Photos: Pierre PortelliPhotos: Pierre Portelli

Tattoo art today is very visible and has become part of mainstream contemporary pop culture. This is a far cry from how the Western world has for centuries viewed this art form.

Until fairly recently, tattoo art was perceived as taboo, with deeply held prejudices against the practice mostly associated with unruly sailors, waterfront workers, prison inmates and the criminal underworld.

As part of the Rel-ink project, an exhibition is being hosted by Heritage Malta at the Malta Maritime Museum. The personal oral history accounts of participants feature in the exhibition together with images of their tattoo designs.

The ultimate objective of the Rel-ink project is to document 20th-century tattoo designs in Malta with the aim of building a digital archive that will feature as an open source resource.

The project looks at the tattoo art of elderly Maltese male informants aged 75 years and over, who worked on ships or on the waterfront such as stevedores, fishermen, longshoremen, dockers, sail makers, sailors, stewards, coalmen, firemen, Royal Navy service men, Merchant Navy men, firemen, stokers, labourers or in related occupations.

The Rel-ink project will explore tattoos and their significance in the time of these workers, labourers or when the maritime sector was the mainstay of Malta’s colonial economy.

The project’s aim is to research and document the tattoo practices of the Maltese, the motivating factors for the acquisition of tattoos early 20th-century Maltese tattoo artists and their handiwork.

The project focuses on various aspects related to maritime history including employment, economic and maritime traditions and the movement of seamen and port workers from the 1900s up to World War II.

Rel-ink is inviting the public to participate in the project by coming forward with stories, memories and images related to Maltese tattoo art and traditions from this period.

The project aims to preserve the historical narrative by documenting images and oral accounts of tattooing in Malta.

Contact Rel-ink project if you are over 75 years of age, have tattoos and would like to share your stories, or if you have elderly relatives or friends over 75 years of age with tattoos, who would like to share their stories or if you have other visual documentation such as photographs, drawings, etc that show tattoo designs from Malta made before the 1950s.

Rel-ink can be reached on 9946 7189 or by sending an e-mail to: relinknarratives@gmail.com

Rel-ink Indelible Narratives is at the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa until December 30.

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