A harmonious vision of humanity. The new editorial by Miki Vialetto

Tattoo is necessarily a visual art which connects, in a certain sense communicates, with a wider public though photography. I am not just talking about the pages on social media of individual tattooists who are trying to showcase their work with photographs which at times veer away from what is real in order to make a tattoo look better. What I’m talking about here is art photography where the tattoo becomes art, not to be “sold” or promoted by its creator, but in order that the art connected with a single individual be shared with a wider public.

This reflection, which has wide consensus these day, is best seen in the Portfolio which this issue of Tattoo Life dedicates to the photography of Masato Sudo. This artist uses photography in order to immortalise tattoo, reflecting that nothing lasts forever and that all that is living is also ephemeral and fated to disappear – and thus above all the human body and the tattoo.

Masato Sudo wished to show tattoo in marvellous artistic photos which deal with the theme of union and harmony symbolised by the mandala. Tattoo becomes art through the composition of several bodies which create new, poetic, artistic patterns.

Like him, many have used and still use tattoo to create true art and photography is necessary in order for this to occur. To share the highest form of tattoo is the purpose I have set myself through any means I can use, from the books I publish to the pages of the magazine, social media and the conventions I organise. Because that is how we turn tattoo into an art with a history which can be organised and communicated to those who come after us. I invite anyone who has a project of true beauty connected with tattoo to share it with us so we can reflect another facet of our great craft which can become a harmonious vision of humanity.