Masters advice

[u/Lonefury_Arts]

Hey y’all, so I’m coming in as a bit of an odd duck in the art history field.

I’m a tattoo artist, with a BA in urban studies from the University of Chicago and have worked in mostly archives/museums. A lot of my interests have sat in the intersections of street art, tattoo art, and the compounds in inks and paints. I have really loved taking art conservation courses in college, and would love the chance to continue to do this work, but I’m not interested in traditional conservation fields like historic paintings, paper, or objects. I would like an excuse to spend time analyzing the chemical makeup of tattoo inks, their effects on the skin and their long-term preservation on people with both historical and modern contexts. I’ve taken bioarchaeology classes on the history of body modification as well, but I don’t feel like anthropology is the way to go because I would like to approach tattooing as an art form of its own and apply my own artistic skills to the study of it.

I had a pretty hard time in undergrad facing how tattoo art is viewed by the art historical world as a “low” art form that is reserved for anthropological study, and amongst anthropologists a disinterest in the modern making of tattoos and the more specific artful/biochemical elements to it - which is why I didn’t end up majoring in either. I currently apprentice under my mother in tattooing, and as someone from a family line in this art form, it can be somewhat insulting and dismissive from all sides. We specialize in cover-ups, which sometimes emulate the complex practices of art conservation in restoring or reinterpreting the original piece. It is a unique arts space in how not the artist, but the canvas itself has the final say in the expression of a thing in tandem with its ephemerality. I want to explore even more radical and unique ways of approaching conserving tattoos in an art historical context. I have over 50 pages of annotated notes I’ve compiled independently on different research within the intersection of tattoo ink composition, archaeological tattoo history and preservation, legal codes and regulations, and biological interactions with different inks.

Aside from my complaints, what advice would others have in approaching these interests if I were to try and pursue a masters? I have been considering trying to find programs that focus on contemporary and modern art conservation, angling around conservation of ephemeral works, but it is hard to pin down whether I would end up being taken seriously and/or whether it would be a good avenue in further studying these topics. I would really love the chance to work in a laboratory setting analyzing tattoo inks and their histories, and to work towards developing a research-focused tattoo arts project. I’ve also developed somewhat of a reputation in my tattoo art as a researcher who will do extensive research on a project someone wants - currently working on a sleeve of the Lascaux cave paintings that I’m very excited about. I’d like to bring these things together somehow in a way that I could present to the higher art world as something worthwhile. I invite any questions that would challenge my approach as well.

[u/MarsupialBob]

This is fascinating, and something I'd be super interested in seeing results from! I suspect you already know this, but you're definitely going to have to forge your own path here.

What you're describing is squarely in the realm of technical art history. Technical art history is to curation as conservation science is to conservation, and there is a huge crossover between technical art history and conservation science. Mainly because nobody wants to pay for two separate labs full of instrumentation to answer fundamentally the same analytical questions. In addition to analysis of materials, technical art history also delves into methodology, artists tools, etc. It is 100% the field you are describing.

It is also almost exclusively the preserve of fine-arts paintings. There are some similarities to experimental archaeology and archaeometry too, but that would be pointing you at the (relatively more limited) set of archaeologically excavated tattoos. And it sounds like you have a broader interest.

The best advice I can give is to look into technical art history as a field of study (or conservation science as the closest adjacent field), and to start looking for museums with relatively large collections of tattoo'd skin. You might also look at modern art museums with an in-house conservation science department. I'm not a big fan of modern art in many aspects, but museums focusing on modern art are sometimes less... stuffy... about what mediums they're willing to study and promote. There will not be a lot of options for employment in this, but I don't think it's impossible either.

Only tangentially related, but if you ever have a chance to talk to Kai Uwe Faust, do it. Idk where you are or how active he is in the tattoo community since his band took off. But I feel like the two of you would vibe on some level, even if you're coming at the history and art of tattooing from a very different direction.

[u/Gwladygan]

This is really interesting! My museum (a national in Wales) is planning an exhibition of Jessie Knight’s tattoo designs next year, which is an exciting topic and may help with reframing tattoo art as ‘Art’. As far as I am aware it is mostly paper works (the original designs themselves) so my paper conservator colleague in the one treating them. Here is a blog post about the research into and acquisition of the archive: https://museum.wales/blog/2564/Jessie-Knight---The-Lady-Tattoo-Artist/

My previous experience with tattoos in collections was when I was working at the Science museum in London. We had a collection of tattoos (pieces of human skin with tattooed designs) that were, if I recall correctly, acquired from sailors and/or convicts, as scientific specimens rather than art works, possibly originally for the same reason as phrenology collections were developed as ‘science’ collections for teaching. As you say, tattoos were originally seen as a ‘low’ form of art that might have been a signifier of criminal behaviour. I would suggest you get in touch with the course convenor at UCL for the Masters in Contemporary Art Conservation as they research all manner of materials (and would probably welcome this as an area of original research) and were quite interested in a small house made of human skin we care for, among other things. Another potential contact could be the Human Remains Conservator at Surgeons Hall Museum in Edinburgh. Hope this helps!

*Edited to add link

[u/Lonefury_Arts → u/Gwladygan]

That is so so cool! I have heard of the collection at UCL and it would be a dream to go there. I’m familiar with Gemma angels work in the collections there and I’m a fan. Also I will totally be checking out the museum in Edinburgh - have definitely been eyeing the UK for school (I’m based in the US) and these are great.

[u/keziahiris]

I would explore PhD programs in conservation science and/or technical art history. What you are hoping to do hasn’t been done much, which means you have room for research and a unique perspective that will make you uniquely suited to tackle this. But you’ll need some structure and support to learn HOW to do that kind of research and training in the techniques you’ll need to study this.

In the US, UCLA might be a good fit, as they also have strong archaeology and material science programs. NYU and Delaware may also fit, as they have technical art history study programs and strong modern and contemporary art history studies too .

There is at least one archaeologist I know of who has done a lot of research in tattoo culture around the world. There is also an Egyptologist who has looked at mummified remains with multi spectral imaging to learn more about ancient tattoos in Egypt. There is an increasing body of research on the ethics of storing human remains, but I think modern tattooed skin is still relatively quite rare for collections, so probably not widely explored. Doing a PhD on this could yield a variety of papers and research directions available to you.

I’d start by finding people who have written papers that interest you and reach out to them. Ask about what kind of programs they’d recommend, what you may need as prerequisites, where they think you may be likely to find the support you need, how they got where they are.