prison ink

Tattoos have been on my mind this week, what with Patrick after years of planning finally getting the Arecibo message on his arm and me starting to research who might be able to do my Kilgallen tree.  I've been thinking a lot about why people choose to permanently mark their bodies, especially as I look through Araminta de Clermont's photos of South African prison gang members that were recently on display at João Ferreira Gallery in Cape Town.  In the prisoners' cases, the tattoos often mark rank in their gang and are improvised with a mixture of burnt paper, ground erasers or brick dust with saliva.  de Clermont actually seems less concerned with capturing the tattoos (though some are crazy intricate and loaded with meaning) and instead focuses on the humanity of the former inmates as they struggle to reintegrate into society, especially as they carry these visible marks of their incarceration.  It doesn't make my own reasons for wanting my tattoo any less valid, but I do feel considerably less badass.