FAMILY MARKS – Tattoos as an alternative approach to storytelling and archiving
FAMILY MARKS explores how tattoos within a family can function as carriers of memory, identity, and inheritance across generations. As an alternative way of storytelling and archiving. While tattoos are often seen as ways of expressing oneself or as aesthetic choices, they can also hold personal meanings, or be connected to significant life events and experiences. However, these meanings are not always visible or accessible beyond the body itself. This project then investigates how such embodied memories can be translated, preserved, and reinterpreted through visual communication.
At the center of this project is a collection of tattoos from members of my own family, both illustrated on paper and embroidered on a vest. Through conversations and shared reflections, these tattoos have been documented as visual motifs but also as stories. Family Marks aims to collect and present these stories in a way that makes them accessible beyond the individuals who carry them, all the while still respecting their personal and emotional significance. The use of embroidery in this project is once again inspired by my own family. At every family gathering, birthday party, or holiday, there have been pieces of the past decorating our surroundings. Table cloths, hanging art pieces… all made by members of my family.
The vest contains traces of my family. Simplified embroidered versions of tattoos from my sisters, mum, grandpa, aunt, and cousin. They are all gathered from different bodies onto a shared space, while also bringing in a family tradition from the past.
My booklet gathered a select collection of tattoos in three different categories; things we geek about, things we love, and things we find cool. The project uses conversations with members of my family whose tattoos are included in the work. These conversations focus on the stories connected to each tattoo, why they got them. The collected stories become one of the written contents of the booklet, accompanied by short texts reflecting on needlework.
The process of translating tattoos into embroidery turned out to be both something productive but also challenging. On one hand, using embroidery allowed the project to connect to an old material tradition already present within my family. Trying to make the link between past and present stronger. On the other hand, the translation showed how the meaning can shift between different materials. The slowness of embroidery, the changes in line quality, and the loss or transformation of detail. These things all contributed to a new interpretation rather than a direct copy. This became an important insight: preservation is never truly neutral, but always involves transformation.
Overall, Family Marks became an exploration of how memories can move between bodies, materials, and generations. Through embroidery and book-making, I wanted to show how visual communication can preserve personal histories in intimate and material ways.
