Tattoo Performance
This project reimagines tattooing as an intimate ritual in nature. Two participants received a shared tattoo traced from shadows cast by plants and sunlight onto their skin.
I designed all the elements specifically for this performance: custom silicone needle handles molded from my own fingers for ergonomic grip, a hand-painted pink blanket, and a metal sanitation tray. Working outside meant embracing unpredictability. The clouds would interrupt the tracing, then the sun would return and work could continue. The designs emerged from these circumstances rather than from sketches.
The two participants are best friends who brought a small cactus that represented connection. As they held hands, I projected the cactus's shadow across their intertwined fingers and traced it, half the design on each person. The tattoos are incomplete without each other.
This wasn't a performance for an audience but a private ceremony for the three of us, though it was documented on video. The project sits somewhere between design practice, performance art, and ritual, exploring how tattoos can mark relationships and moments rather than simply personal aesthetics.
Special thanks: Francisca Mazzuferi and Hadassa Nakash