British Tattoo Art Revealed

Opening at National Maritime Museum Cornwall (2017-18), and then as a national tour (2018-2021), Tattoo: British Tattoo Art Revealed (Tattoo) offers a genuinely ground-breaking and comprehensive history of British tattooing.

Featuring leading designers, cutting-edge academic research, historic and contemporary tattoo artists – as well as loans from private and national museum collections – Tattoo tells a story that challenges long-standing myths, stereotypes and pre-conceptions about tattooing when it comes to class, gender and age, whilst at the same time giving a voice to and celebrating the astonishingly rich artistic heritage of tattooing as an art form in the UK.

Tattoo resulted in the largest gathering – and then touring – of artefacts and original tattoo artwork ever assembled by a museum in the United Kingdom (over 400 artefacts). This achievement provided a rare opportunity for audiences to see cultural material, images and faces not otherwise on public display in a museum or gallery context, including artefacts relating to the incredible story – long marginalised – of Britain’s pioneering female tattoo artist, Jessie Knight.

The current show, celebrating the conclusion of the UK tour, includes several new commissions to help explore tattooing in the context of black history and representation, including an artist-led response to the challenging historical and contemporary cultural issues surrounding tattooing on black and brown skin.