14 • SKIN DEEP MAGAZINE
ing else in my opinion could be a sufficient cause for so
apparently absurd a custom”.
Banks, like so many of his Age, disregarded the ritual
as quaint—a primitive custom in need of Enlightenment.
Perhaps he had not yet been exposed to Europe’s rich and
ancient tattoo history—notwithstanding it was episodic,
diffuse and nonlinear in nature. To use Alfred Gell’s term,
European tattoo had hitherto floated “unanchored” to any
codified and universal meaning, methodology, or vernacular,and was referred to mostly as “scratching ” and “pricking ”.
Missionaries and colonists thusly sought to discon-
tinue the ‘savage’ practice, all but effacing it from the Is-
lands—not, however, before piquing the interest of sail-
ors. According to Jane Caplan’s edited volume, Written
on the Body, upon returning home seamen helped propel
the craft into a new level of visibility. Through aesthetic
and appellation (the Tahitian word tatau, meaning to
mark or strike, was adopted and later translated to tat-
too), they inserted it into the collective consciousness of
modern Europeans.
Today, divided across three stately levels, Our Bodies,
Our Voices, Our Marks, explores the contemporary form
of Polynesia’s ancient and embedded tatau alongside
the equally potent tattoo tradition of Japanese irezumi.
Complimenting the two photography exhibits are four
installations—curated by Stanislava Pinchuk—that offerTitle: Paul Stillen, Group, 2019.
Photograph courtesy of Lekhena PorterTattoo by Chris Horishiki Brand.
Photo by Kip Fulbeck.Two visitors viewing the Paul Stillen’s Connected Bodies © Ben HealleyVisitors seated in Perseverance/ Japanese Tattoo Tradition in a Modern World