VIRTUAL ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)
Abstract
Tattoos are one of the most distinct characteristics of the human species, in that they were historically ubiquitous before any known cross-cultural exchange. In both historical and contemporary literature, tattoos have been described as ‘visual artefacts’ which facilitate identity formation, community belonging, commemoration and wellbeing. In this way, tattoos reflect their moment of creation, offering insight on the culture, traditions, and values of local and global communities. In an era of ‘liquid modernity’, the contemporary tattoo stands to communicate and preserve intangible cultural heritage. When advancement and progress are increasingly growing characteristics of modern society, these indelible images become an archive on a living canvas which visually communicate psychosocial and sociocultural memory. However, despite the unique and culturally insightful knowledge embodied within tattoos, there are prevailing stereotypes which create a barrier to understanding their embodied meaning and significance. This presentation adopts an art historical approach to the contemporary tattoo, and will explore how the aesthetics and motivations behind their imagery offers invaluable insight on the individual and community narratives of their wearer. The presentation will also address a practice-as-research approach which utilises printmaking and ceramics practice to reflexively engage with the subject of tattoos. Additionally, this practice acts to materialise a form of alternative archive. Whilst indelible, the tattoo lasts only as long as it’s wearer, and without conservation, their ephemeral meanings will be lost to posterity with the inevitable passing of their canvas. Through this preservation, we can perpetuate a cultural heritage that otherwise may be lost to posterity.
Lauren Anderson Clarke is a Northern Irish PhD researcher based in Ulster University’s Belfast School of Art. Having achieved her Bachelors in Fine Art and a Masters in Art Psychotherapy, Lauren’s PhD research project, entitled “Tattooing, Memory, and the Designed Surface”, is informed by her knowledge and experience of art as a powerful tool for growth and communication. The project incorporates ethnographic, practice-led research methods to explore contemporary tattoo culture and how these indelible images may act as marks of embodied meaning making whilst preserving micro-sites of cultural heritage.