Tattoo: British Tattoo Art Revealed, National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth
This show gets under the skin of the history of tattooing in Britain
I could talk about the five times I’ve been tattooed, from a regretted act of teenage rebellion in a biker’s ink shop that resulted in a Celtic knot looped the wrong way, to a memorialising tattoo that had me fighting back tears. But that’s my story – Tattoo: British Tattoo Art Revealed at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall (NMMC) is about the history of British tattooists’ art over the centuries, from production to execution.
The practice of tattooing can be traced back thousands of years, but this show looks at its history in Britain, starting in the 17th century by documenting souvenir tattoos collected by pilgrims on trips to the Middle East, through the commercialisation of tattooing with the first recorded parlour that opened in London in the late-19th century, to the present day and the creativity of tattoo artists now.
This innovative show makes use of cutting-edge academic research, fantastic historical collections and work by artists to challenge myths and preconceptions of tattooing. The practice has, according to the exhibition’s curator, Matt Lodder, been part of British naval culture since at least the late-18th century, “weaving together all those men who found time, opportunity and inspiration to turn their needles to something more expressive than darning their socks”, so there seems no more apt a venue for this show than the NMMC.
The challenge in curating such an exhibition lies in the nature of the tattoo as object. Lodder describes the problem with bringing tattoos into the space of the museum: “Like paintings, they are art objects, but like performance pieces, they deny objectivity in a number of ways and are impossible to accession into a permanent collection in their original, immediate form.” Thus it is both the absence and presence of skin in the museum that provides a curatorial challenge, but the ephemeral nature of the subject matter is cleverly dealt with.
The show aims to dispel the myths surrounding tattooing, so that visitors leave having had their preconceptions challenged. Archive material is used to show that tattooing was not brought to Britain from the Pacific by the voyages of Captain Cook (1728-1779), with images showing evidence of tattooing in Britain before that in the early-18th century.
Previously, any discussion of tattooing has tended to focus on the narrative aspect, looking at the tattoo content rather than the artist, examining the anthropological rather than the art historical. As Lodder explains, tattooing has too often been discussed only through personal narratives, in the way that it is often used to construct individual identities.
Artistic aesthetics
The show uses a good balance of text panels to interpret the wide range of historical material on display, demonstrating the depth and breadth of research by Lodder and co-curators Derryth Ridge and Stuart Slade. Considering the academic weight behind the show, it feels accessible, informative and fun, and there is a lot to learn without feeling overwhelmed.
As well as objects, the exhibition’s re-creation of Lal Hardy’s studio from the 1970s allows visitors who have never been inside a tattoo parlour to have a glimpse inside an authentic interior.
The show looks at the way tattoos are produced, giving visitors the opportunity to form an objective interpretation of the aesthetics of tattooing. This exhibition gives a long-overdue alternative view by framing tattooing as art and placing it within a broader context of folk craft practice and visual culture.
In his PhD research, Lodder discusses the bodily subjectivity of the tattoo as art object in a short story written in 1954. Skin, by Roald Dahl, describes a macabre scenario. After an evening of drinking – a tattooist, Drioli, suggests to his friend, the celebrated painter Chaim Soutine, that Soutine should tattoo a work of his art on Drioli’s back. Years later, Drioli, destitute and desperate (Soutine is dead by then), walks into a gallery and sells the work of art on his body to the highest bidder, with the promise of being a living artwork. Not long after, a “new” painting by the late Soutine comes up for auction, “nicely framed and heavily varnished”.
This story demonstrates not only the problem of the tattoo’s status as art object, but also questions how to address this denial of objectivity in exhibition displays. What does it mean to collect tattoos? This is exemplified by the problem of how to display tattoos on preserved human skin.
Body image
Gemma Angel has been researching objects from the Wellcome Collection’s medical skin collection since 2009, objects that she says are “simultaneously human remains, icons, objects of medical and criminological interest, fragments of the lives of others, memories made flesh”. She has curated a display that offers an unusual opportunity to see objects where “sentiments of their bearers live on”.
The concept of absence or presence of flesh is inescapable in this exhibition. Artist Rebecca Schneider fleshes out archive material to tell the stories of historic tattooists such as George Burchett and Jessie Knight.
Schneider writes that Burchett, born in 1872, was a celebrity tattooist, inking European royalty and incorporating designs inspired by his travels around the world. One of Burchett’s willing candidates was Horace Ridler, a sideshow performer known as the Great Omi – a life-size model of Ridler is on display at the NMMC.
