Tattoo artists and tattooed people
by Alberto M. Melis.
Body art enthusiasts maintain that tattoos represent today, in the Western world, the ideal symbiosis between archaism and modernity. That is, the perfect contamination between flesh and technology, between skin and ink, between magical symbols and steel needles. A suspended bridge between past and future that everyone is free to cross, each with their own ideas and motivations.
Some people just follow what has become an almost unstoppable trend over the years, some with the illusion of standing out from the crowd, some as an individual act of rebellion and some to emphasize their own identity or invent a new one.
A universe that is found every year in Festivals or Conventions dedicated to the art of tattooing, showcases and meeting opportunities for an increasingly wider segment of the population. There are at least 9 million people tattooed in Italy, 60 million in Europe, more than one hundred million between the United States and Canada. A vast community which, after the dark years of Covid19, had the opportunity to meet again.
The Tattoo Convention which took place in September in Cagliari, Sardinia (the thirteenth edition, 150 artists from all over the world), is the one where I took these photos. Searching in the intimacy of the individual workshops for the key to better understanding the relationship between the artist, the tattoo artist, and the person who entrusts the canvas of his body into his hands, the tattooed person, in a relationship that is always particularly intimate.
The relationship between a tattoo artist and the tattooed person is never one-way. The tattoo artist is not just the artist who imprints signs and colours on the human canvas and the tattooed person is not the passive recipient of the work imprinted on the skin, whatever style, size and artistic value it may have. Complicity and sharing exist between the two, first in the choice of the tattoo and its location on the body, and then throughout the time necessary to achieve the final objective. This extraordinary empathy between tattoo artist and tattooed person is preserved in the silence that usually accompanies the artist's work. A silence in which every slightest pressure of the needle on the skin is accompanied by the silent sensations of the person lying on the bed, which often shine through on their face.
It is said that getting tattooed, especially in the case of large tattoos, means entrusting yourself completely to the man or woman holding the needle in their hand. And together it means pain, gratification, sometimes intense pleasure, sometimes rushes of endorphins and adrenaline. Just as, sometimes, photographic images also bear witness.
