Article:

›A Skin Deep Creed‹. Tattooing as an Everlasting, Visual Language in Relation to Spiritual and Ideological Beliefs

This paper is based on research findings of a not yet finished and thus unpublished dissertation on the general reception of Tattooing in Contemporary Art. It illustrates the phenomenon of linking the themes Faith and Tattooing in Contemporary Art to each other and, in regard of this, proposes possible reasons by offering a short historical overview, a discussion on the current Tattoo Cult, and an analysis of its common social characteristics. While reading this text the reader will encounter questions to which he will find no answers but it shall be mentioned that this is no negligence by the author but rather a necessary measure. The reader’s view is to be opened up for the unusual form of image a Tattoo represents and furthermore is to be enabled to see beyond its mere superficial appearance. Tattoos are of sign-like character, they want ›to be read‹ and one may rightly recognize this type of images as an independent visual language.