Curated by four artists, QUEER TATTOO platforms incredible international works of art presented on the beautiful canvas that is the human body. The photographic book showcases the work of over 50 artists from across the globe through a series of intimate portraits of body art.
The project began in Germany last year when Benjamin Wolberg joined forces with Florian Rudolph, Brody Polinsky and Andrew Burford to curate the collection and give readers an inside peek at the emerging queer tattoo scene. Together, the band of artists reached out to a diverse cast of contributors and showcased some of their most epic body art, ranging in subject and style.
QUEER TATTOO was “born out of a desire to break with the hierarchies and patriarchal structures of traditional tattoo art”, according to Wolberg, the man behind new queer photography, and this comes across clearly when you look at some of the art in these pages.
This book is the “first comprehensive introduction to this vibrant and diverse queer tattoo community.”
“[The community] aims to create safe, tolerant, and inclusive spaces where queer, nonbinary, and trans people can experiment away from the mainstream and develop their own individual styles and techniques,” he goes on to say.
Each tattoo in the collection is as individual as the artists who inked them and the person who wears them, with each page telling a story of its own, with many designs revealing “a unique creative flair for queer iconography”.
Speaking with GCN last year ahead of his last book release, Wolberg talked about the power behind minorities. “I … wanted to focus on the positive aspects of living on the margins: you can find so much solidarity, pride and empowerment within the queer community there,” he said. “…Also individual perceptions and alternative ideals of beauty can be expressed and experienced more freely on the margins.”
His 2021 words ring true today as QUEER TATTOO launches for all to learn about the beauty in this relatively unknown community of queer body artworks. To see much of the beautiful imagery within, you can order your copy here from April 11, 2022.
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