ROM explores 5,000-year tradition of tattoos
Exhibit imported from Paris with new North American indigenous cultures section
Do you think of tattoos as a vulgar modern affectation?
A new exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum will demonstrate that it’s an ancient tradition going back at least 5,000 years and probably longer, and one shared by societies around the globe.
“(The exhibition) is a bit of a departure for the ROM. Whenever I mention the exhibition to friends, the first response is usually, ‘At the ROM?’ ” said Chris Darling, the museum’s senior curator of entomology and co-curator of Tattoos: Ritual. Identity. Obsession. Art.
It opens Saturday and runs through Sept. 5.
“This exhibition will allow visitors to explore the ancient origins of tattooing . . . and the cultural exchanges that have made tattooing a vibrant art form and the global phenomenon that we see today,” Darling added, noting one survey in 2008 found 40 per cent of respondents between 25 to 29 had at least one tattoo.
“If you have a tattoo, whether you know it or not, you are part of a long trajectory going back thousands of years,” added Ken Lister, assistant curator of anthropology.
In fact, most of the exhibition has been previously mounted at Paris’s musée du quai Branly, where director Stephane Martin said it was so successful it was extended time and again for almost two years, drawing more than 700,000 visitors — one of the most successful events in the museum’s history.
The original exhibition, called Tatoueurs, Tatoués, was created by Anne & Julien, co-founders of a magazine of modern art and pop culture called HEY!
“Tattooing is the part of the larger history of art and it really should be considered that way,” Anne said through a translator.
Because some elements of the Paris exhibit could not be transferred to the ROM, the museum turned to its own resources, drawing on artifacts and pieces from its Arctic, Egyptian, Pacific, East Asian and natural history collections, including a sculpture of a Nubian concubine with clearly marked tattoos.
As a result, the exhibition has a whole new section on tattooing in North American indigenous cultures, featuring an etching of an Inuit woman with face tattoos.
“In the Inuit world, tattooing had everything to do with motherhood because a young woman was tattooed when she had learned everything there was to know about being a mother in life,” Lister said.
The exhibition features original artwork, prints, posters, ancient tools, documents and videos, and a series of 13 silicon body parts with tattoos from some of the world’s best-known tattoo artists.
It also includes sections on tattooing in Japan, where it is known as irezumi; in New Zealand, among the Maori, where it is called ta moko; and Polynesia, where it was known as tatau, from which the English word tattoo is derived.
Among the more searing images, a photo of an Armenian woman in the early 20th century sold into prostitu- tion whose face was tattooed by her pimp and an image of a young Jewish boy at Auschwitz tattooed by the Nazi regime.
The museum will also play host to a series of events to complement the exhibit, including:
The Art of Inkon Tuesday at 7 p.m., featuring speakers Anne & Julien and renowned tattoo artist Henk (Hanky Panky) Schiffmacher.
Ashowing of Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos by filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril on May 20 at 7 p.m.
Borneo: Explorations of Nature and Culture, featuring a talk by Darling, May 26 at 11 a.m.
The Cultural Heritage of Indigenous Tattooing: Medicine, Myth, Magic and Meaning, featuring renowned anthropologist Lars Krutak on June 14 at 7 p.m.
Art Fusion, in partnership with Northern Ink Xposure, featuring a panel of international tattoo artists on June 16 at 7 p.m.
Tattoos are an ancient tradition that is shared by societies around the world