SLIDE 10: WHERE IS THE LINE BETWEEN BODY AND ART?

Is it a live belly dancers belt, or is it body art? Tattoo belt is worn by Kara, a tattooist working out of Phoenix at the time, and was tattooed by Keely, one of her coworkers. At this resolution, you can't see the teeny bruise around Kara's new navel piercing.

 copyright 1994 Rae Schwarz

Tattoo as adornment. Side lacing and bells have photorealistic shadowing to create the illusion of wear versus skin art. Precise design, placement on the body and a navel piercing all coordinate together beautifully. Some of the extraordinary design of this tattoo may have to do with the fact that it is a tattoo artist personal body art, and one of their main body pieces.

More of this tattoo can be seen in Outtakes.
Check out my lens about tattooing

all images in this presentation are © 1994 Rachel Schwarz.
all images shown in this section were taken at the 1994 NTA
convention held in South San Francisco, CA, USA
web version copyright 1998-2008