Artist hoping to change attitudes on face tattoos
Regina woman happy daughter taking part in Indigenous tradition
People gathered at the Art Gallery of Regina with “joy in their hearts and a good curiosity” to witness Regina artist Stacey Fayant give her daughter Lilla her first traditional Indigenous face tattoo on Saturday.
“For anyone her age who's Indigenous to be given something so special in a really special way — for the community to come out and share it with her is really amazing to her,” Fayant said during an interview Saturday, adding she always tries to be a role model to Lilla.
“For her to be taking that on and wearing a face tattoo in this society is no easy task, so for her to be ready to do that and take that on and be a role model for other girls is just so moving to me.”
She said her daughter has thought about the tattoo over the past few years. The small markings made on her temples hold specific meaning to her, although Fayant said you don't have to know what the meaning is to know the tattoo is important to you.
“Sometimes we come to our tattoos and we know what they have to be — either we dreamt it or a family member or elder told us what it needs to be — and we don't know at that point the meaning, and that's OK,” she said. “Sometimes it's doing it that's important, and then the meaning kind of comes upon you as you walk through life.”
Fayant said while tattoos can be used in many different ways including as identifiers, decoration or medicine, she believes all tattoos are medicine.
“The act of saying, `I'm going to get this tattoo' as an Indigenous person is a healing act by taking back your body and your own beliefs about your beauty,” she said. “The process of going through the pain of tattoo — of being touched in a loving and caring way by someone — helps certain people who may be suffering through other traumas.”
Fayant grew up without any knowledge of traditional tattooing and needed healing after facing difficult situations in her life. She knew about cultures in other parts of the world that used tattooing as healing and to build community.
“I always thought that would be really amazing if we had something like that and then, lo and behold, a little while later I found out that we did,” Fayant said.
“When I found that out, I just knew that I had to be a part of bringing it back in some way, and I didn't know how.”
After learning more about traditional tattooing by talking to people and through research, Fayant went to the Indigenous cultural tattooing school Earthline Tattoo Collective in Halifax in 2019.
Many traditional tattoos are done on visible body parts like the hands face and neck. When Fayant returned home from the school she gave herself a neck tattoo, as she wanted to represent her culture and be available to educate others.
She was inspired to heal historical rifts for Indigenous people and shift attitudes about tattoos through Saturday's skin-stitch performance, after overhearing someone at her work say “people with face tattoos make me sick.”
“Tattooing has brought me such joy in my life that I think prior to learning about tattoo, my reaction would have been such anger and sadness from that remark, but I kind of just chuckled,” she said.
“But also I felt this extreme sadness for that person — to walk through life with that kind of hatred in your heart over something that really doesn't affect you.”
Fayant said hatred is common in our society, with many people walking through life angry about things that don't affect them or things they don't understand.
“I think it's really important to invite everyone in our society to know about tattoo as more and more people get face tattoos, so that there isn't that hatred about it or that fear of it.”
Fayant's works are included in the gallery's current exhibition If You Prick Me, Do I Not Bleed?, which continues until March 30.