The story is about a man called Matt Gone, who has come to be known as the human checkerboard. Matt's body is 98% tattooed and his latest experiment is injecting coloured inks into his eyeballs, one blue the other green. He has been told by doctors that his latest stunt could end him up with a serious infection or even worse blindness.
Matt realises that tattooing his eyeballs was a risk but one he ws willing to take, he has been tattooing his body for over 20 years and is one of a rare few who has pretty much completed a whole body tattoo.
The reasoning behind Matts incredible tattooing is that he was born with birth defects and mutations and tattooing is an aspect of his body he can arrange and control and also express himself. He is terminally ill and flet that he might aswell cover his entire body before he dies. His body tattoo was completed in October 2008, 75 artists have tattooed his body with many complex designs.
As he has become so well known for his tattooed body he has been featured on the cover of magazines such as Skin and Ink, Bizarre and Skin Deep, and he's been in a Sourthern Comfort (the drink) advert along with his story on Medical Incredible on the discovery channel.
It's not just Matt's story that i want to focus on though, i am going to research into the history of tattooing and the reasoning in why it was used and also how it is seen in modern society. Another thing i want to look into is why people have a particular tattoo, is it like Matt where he see's it as a part of himself he can control, a memory or commemoration for someone or something, or do people have tattoos simply for the visual essence.
The definition of tattoo :
A tattoo is a marking made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment for decorative or reasons. Tattoo's on humans are a type of decorative body modifications, while tattoo's on animals are most commonly used for identification or branding.
Founded on Wikepedia
A part of my research i have looked into the history of tattoos to see where they originated from, in what context they were used and what designs were created.
The history of tattooing began over 5000 years ago, and is as diverse as the people who wear them.
In the Bronze age 1991 a 5 thousand year old tattooed man 'Otzi, the ice man' made the headlines of newspapers all over the world when his frozen body was discovered on a mountain between Austria and Italy. He was the best preserved corpse of that period ever found. The skin bears 57 tattoos, a cross on the inside of the left knee, six straight lines 15 centimetre long above the kidney's and numerous parallel lines on the ankle.
The position of the tattoo marks suggests that they were probably applied for theraputic reasons (treatment of arthritis).
Pazyryk culture :
In 1948 between the Russia and China border, a Russian archeologist began excavating a group of tombs in the Siberian Altai mountains, mummies were found that date from around 2400 years ago. The tattoos on their bodies represent a variety of animals. The griffins and monsters were thought to have a magical significance but some elements are believed to be purely decorative. Altogether the tattoos are believed to reflect the status of the individual.
Egypt :
In 1891 an archeologist discovered the mummified remains of Amunet, a priestess of the Goddess Hathor, at the Bes who lived some time between 2160 BC and 1994 BC. The female mummy displayed several lines and dots tattooed on her body, grouping dots and/ or dashes were aligned into abstract geometric patterns. This art was restricted to women only, and usually these women wrer associated with ritualistic practise.
Polynesia :
In pacific cultures tattooing has a huge historic significance. Polynesian tattooing is considered the most intricate and skillful tattooing of the ancient world. Polynesian people believe that a person's mana, thier spiritual power or life force, is displayed through thier tattoos.
Indonesia :
Borneo is one of the few places in the world where traditional tribal tattooing is still practised today, just as it has been for thousands of years. Borneo's designs have gone all round the world to form the basis of what western people call 'tribal'.
Ancient Greece and Rome :
Greeks and Romans used tattooing as a form of punishment, a Roman emporer banned tattooing on the face, which was common for convicts, soldiers and gladiaters. The emporer constantine believed that the human face was a representation of God and should not be disfigured or defiled.
The Celts :
Celtic culture was full of body art, permanant body painting was done with woad, which left blue designs on the skin. Spirals were common, single, double or tripled. Knotwork is the most recognised from Celtic art. With lines forming complex braids, these symbolise the connection of all life.
Central and South America :
In the 16th century, of Spanish accounts of Mayan tattooing in Mexico and central Americareveal tattoos were known to be a sign of courage. The Spaniards, who had never heard of tattooing, recognized it as once the work of satan.
North America :
Eleborate tattoos reflected the high status, in North-West America, Inuit womens chins were tattooed to indicate marital status and group identity.
Middle-East :
During the time of the old testament, much of the Pagan world was practising the art of tattooing as a means of Deity worship. A passage in Leviticus reads:
'Ye shall not make any cuttings on your flesh for the dead nor print any marks upon you'. (19:28)
This has been cited as Biblical authority to support the churches position. Biblical scholor M.W Thomson suggests however, that Moses favoured tattoos as a way to commemorate the deliverence of the Jews from slavery in Egypt.
Vikings :
It is likely that the Vikings were tattooed, at around year 1100 the Arab Ibn Fadlan described a meeting with some Vikings. He thought them very rude, dirty - and covered in pictures.
Criminality :
In prison, the tattoo- proffessionaly done and homemade, indelibly imprint on their bodies what these men desire in their souls : autonomy and identity. The ultimate symbol for gang members are thier gang tattoos. Getting a permanent mark is a sign of showing total commitment to the gang, these tattoos can reveal alot of things, like who you are; what gang your in; what beliefs you are (racist etc...) ; what you have done; where you have been ; how many years you have been in prison (also referred as 'dead time') and even things like how many people you have killed.
Known symbols include teardrops under the eye as well as spiderwebs on elbows to symbolize people killed.
( All the above research was founded and taken from Design Boom - The history of the tattoo)
Another part of my research will include asking people thier opinions on Matt Gone's story and also their overall views on tattoos. I want to do this as i found an artical on the BBC website from a few years back, stating the views of tattoos in modern society.
BBC article
And asking people who actually have tattoos, why they have that particular tattoo, what does it mean (if anything at all) and why did they get a tattoo.
Opinions :
Martin Lawrence
'I like the colours, but think its a bit odd what Matt Gone has done to himself.'
Martin has a tattoo of a stallion.
Kel Caffekey
'I have my tattoos as symbols of different times in my life, i have a tiger and a wolf as they are spiritual animals.
I think that the man (Matt Gone), personally is trying to change the person that he was born as, and if you want my opinion i would say that he probably had something traumatic happen to him as a kid and has tried to change his body ever since...tattooing is obsessive, i had all mine done within 6 years.
A lot of tattoos can be scarrs, that symbolise things and times in your life...there are some people who see them as fashion and who go on later to regret them...most people have them done as like me, its something you can never take away from me..no matter what might happen. My body is mine and the one thing that will always be with me.'
Kel is a spiritualist and says :
'Im a spiritualist, and someone who believes that we are all here to learn a lesson that we take with us as our souls grow..that man was maybe trying to hide scarrs he had from this life or a previous one.'
Mohima Chowdhury
' I think that because he has birth defects he might think that if he covers them no one will notice or that attention will be drawn away from the defect, on to what he probably thinks is a more interesting topic...its crazy to me.
If i saw a man on the bus and he was covered like that...lets just say i would stand as far away as possible, and i think he was dysfunctional for doing that to himself.
Mohima is a muslim and told me the views that her religion has on tattooing.
Muslims are supposed to die the way they were born, like pure, and if you had loads of ink on you then i guess thats not pure. Its bad and must not be allowed, tattooing is considered a sin and unclean and your prayers that you read 5 times a day will not be valid. However if you got it before you converted to Islam, you can keep it unless you really strongly wanted to convert, then getting it removed is best.'
