Disembodied: Indigenous
Tattooing and the Virtual
Archive
#indigenoustattoo
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Related: #tattoo (127m) #indigenousink (5k)
Indigenous tattooing is closely tied to two major archives: the historical/anthropological archive of images collected in the early 18th century, and the contemporary virtual archive of social media. While the historical archive was intended to document a practice that had been arrested, the contemporary archive is meant to celebrate and document tattooing practice as it ‘reawakens’ (1). Instagram has emerged as a powerful tool for documenting personal histories within a larger social network (2). In this way, social media functions to support the story of resurgence and the cultural memory of tattooing as it re-emerges as a symbol of Indigenous identity. The historical archive of Indigenous tattooing is limited; the images in this archive number in the hundreds and access to them is controlled. In contrast, the virtual archive numbers in the thousands and is ever growing. This latter archive is dynamic and unlike the historical archive it creates an “interactive narrative” (3). Despite its differences, the historical archive has provided the foundation for the virtual archive. Indigenous artists are looking back at the sepia-toned photographs and sketches and in them are finding the spirit of their ancestral practice (4). That spirit inhabits the tattoo designs and the tattooed bodies that comprise the virtual archive. Unlike the historical, analogue archive the contemporary virtual archive also contains images of the act of tattooing, underlining the experience of tattooing as a living practice. According to Kwak’waka’wakw and Coast Salish artist Carey Newman, photos taken of art-in-progress are also less vulnerable to appropriation in comparison to flat images (5).
Tattoos are a combination of both a mark and a meaning. The reawakening of tattooing has been described as a way of visibly recognizing the designs, stories, and meanings that are always present within an Indigenous person (9). Rather than inscribing something wholly new, the tattoo traces the meaning and brings it to the surface of the skin as a visible, embodied identity (10).The virtual archive does not communicate the holistic tattoo, with mark and meaning bound together. The images in the virtual archive lift the mark away from the meaning due to the general lack of context in online circulation. The result is a massive archive of disembodied identities circulating as images. These disembodied identities, which are powerful symbols of Indigenous resistance and survival in their embodied form, may be viewed by an unknowing audience only as aesthetically interesting marks.
"our ancestral design work is not some “style”
you can do cause you know how to work a machine
and do a google image search on the internet and have inherited your white privilege”
- Nahaan (15).
What happens to a tattoo when it is photographed and
circulated in the virtual archive?
How does the audience of the virtual archive impact
meaning in tattooing?
The use of Instagram has allowed Indigenous artists to share the social aspect of Indigenous tattooing. This kind of tattooing tangibly links individuals into their communities and so it is important that the community be able to witness the practice (11). The communicative potential of a tattoo requires both a wearer and an audience. In the virtual archive of Indigenous tattoo images, the audience not only contains Indigenous communities, it is also made up of non-Indigenous tattooists and tattooed people. Platforms like Instagram are intended to share and circulate images (12,13). and so the virtual archive does support the communicative nature of tattooing. However, because the virtual archive is unregulated the images of tattoos pass beyond the control of the individuals who post them and can be taken up by the appropriative culture of mainstream tattooing. Images on Instagram are sorted through the use of hashtags (14) which places those images in relationship with a massive archive that extends far beyond an individual’s purview. The #indigenoustattoo collection also contains mainstream appropriative tattoos and loosely related images that do not actually depict Indigenous tattoo designs. When a broad and unknowing audience views disembodied tattoo marks, there is a great potential for misinterpretation and misuse of those designs because the significance or imbedded meaning is not seen.
Indigenous tattoos continue to be a means of connection between self, one’s contemporary culture, and one’s ancestors (6). Indigenous tattooists are navigating tattooing on Indigenous terms which recognize Indigenous concepts of law and ownership of designs (7). This places the reawakening of Indigenous tattooing in conflict with the appropriative culture that permeates the virtual collection. Mohawk artist Lindsay Delaronde comments that what is missing from the virtual archive is a meaningful conversation around governance over art and bodies (8). Tattooing is deeply relational and while the virtual archive may be a tool to open a conversation, it is not a true proxy of the practice.
Tattoos in the Archives
Notes.
1.Kaszas, Dion. 2018. “Echoes of the Ancestors: Inherited Knowledge and Responsibilities.” Body Language. Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest. [Exhibition Catalogue] Exhibited at Bill Reid Gallery June 8 2018- January 13 2019: 7- 25.
2. Palmer, Daniel. 2010. "Emotional Archives: Online Photo Sharing and the Cultivation of the Self." Photographies 3 (2): 155-171.
3. Fallon, Kris. 2014. “Streams of the Self: The Instagram Feed as Narrative Autobiography.” In Proceedings of the Interactive Narratives, New Media & Social Engagement International Conference. Eds. Hudson Moura, Ricardo Sternberg, Regina Cunha, Cecília Queiroz, and Martin Zeilinger. ISBN: 978-0-9939520-0-5
4. Hunt, Dean. 2018. “Waking up our Traditions.” Body Language. Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest. [Exhibition Catalogue] Exhibited at Bill Reid Gallery June 8 2018- January 13 2019: 47-53.
5. Newman, Carey. Telephone call to author. February 24, 2020.
6. Bullpit, Corey. 2018. “Kidk’aalang.” Body Language. Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest. [Exhibition Catalogue] Exhibited at Bill Reid Gallery June 8 2018- January 13 2019: 54-61.
7. Trimble, Nakkita. 2018. “Wahlingigat. The Ancient Nisga’a Ancestors.” Body Language. Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest. [Exhibition Catalogue] Exhibited at Bill Reid Gallery June 8 2018- January 13 2019: 37-45.
8. Delaronde, Lindsay. Telephone call to author. February 25, 2020. 9. Kaszas 2018 10. Kaszas 2018 11. Bulpitt 2018 12. Fallon 2014 13. Palmer 2010 14. Fallon 2014
15. Nahaan. 2018. “Daa Khaashx’it. Cultural Tattooing.” Body Language. Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest. [Exhibition Catalogue] Exhibited at Bill Reid Gallery June 8 2018- January 13 2019: 28 35.
Tattooing on Indigenous Terms
Image Credits.
Top Row (1) http://www.sfu.ca/brc/online_exhibits/haida_tattoo/haida_tattoo_gallery.html (2) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0oQf_XlpGw/ (3) https://www.instagram.com/p/BR7BZ-aj2LY/
Middle Row (1) https://www.instagram.com/p/But_8AvFqRH/ (2) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh95JkjF-lL/ (3) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn3PObagSlJ/
Bottom Row (1) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnZZEFHA_k1 (2) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByYCNgEHhuu/ (3) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuUMd6xH8ho/
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the following artists around whose work I have centered my research.
@haida_inkk (Gregory N Williams) @coreybulpitt @nakkitatrimble @nahaan206 @dean_hunt_art @dionkaszas @blueravenart (Carey Newman) @lindsay_delaronde_mohawkartist
Thank you to the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award which created this research opportunity. Thank you to Dr Andrea Walsh who supervised and supported this project.
