Will Tattoos Ever Be Viewed As Art? How NFTs Can Help Accomplish This
By Sidra Lackey
When a tattoo artist creates a tattoo (from the entire process of drawing, stenciling and tattooing) the tattoo is considered art, right? It seems like a no-brainer and automatic answer of, yes, but it depends on who you ask, whether it be an art gallery owner or a tattoo shop owner, an art collector or a tattoo collector. In the BBC Culture piece by Thomas Hobbs, “Will tattoos finally be accepted as art?” Hobbs explores the question and believes tattoos being accepted as artworks that can outlive their owners, is the next step for the art form of tattooing.
The most apparent difference between the art of artists in the art world and the art of tattoo artists on skin is, “permanence” Hobbs points out. A painter’s work can still live on in galleries and give them posthumous recognition. Yet the original copy of a tattoo artist’s work (their tattoo) when a person dies, is lost.
However, technology can help save a tattoo artist’s work. Celebrity tattoo artist Scott Campbell, along with CTHDRL, a creative agency, formed Scab Shop. At Scab Shop, sought after tattoo artists as Mister Cartoon and Dr. Woo, can sell their tattoos as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to the public. Now tattoo artist’s tattoos can live on in the metaverse, and don’t have to die with its owner. A digital copy of a tattoo design is created and Scab Shop users can then bid on it in an online auction. A tattoo appointment also comes with the NFT so the winning bidder can get the virtual design physically etched onto their skin. The NFT designs stay archived on Scab Shop’s portal making it a digital art gallery to preserve the work of tattoo artists. Campbell marveled, "Thanks to Scab Shop, I can sell my original artwork as images, just like an artist might; it really is the first time tattooing can be truly transacted as a traditional art form.”
However, Matt Lodder, a senior lecturer in Art at the University of Essex who specializes in the history of tattoos, is skeptical about tattoos being turned into NFTs. “I think the issues around who owns a tattoo, the artist or the person in the chair, aren't solved by NFTs, but made more complicated,” Lodder pointed out. He gives a notorious example on the difficult issues around copyright and tattoos, "The guy who tattooed Mike Tyson’s face sued the people who made The Hangover II movie [in which Tyson appeared] for copyright infringement [after they replicated his tattoo on another character].”
What do two of the biggest tattoo artists in the tattoo industry think about tattoos being seen as art? Mister Cartoon scoffed in Hobb’s tattoo piece, “We're creating art on moving flesh, which requires so much skill. If you watch someone do a tattoo, and walk away from it thinking it's not art, then you're just a crazy art snob." Dr. Woo proclaimed, "There will always be gatekeepers who want to separate tattoos from the institutional fine art world. Will tattoo designs be hanging in the Whitney Museum 400 years from now? That's left to be said. But history has shown this is an art form that is very resilient.”
This summer at CaixaForum in Barcelona, there was an art exhibition: Tattoo. Art under the Skin that displayed, “twenty silicone models tattooed by masters of this art.” This is a great advancement in helping to showcase tattoo artist’s tattoos as works of art. And alongside Scab Shop’s NFT endeavor to preserve tattooists’ tattoos, art and tattoos seem to be meshing progressively well. Tattoo artists, what are your thoughts on the question: are tattoos art? What do you think of Scab Shop's monumental goal? Do you think it’s a concrete way to go in preserving your tattoos as artwork?