‘Memento Mori’ (2023)

In 2023, as part of my interdisciplinary module I created a project combining tattooing and installation called Memento Mori.

It was an ethereal design tattooed onto fake skin and displayed centrally in a shrine-inspired installation consisting of symbolic objects with purple lighting.

The work was largely inspired by themes such as death, mortality, self-expression and metamorphosis as well as opposing concepts such as permanence vs impermanence. It was fueled by the loss of 5 of my beloved pets within the same year, including my ‘soul pet’ Alfonso, and the intense emotion I was experiencing at the time. This artwork explored utilizing tattooing as a means of self-comfort, communicating developing beliefs and most significantly, the process of acceptance, healing and moving forwards.

I spent months researching the history of the art of tattooing throughout many cultures and some of the influential artists in western contemporary practice like Don Ed Hardy. I also studied the book ‘Tattoo: Henk Schiffmacher's Private Collection of the Art and Its Makers, 1730s–1970s’ and artistic styles such as Vanitas painting, still-life and Dutch ‘Pronkstilleven’ to explore vanity and the fleetingness of life and beauty and inform my composition. The physical installation also took inspiration from Mexico’s Dia De Los Muertos and the ofrenda altars that are created to honour the dead and welcome their spirits to visit.

Both my knowledge of tattoo practice and my physical tattooing ability (on fake skin) improved throughout to this project and it solidified my passion for the art form.