How close is body art to book art?
Pretty darn close if you follow the reasoning of Arthur Jaffe. Jaffe, the founder of the seminal Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University, “saw tattooed people as walking books, because, after all, what is tattooed skin if not printed narratives, illustrations and designs? They are also telling a story,”
Jaffe goes on to remind us that “prior to paper, books were printed on parchment and vellum – the skin of animals – so the book metaphor is not a stretch.”
So why not study the art of the body? Here lies the genesis of Stories on the Skin: Tattoo Culture at FAU , a three year creative collaboration between The Jaffe Center for Book Arts and Dr. Karen Leader, a professor of Visual Arts and Art History.
“The project is designed to engage FAU’s diverse student population in an exploration of the social, cultural, and artistic phenomenon of tattooing, specifically drawing out the relationships between the images themselves and the complex histories and narratives associated with them.”
The project began with a survey (pdf) in which over 1,000 students responded, it was then followed by a call for participants to share their stories. Stories could be about:
choosing your art or its symbolism, about getting your tattoo, showing it off, hiding it, others reacting to it, and anything else meaningful to you. It can be in the form of a narrative, a poem, a song, a dialogue or screenplay, or any other creative interpretation.
and now the project culminates with the release of a film about the project that is “part documentary, part creative exploration of the metaphor of tattoos as books on the body”
There is also an exhibition catalog featuring photographs of the student tattoos by Z. McCarthy-Koppisch that is available through blurb
What a great project and one that leaves the door open for similar projects throughout the land. Wouldn’t it be great to see Stories on the Skin: The PAC 12 edition or the SEC or Big East versions. Then to be able to compare all that data….just think of the research possibilities.
More:
Article in the Sun Sentinel; Marked for life: Documentary examines FAU’s tattoo culture
Previously on book patrol:
Arthur Jaffe Shows Off His Book Arts Collection