Sean Pendergast: Tattooist and historian

Sean Pendergast was invited to talk to us as a local contemporary creative. The passion and knowledge he conveyed about his artform was so visible it was a genuine joy to behold. I found what he shared fascinating and it gave me cause to reflect on my own work and my exploration of transgression as an artist. It was also inspiring to see a creative be truly adaptive in what they do and how they pursue their career; remaining responsive to their situation and not defeated by adversity.

I have written a summary of his talk below.

After tattooing for 20 years, in 2023 he took a step back due to a lack of work in the industry. He decided to curate a collaborative global exhibition that took tattoos out of their preordained back alleys and placed them in an elevated gallery space. He wanted to celebrate the art form, educate the public about aspects of it's history and dismantle the stigma the industry, it's artists and customers can suffer. 

Attitudes on tattooing, like all art, are always dictated by current cultural values and in that way are chameleonic; what is perceived as taboo in one era or by one class group is deemed valuable and even necessary, by another. 

The oldest remaining tattoo parlour, Razook Tattoos, have been open in Jerusalem since 1300. The below exert is taken from their website https://razzouktattoo.com/:

'Our History

Tattooing is an art that the Razzouk family brought with them to Palestine five centuries ago bringing it with them from Egypt.  The family came to the Holy Land for pilgrimage but then stayed for trade and for the Tattooing tradition that had existed, and since this art has been in the family for 700 hundred years starting in Egypt, the family started tattooing pilgrims for a living.

Our ancestors  used tattoos to mark Christian Copts in Egypt with a small cross on the inside of the wrist to grant them access to churches.  Those without it would have difficulty entering the church; therefore, and from a very young age (sometimes even a few months old) Christians would tattoo their children with the cross identifying them as Copts.'

This is one example of many that references the ancient and rich tradition of tattooing across many cultures. Mark making, including marking on our own skin, is as old as mankind himself. 

When tattooing was rediscovered by the Europeans in the 1700's, there began a trend of bringing heavily tattooed people back to parade thorough high society. I wish I could say this was done with respect and sensitivity, but unfortunately they were treated as a novelty. A party trick. There is a poetic irony worth mentioning here. The chemicals used in the photography at the time had the effect of not developing the tattoo ink in the skin, so a lot of the portraits of said heavily tattooed folk are literally whitewashed, with a large chunk of their marks left out of the image. The reality is that a lot of historical photographs don't show the tattoos on the people being captured.

Japanese attitudes towards tattoos are a perfect example of the fluidity of transgression in the artform. The culture initially invented tattooing as a punishment. Termed Irizumi Kai, this tradition had clear coding for both the type of mark used and their placement on the body; the higher on the body, the more severe the crime. Three marks equalled an execution; this is actually the first recorded reference to the "3 strikes and you're out" philosophy. 

The caste system was introduced to Japan by the ruling class to repress the developing self-made middle classes. This meant that social groups like farmers and merchants fell into the "undesirable caste" and were therefore forbidden from displaying wealth in any way, including having artwork in their homes. The woodblock carvers of the time saw a niche opportunity and started translating their images into carvings that could be tattooed. And so the "undesirables" could now wear art on their bodies exploiting a loop hole in the system and subverting the limits superimposed upon them. In this way tattoos became a subculture status symbol and were this viewed positively by many. These all over body tattoos were also a clever way to mask any pre-existing penal tattoos, thus making it possible for criminals to gain a clean slate and operate undetected in society. And so they became popular for a second more sinister reason too.

Whatever the specific cultural origin of tattooing being discussed, it tends to involve a heavily coded language with lots of semiotics. In South Polynesian tattooing culture, every tattoo has it's correct place, design, gender and meaning and also has to be done correctly, by the right artist, in order to be deemed acceptable. Mauri culture tattoos cannot be done unless you can evidence heritage that entitle you to wear any given particular markings; apart from in certain circumstances where respect and appreciation for the culture has been witnessed.

American and British traditional navy tattoos include simularly clear symbolism but have a completely different focus; looking to story telling, honouring superstitions and celebrating achievement and status. For example, sailors believed that having a pig or rooster tattooed on their body would assure their survival in the face of shipwreck as these animals were often observed making it to dry land in such crisis.

One of the most interesting aspects of tattooing that Sean discussed was Collier Stripes; also know as trauma tattoos. If a miner is caught in a mine cave in, their wounds unavoidably become saturated with coal dust. As these heal over, the carbon in the coal embedds in the skin, creating a blue/ black line scar.  The more trauma tattoos someone had, the more likely they were to get fired by the pit foreman. This is because it was an indication of the onset of black lung, a terrible illness and one that required the pit to cover the subsequent significant medical costs. Miners would therefore get tattoos to cover up their collier stripes in order to keep their jobs. Furthermore, perfectly healthy miners with no cave in trauma would get tattoos in solidarity, to make it harder for pit managers to distinguish who posed a financial burden to the mine. Sean was in the process of organising an exhibition with Mansfield Museum about this at the point of our talk.

In recent decades, tattoos have become more widespread in Western culture and are now considered a mode of personal expression more than anything else. This is largely due to a reduction in their associated stigma, which was diluted by multiple factors; for example, social media platforms offering a mechanism for sharing contemporary tattoo culture, tattoo equipment improving and celebrity culture legitimizing the artform. 

Whatever your attitude towards them is, it is impossible to deny that tattoos offer a perfect reference for how temporary and intricate cultural attitudes and values can be. They are an expression of psyche and as such hold enormous value, both currently and retrospectively.

You can find more of Sean's work at https://darklight-digital.com.