Skin deep - the power of tattoos on the female body
Ihave met more than 50 women who have decorated their skin with ink. Some of them got their first tattoo impulsively, others planned their design for years until they found the right artist. Some women just like the way tattoos look when they see their reflection in the mirror, others feel a deep connection to the symbols they have chosen to mark on their body.
Talk to a woman about her tattoos for an hour, and you will have a rich conversation about art, beauty, identity and gender politics. But mainstream engagement with tattooed women seldom explores this. We may think tatoos are no longer taboo, but positive representations of tattooed women are few and far between.
Women with Tattoos is a project that hopes to introduce a new kind of image, one with which women can identify. It began in 2013, when my friend Christina Theisen and I created a photography series to show that there was more than one type of woman who expresses herself through tattoos. The people we photographed came from around the UK and my hometown, Athens, Greece.
I continue to photograph women of all ages and backgrounds (the youngest is 21, the oldest is 86) and while most live in London, many increasingly make a special trip to the city. By exploring the layers that lie under the surface of our skin, this project has helped me understand how we navigate life through our bodies.
The women I have photographed say tattoos have helped them process difficult experiences. “When I was being tattooed,” Gabriella Apicella (pictured) says, “it was as though the needle was uncovering these images on my arm, rather than adding them.”
The most significant realisation is that the tattooed female body can challenge society’s obsession with ageing and the types of bodies that are permitted to be visible or on show.
Carey Marvin, who got her first tattoo in her late 50s, describes being “surprised at how altered my feelings about my body were once there was art on it. I stand taller. I am conscious of how I move. I love this body for the art on it. At 62, this a gift.”Read more at:yellow formal dresses
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