From skin to museum: Marseille surrenders to the art of tattooing and its power of identity.

The art of tattooing , traditionally vilified for being associated with the lower classes and aboriginal peoples , moves from the skin to the gallery in an exhibition at the Marseille Museums that aims to rediscover the identity-building power of this practice and its relationship with art history.

Historically linked to tattoos for its multicultural essence , Marseille hosts this exhibition until September 28 at the Vieille Charité, a former 17th-century hospice that has been a center for cultural exchange and social work since the 1990s.

The exhibition is called Tattoo. Stories of the Mediterranean and features 275 works, objects, and photographs from Southern Europe, the Maghreb, and the Eastern Mediterranean . Some of these pieces were loaned by major museums such as the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, and the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid.

Across three different spaces in the historic building, the tattoos are conceived as works of art in themselves and as inspiration for contemporary artists, expressing their power to reclaim their own bodies in social movements such as feminism, anti-imperialism, and anti-colonialism.

"There's a lot of talk about the global history of art. We use this perspective to showcase the cultural interconnections and dialogues (...) on the shores of the Mediterranean and all the territories to which they are connected," explained Nicolas Misery, director of the Marseille Museums and general curator of the exhibition, during the media presentation.

The tour, which begins with a large-scale photograph of a man with the Spanish phrase 'You Only Live Once' tattooed on his chest by Yohanne Lamoulère, presents in chronological order the history of tattoos and their origin in Ancient Egypt : "No one imagines it is such an ancient tradition," joked Misery.

Already in the last century, tattoos influenced contemporary art in North Africa, whose culture finds permanent skin markings a sign of identity with ritual, aesthetic, and even medicinal functions.

The exhibition devotes a large space to the artistic contributions of the African diaspora, with photographs by Lazhar Mansouri and Thérèse Rivière, as well as contemporary works by Yohanne Lamoulère, Anne van der Stegen, and the Algerians Denis Martinez and Samta Benyahia, both present at the press preview.

During European colonization, the tradition of tattoos among colonized peoples led many Westerners to embrace the Catholic discourse of bodily purity, describing these practices as "savage" and disdaining tattoos, which are still frowned upon by much of the population today.

However, for the people of the Maghreb, skin marking has an identity value of "belonging to a family," which they share with the "class reality" of those in low-income Western communities who began to take an interest in this technique in the 20th century.

The popular nature of tattoos has contributed to their connection to social movements . Feminism uses permanent marking as a discourse of reappropriation of women's bodies and rebellion against patriarchy, as reflected in the works of Gaëlle Matata and Clovis Trouille.

The imagery of virility and strength evoked by tattoos on a male body is portrayed in the paintings of Iranian artist Alireza Shojaian, who presents muscular, tattooed bodies that contrast with a vulnerable and fragile attitude as a vindication of another type of masculinity.

"The art of tattooing declares the liberation of our bodies," the artist himself stated during the media presentation.