Schneider also says that Knight, billed as the first British female tattooist, was born in Cardiff and was allegedly part of a circus sharp-shooter act before learning her trade in Kent and opening a studio in the garrison town of Aldershot in the 1930s. Knight was reportedly a formidable character, and a British Pathé news clip shows her tattooing servicewomen during the second world war.
Skin deep
The body in tattooing is revealed in the 100 disembodied silicone arms that display the work of 100 contemporary British artists. Curated by Alice Snape, of Things & Ink magazine, this innovative mode of display offers an insight into the diversity and range of tattooing happening now, but also provides a body of work for historians of the future.
The arms are not only tattooed surfaces that are eerily skin-like, but also reinforce the sculptural quality of the tattooed body as a three-dimensional artwork. The tattoo patterns could have been displayed as two-dimensional drawings, but that would have only reinforced the absence of the body and failed to contextualise this incredible range of tattoos.
There are also specially commissioned pieces on life-sized body models by three artists: Tihoti Faara Barff, who focuses on the modern revival of traditional Tahitian tattoos; Matt Houston, who celebrates the sailor tattoo; and Aimée Cornwell, whose detailed work, while influenced by art nouveau and the pre-Raphaelites, is uniquely her own. These works should leave a legacy that boosts academic and public interest in the history of tattooing.
This show confounds expectations and explodes myths by bringing together historical objects and artefacts, many of which have never been on public display before. It also combines diverse work by contemporary tattoo artists with accompanying stories to engage and inspire.
The exhibition has certainly inspired me to book an appointment for my next tattoo at a studio whose artist features in one of the 100 arms display. Tattoos are not just for sailors and never have been.
Jeanie Sinclair is an art and design historian and is currently finishing her PhD
Main funders Arts Council England; Garfield Weston Foundation; Sir John Fisher Foundation; Heritage Lottery Fund
Exhibition design Imagemakers Design and Consultancy
Interpretation In house; Matt Lodder (University of Essex)
Fabrication and installation Parc Signs; In house
Art handling Constantine; Kent Services
Lighting In house
Hyper-realistic body casts Gorton Studio, Falmouth
Silicone arms A Pound of Flesh
3D printing Thinksee3D
Display cases ClickNetherfield; Armour Systems
Exhibition ends 7 January 2018
Admission £12.95 Adult; £5 under 18s; Free for under 5s
The practice of tattooing can be traced back thousands of years, but this show looks at its history in Britain, starting in the 17th century by documenting souvenir tattoos collected by pilgrims on trips to the Middle East, through the commercialisation of tattooing with the first recorded parlour that opened in London in the late-19th century, to the present day and the creativity of tattoo artists now.
This innovative show makes use of cutting-edge academic research, fantastic historical collections and work by artists to challenge myths and preconceptions of tattooing. The practice has, according to the exhibition’s curator, Matt Lodder, been part of British naval culture since at least the late-18th century, “weaving together all those men who found time, opportunity and inspiration to turn their needles to something more expressive than darning their socks”, so there seems no more apt a venue for this show than the NMMC.
The challenge in curating such an exhibition lies in the nature of the tattoo as object. Lodder describes the problem with bringing tattoos into the space of the museum: “Like paintings, they are art objects, but like performance pieces, they deny objectivity in a number of ways and are impossible to accession into a permanent collection in their original, immediate form.” Thus it is both the absence and presence of skin in the museum that provides a curatorial challenge, but the ephemeral nature of the subject matter is cleverly dealt with.
The show aims to dispel the myths surrounding tattooing, so that visitors leave having had their preconceptions challenged. Archive material is used to show that tattooing was not brought to Britain from the Pacific by the voyages of Captain Cook (1728-1779), with images showing evidence of tattooing in Britain before that in the early-18th century.
Previously, any discussion of tattooing has tended to focus on the narrative aspect, looking at the tattoo content rather than the artist, examining the anthropological rather than the art historical. As Lodder explains, tattooing has too often been discussed only through personal narratives, in the way that it is often used to construct individual identities.
Artistic aesthetics
The show uses a good balance of text panels to interpret the wide range of historical material on display, demonstrating the depth and breadth of research by Lodder and co-curators Derryth Ridge and Stuart Slade. Considering the academic weight behind the show, it feels accessible, informative and fun, and there is a lot to learn without feeling overwhelmed.
