When poet and artist Sasha LaPointe was first requested to curate the First Nations part on the Museum of Pop Tradition’s present “Body of Work: Tattoo Culture” exhibition, she admits that it was “barely overwhelming.”
LaPointe, who’s from the Higher Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribe, explains that, though she has a variety of tattoos (lots of which — reminiscent of a salmon on her wrist, sword ferns and blackberries — rejoice her Coast Salish identification), she is “by no means a tattoo skilled. I’m a poet and a author, and I occur to get tattoos lots,” she says with fun. “My method [to the exhibition] was rooted in our tales and our language and the way we select to adorn ourselves.”
A lot of “Physique of Work,” which runs by means of Might 31, 2021, makes use of story to have a look at the historical past and artistry of tattoo, particularly by means of the lens of popular culture. The exhibition, which opened Feb. 1, was paused for six months when MoPOP closed as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. As of Sept. 18, the museum has as soon as once more opened to the general public.
The present is organized into 10 sections, together with tattoo historical past, service/army tattoos, counterculture and various existence, international tendencies, and tattoo artwork that includes native artists. It showcases unique images; up to date and historic artifacts (suppose the evolution of tattoo weapons and different tattooing instruments); filmed interviews; and paintings from 11 Northwest-based tattoo artists together with Aaron Bell (of Slave to the Needle), LolliPop Morlock (Dangerous Apple Tattoo) and Ricky Gaspar (Native Boy Tatau).
“Tattoo has a 5,000-year-plus historical past,” says Amalia Kozloff, head curator at MoPOP, “however we’re actually solely trying deeply on the previous 50 years.” She notes {that a} transient overview of the historical past is supplied to assist contextualize the exhibition, however that the principle focus of “Physique of Work” is the time period when the acceptance and popularization of tattoos was pushed by popular culture in addition to myriad underground or counterculture scenes. “Tattoo is its personal artwork kind and at all times has been one of many truest artwork kinds, which is self-expression.”
It’s a becoming present for Seattle, which is house to a big and well-respected tattoo neighborhood, in addition to the oldest tattoo parlor in america: Seattle Tattoo Emporium. The enterprise, established in 1941 below the title Seattle Tattoo, initially consisted of founder Clarence J. Danny Danzl tattooing individuals in a tavern on First Avenue in what was then generally known as Seattle’s Skid Street district. Within the Nineteen Fifties, the recognition of tattoos declined with the rise of a conformist, conservative period (each socially and politically), however Seattle Tattoo survived and went on to flourish over the subsequent three a long time. In 1984, 20 years after being renamed, Seattle Tattoo Emporium moved to the western fringe of Capitol Hill, an space the place it nonetheless operates at present. “We’ve at all times had a really massive counterculture from the midcentury onward,” Kozloff says of Seattle, “and tattoo has been very built-in into that.”
As a part of the First Nations part of “Physique of Work,” LaPointe interviewed a number of members of the Tulalip tribe to get a greater thought of the connection between the Coast Salish individuals and tattoo.
“Not a lot data exists about whether or not we had been a tattooed individuals pre-contact [with non-indigenous settlers], earlier than the tribes assimilated,” she mentioned, happening to speak about Ruth Shelton, an elder whom the Tulalip tribal members introduced up in dialog. “She got here from the mountains and he or she had a collection of small, refined markings on her wrists in triangular patterns. It struck me as profound that she selected to adorn herself as a reminder of who she is and the place she got here from.”
LaPointe needed to create an area that showcases conventional adornment whereas additionally celebrating the ways in which up to date artists are utilizing tattoo to revitalize and reclaim adornment, making it their very own. “I consider it as everlasting regalia,” she says, “the concept that we will take again our identities as Native individuals and inform a narrative with it.”
Recognized for its interactive areas, MoPOP has needed to make changes within the wake of COVID-19 and required social distancing — tactile particulars all through the exhibition that inspired guests to the touch and really feel completely different shows have been altered or eliminated. Now, earlier than coming into the exhibit, museumgoers are given a sanitized stylus that they’ll use on screens all through to finish actions reminiscent of a “What’s Your Tattoo Fashion” quiz. And for those who’ve ever puzzled what you’d appear like with a tattoo however haven’t had the nerve to go below the needle, there’s an space the place you may experiment by having a tattoo projected onto your pores and skin — no dedication, or ache, required.
