Body Language tracks reawakening of tattoo culture

needle with thread creates small trails or lines of ink under the skin.

Although he supports Indigenous people getting their identifying tattoos any way they can, he finds his ancient tecýique an often more meaningful process than machine tattooing. “With the machine, you’re connected to electricity,” he explains. “The hand tools are a more intimate experience; there’s no buzzing of the machine, it’s a slower process, but also I would say it’s different because the tattoo machine is connected to a monetary system that’s postcontact.” Often, he says, he will use the older barter or trade system for his hand-poke or skin-stitch tattoos.

Kaszas sees the symbols as a way for Indigenous youths to reclaim their heritage, taking inspiration from the Maori tenet that there is power in identity and knowing who you are. “For me, recovering the process of Nlaka’pamux tattooing was remembering—not only who I am, but that I’m connected to the community and to geography,” Kaszas says.

BECAUSE OF THEIR cultural significance, there are strong issues around the appropriation of Indigenous tattoos. Kaszas hopes the Body Language show will raise the awareness of those who might consider an Indigenous design as a casual tattoo.

“When we look at tattooing of the Northwest Coast, one thing they emphasize is these designs are not just artwork,” he clarifies. “Of course those marks are beautiful, but you don’t know that person or who sanctioned those powerful marks. My concern is those people who are making money off designers and are not Indigenous and don’t have a significant or reciprocal relationship with our community.

“And I would say it has to be looked at in the history of cultural genocide,” he adds, “as a continuation of the theft of land and the theft of children, a form of violence that takes away our culture.”

It’s clear that Body Language is tied not just into the history of the Northwest Coast, but to what is happening today with reconciliation and the broader reawakening to Indigenous rights. For Kaszas and his practice, it’s very much about what happens tomorrow, too.

“We are actually losing young people very quickly,” he says. “They’re deciding that struggle with a fractured identity isn’t worth it.…these tattoos connect them to this place and to their culture—but also bring responsibility with that connection.”