Local tattoo artistry and culture is the focus of Tender Touch, an art exhibit at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. As a teenager, exhibit curator Mel Granley was interested in tattoos and body modification, noting that both her mother and grandfather had tattoos. Over the past 10 years, Granley has built a relationship with the Victoria tattoo community through getting various tattoos and found her inspiration for Tender Touch from how the community has changed.
“I really noticed that the tattoo community has sort of exploded and also shifted in a lot of ways since I started,” says Granley.
While the exhibit is appealing to tattoo and body-modification enthusiasts and those involved in the Victoria tattoo community, Granley hopes to bring in people who aren’t as familiar or comfortable with tattoos to try and destigmatize tattooing. In Granley’s opinion, tattoos are an art form and she wants to demonstrate this through the exhibit.
“The artist is working with a body… and bodies are all unique, and they’re curvilinear, so they’re not a flat surface, which is an interesting way to create art,” she says. “And everybody reacts differently to this.”
Tender Touch is not an exhibit of photos from tattoo artists’ portfolios; it’s a mix of sculptures, paintings, drawings, video, and digital files. The exhibit showcases the artistic abilities of tattoo artists beyond tattooing.
“So, there’s a big variety of artwork to see, because I started this with artists to create something and write a bit about their tattoo practice,” says Granley.
The tattoo styles featured in Tender Touch vary. There’s traditional tattoo work with experimentation in a few different styles. One artist focuses mainly on cover ups. Some artists work with standard tattoo machines while others create stick-and-poke tattoos. There’s also primarily black work, creating more illustrative tattoos with finer lines than the customary styles; culture-based work is featured as well.
“One person, they did their undergrad in neurobiology and so their flash work is based on neurons,” says Granley.
Each artist answers the same questions in their written pieces at the exhibit: how their identity informs their work; when they began tattooing and how they have been impacted by the local tattoo community; what influenced their journey as a tattoo artist; and what effect tenderness and trust has on their practice.
The written response on their backgrounds provides a deeper look into a bit of the Victoria tattoo culture and what artists offer their clients. Consent and comfort are a high priority for artists. Creating a space where clients feel relaxed and comfortable is also a recurring theme.
“I think it’s really important to emphasize that this is such a small selection of the artists in town that are doing good work,” says Granley. “I can only invite six people… That’s an important part of the show, too, is that it’s just such a… very small representation of the work that’s going on in Victoria.”
Tender Touch
Until Sunday, May 5
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
aggv.ca