main goal for this project was to understand why people get tattoos, the best way I could find this out was by going onto my Instagram and asking my followers some questions about tattoos.
I am very glad I did this as I was able to get a mix of different answers as the majority of people who answered my questionnaire did not have any tattoos at that given time. It was very interesting to see all the different tattoo ideas and reasons why people had gotten their tattoos if they had some already.
the most interesting design someone had for a tattoo was "a crab with a top hat and a monocle" which I knew I would have to recreate as I found the idea so charming.
However, this questionnaire raised a few points that I didn't realise/even know about. For example, a follower said that they would love to get a tattoo but due to their religion if they had a tattoo they wouldn't be able to be buried in the cemetery of their faith.
The questionnaire made me realise that tattoos are not just about the artwork or the meaning behind the tattoos, but also a representation of someone's personality and who they are as a person.
The Process
For my final piece, I decided I wanted to make a tattoo flash sheet that showed a lot of personality, which meant I allowed myself to let loose and make some wacky designs I have had in my head for a while.
To make sure my digital drawings would not seem "stiff", I sketched them all out on paper first before taking a picture of them on my iPad and draw over the sketch on a different layer on procreate.
I originally wanted to make my designs a mix of black and white and coloured however due to a foot injury I was running on a bit of a tight schedule so I made them in the linework style of tattooing
During the making process, I found myself constantly trying to move around the designs on what would be the final image but nothing seemed right, I even tried adding a tan background and a paper overlay but that still didn't help.
In the end, I realised there weren't enough images on the paper and I needed to add 2 more tattoos and then from there add a few "gap fillers" to make the image seem a bit more cohesive.
once I added my new designs and ordered them in a way I was happy with I decided to add some finishing touches. I wasn't really happy with my last paper texture so I went on Instagram to find one that was a bit neater and more subtle. Once I found the paper texture I wanted I did debate leaving the background white as I didn't like the colour I chose last time but in the end I decided to go with a skin like colour to give the tattoo designs feel more authentic which lead to my final design being the image on the top right.
