Heritage Malta is hosting an exhibition featuring oral accounts and images of tattoo designs of elderly Maltese men, who worked on ships or on the waterfront as stevedores, fishermen, longshoremen, dockers, sail makers, sailors, stewards, coalmen, firemen, Royal Navy service men, Merchant Navy men, firemen, stokers, labourers and others.

Historical research, gathered from the National Archives of Malta, shows that tattoos were included in passport documents and referenced as visible distinguishing marks.

The objective of the Rel-ink project is to document local 20th century tattoo designs so as to be able to build a digital archive featuring an open source resource.

The personal oral history accounts of participants feature in the exhibition together with images of their tattoo designs.

Rel-ink Indelible Narratives runs at the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa until Saturday. Admission to the exhibition is free. Opening hours from 9am to 5pm; last admission at 4.30pm.

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