Images from Tatoueurs, Tatoués' at Musée du Quai Branly in Paris

Tattooers, the Tattooed: Exploring the Evolution of Body Art

Now through October 2015, at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, is an art exhibition titled Tatoueurs, Tatoués (translates Tattooers, the Tattooed), that explores the evolution of body art through the ages. As tattooing dates back more than 5,000 years, the exhibition features ads and images taken from various photographers and artists throughout this time. Amongst some of the oldest examples are remains of Ötzi, the Neolithic iceman found in the Alps in 1991 who was covered with 57 tattoo marks, and two-thousand-year-old mummies discovered in Egypt and Syria who carried tattoos of mythical monsters and animals.

For a modern take on tattooing, the exhibit also used thirteen artists from countries ranging from Samoa to Switzerland to ink their art onto disembodied legs, torsos and arms crafted from silicone. This is used the explore the contrasts and comparisons to old and modern techniques and symbolisms. However, regardless of time, it seems that tattoos have always been used as declaration of individuality. Whether for beauty, beliefs, mourning, hatred or love, tattoos have always been used to identify, cure, honor and even defeat those who wear or who were forced to wear them.

Check out some of the images taken from the gallery, and find out more on the exhibit here.

[Via i-D Vice]