Tattoo at the Maritime Museum
15 October 2021 - 30 September 2022
Tattoo makes its grand return having been on a national tour around the UK. This exciting exhibition debuted at the National Maritime Museum in 2017 to huge acclaim. This is your last chance to see Tattoo, including some of the key artworks from the original exhibition as well as some brand-new commissions, celebrating a more diverse range of tattoo artists.
Tattooing is a magical, romantic, exciting and often-misunderstood art-form’. Dr Matt Lodder
The exhibition challenges long-standing myths and pre-conceptions about tattooing when it comes to class, gender and age, whilst at the same time celebrating the astonishingly rich artistic heritage of tattooing in the UK.
Tattoos are a living and uniquely three-dimensional form of art. The Museum responded to this by commissioning an installation that literally brings the art off the gallery wall to create a ‘sculptural map’ of British tattoo art today. The ‘100 Hands’, curated by Alice Snape of Things and Ink magazine, is based around one hundred silicone arms, each tattooed with an original design by 100 of the leading tattoo artists working across the UK.
The exhibition challenges long-standing myths and pre-conceptions about tattooing when it comes to class, gender and age, whilst at the same time celebrating the astonishingly rich artistic heritage of tattooing in the UK.
The exhibition also includes three major art commissions on hyper realistic body sculptures from three tattoo artists working in three very different tattoo traditions. Tihoti Faara Barff’s work celebrates the modern revival of Tahitian tattooing; Matt Houston’s commission is a heroic celebration of the sailor tattoo; and Aimée Cornwell, a second-generation artist and rising star in the tattoo world, illustrates how tattooing is breaking down different artistic boundaries with her own form of fantasia.
This re-display provides a timely opportunity to feature new tattoo art commissions from a wider more diverse range of tattoo artist. More details coming soon!