In the middle of the ‘80s, we witnessed a modification in the tattooing landscapes. There was a shift in the way our societies saw tattooing but there were also technical changes, a new iconography, and media transformations. Supported by these technical upgrades, the new generation of tattooists that came out of art schools or design schools gave a first push to a more self-reflexive practice. They gave artists the opportunity to explore various other graphic expressions, while attracting people who didn’t necessarily recognize themselves in traditional styles of tattooing.

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Is the body becoming a new research territory? An experimental territory where taking ownership of some art brut, pop art, abstract painting, or minimalism means playing with tattooing conventions? Where freeing the gesture of tattooing and questioning technicality, right from wrong, beauty, is transforming representations and codes from these practices and from the body itself?

The following pages invite you to wander into a virtual exhibition, displaying some of the artists using visual rhetorics that come from modern and contemporary art.