Photographic lithograph by Lee Wagstaff, England, 1999-2000

Foreshortened view of the artist's tattooed head and shoulders

Artist's statement:-

'Lee Wagstaff (printmaking)'

'For the last four years I have explored the relationship between printmaking and tattooing. I was raised as a Roman Catholic and had strong influences from Indian members of my family. The imagery for my tattoos draws strongly on my religious upbringing and consists of symbols and patterns that are found in almost every culture in the world (circles, squares, stars, swastikas, triangles, etc.) I am interested in the migration and spontaneous generation of geometric forms, how the same shapes and patterns can be found in diverse cultures over vast geographic areas.

For the tattoo to be permanent, ink must be placed beneath the skin. Blood is a by-product of tattooing and so it seemed natural to include this in my work. When the body is tattooed it is wounded, it is from these bleeding wounds that I began to make prints. This led me to the idea of screen printing with blood. The life-size 'Shroud' [E.1203-2000] was created by printing with a pint of my own blood.

Printmaking and tattooing share many technical and aesthetic similarities. Tattooing was perhaps the earliest form of permanent mark-making known to man; wood block printing was used on human skin as a guide for tattooing long before it was used on paper.

The design for my tattoos are firstly drawn onto very thin tissue paper which is then redrawn on top of carbon paper which is in turn transferred directly onto my skin using water with a little detergent; the design is then tattooed using the carbon as a guide.

Becoming tattooed has had an enormous effect on my life; apart from the obvious change in my physical appearance and the way I am perceived by others it has made me consider a number of issues including permanence, mortality and of course pain.'

Lee Wagstaff's work is primarily concerned with exploring the relationships and similarities between printmaking and tattooing. This lithograph portrays the whole process of Wagstaff's complex image-making beginning with a design which he then has tattooed onto his body. He photographs the work being carried out and then uses the photographs to produce lithographs. Wagstaff's tattoos are drawn from religious symbols and patterns that are found in almost every culture in the world such as circles, squares, stars, swastikas and triangles.

E.1204-2000