As well as objects, the exhibition’s re-creation of Lal Hardy’s studio from the 1970s allows visitors who have never been inside a tattoo parlour to have a glimpse inside an authentic interior.
The show looks at the way tattoos are produced, giving visitors the opportunity to form an objective interpretation of the aesthetics of tattooing. This exhibition gives a long-overdue alternative view by framing tattooing as art and placing it within a broader context of folk craft practice and visual culture.
In his PhD research, Lodder discusses the bodily subjectivity of the tattoo as art object in a short story written in 1954. Skin, by Roald Dahl, describes a macabre scenario. After an evening of drinking – a tattooist, Drioli, suggests to his friend, the celebrated painter Chaim Soutine, that Soutine should tattoo a work of his art on Drioli’s back. Years later, Drioli, destitute and desperate (Soutine is dead by then), walks into a gallery and sells the work of art on his body to the highest bidder, with the promise of being a living artwork. Not long after, a “new” painting by the late Soutine comes up for auction, “nicely framed and heavily varnished”.
This story demonstrates not only the problem of the tattoo’s status as art object, but also questions how to address this denial of objectivity in exhibition displays. What does it mean to collect tattoos? This is exemplified by the problem of how to display tattoos on preserved human skin.
Body image
Gemma Angel has been researching objects from the Wellcome Collection’s medical skin collection since 2009, objects that she says are “simultaneously human remains, icons, objects of medical and criminological interest, fragments of the lives of others, memories made flesh”. She has curated a display that offers an unusual opportunity to see objects where “sentiments of their bearers live on”.
The concept of absence or presence of flesh is inescapable in this exhibition. Artist Rebecca Schneider fleshes out archive material to tell the stories of historic tattooists such as George Burchett and Jessie Knight.
Schneider writes that Burchett, born in 1872, was a celebrity tattooist, inking European royalty and incorporating designs inspired by his travels around the world. One of Burchett’s willing candidates was Horace Ridler, a sideshow performer known as the Great Omi – a life-size model of Ridler is on display at the NMMC.
Schneider also says that Knight, billed as the first British female tattooist, was born in Cardiff and was allegedly part of a circus sharp-shooter act before learning her trade in Kent and opening a studio in the garrison town of Aldershot in the 1930s. Knight was reportedly a formidable character, and a British Pathé news clip shows her tattooing servicewomen during the second world war.
Skin deep
The body in tattooing is revealed in the 100 disembodied silicone arms that display the work of 100 contemporary British artists. Curated by Alice Snape, of Things & Ink magazine, this innovative mode of display offers an insight into the diversity and range of tattooing happening now, but also provides a body of work for historians of the future.
The arms are not only tattooed surfaces that are eerily skin-like, but also reinforce the sculptural quality of the tattooed body as a three-dimensional artwork. The tattoo patterns could have been displayed as two-dimensional drawings, but that would have only reinforced the absence of the body and failed to contextualise this incredible range of tattoos.
There are also specially commissioned pieces on life-sized body models by three artists: Tihoti Faara Barff, who focuses on the modern revival of traditional Tahitian tattoos; Matt Houston, who celebrates the sailor tattoo; and Aimée Cornwell, whose detailed work, while influenced by art nouveau and the pre-Raphaelites, is uniquely her own. These works should leave a legacy that boosts academic and public interest in the history of tattooing.
This show confounds expectations and explodes myths by bringing together historical objects and artefacts, many of which have never been on public display before. It also combines diverse work by contemporary tattoo artists with accompanying stories to engage and inspire.
The exhibition has certainly inspired me to book an appointment for my next tattoo at a studio whose artist features in one of the 100 arms display. Tattoos are not just for sailors and never have been.
Jeanie Sinclair is an art and design historian and is currently finishing her PhD
Project data
Cost £150,000Main funders Arts Council England; Garfield Weston Foundation; Sir John Fisher Foundation; Heritage Lottery Fund
Exhibition design Imagemakers Design and Consultancy
Interpretation In house; Matt Lodder (University of Essex)
Fabrication and installation Parc Signs; In house
Art handling Constantine; Kent Services
Lighting In house
Hyper-realistic body casts Gorton Studio, Falmouth
Silicone arms A Pound of Flesh
3D printing Thinksee3D
Display cases ClickNetherfield; Armour Systems
Exhibition ends 7 January 2018
Admission £12.95 Adult; £5 under 18s; Free for under 5s