Morbid Ink: Memorial Tattoos
Samantha Stark, WNYC radio (July 21, 2010)
WNYC radio in New York put together a short piece on Memorial Tattoos, which coincided with my talk on the same subject for Observatory and the Morbid Anatomy Library.
Samantha Stark, the WNYC reporter who put the story together, did a really good job of tracking down individuals and tattoo artists with memorial tattoos. I found those interviews far more compelling than anything I said.
But I’m not surprised.
Memorial Tattoos almost always contain a narrative which overpowers any historical/conceptual argument.
These tattoos are a story about how one person died and another individual continues to live with his or her memory.
And that will never change.