QUEER TATT00 HISTORY

it's always absurd to me they could sell us any world where tattoo and body modification isn't inherently queer. "sailors and sex workers"... sideshow freaks, the sacred among ancients, marking passage, outsiders driven into the fringe and living well in forgotten secret spaces. a transcendance and transness of the body transformed. perverse fascinations, energetic tokens, desperate proud sentimentalism in the face of a cold world. of course we're there and now we're here, haunted by the amnesia of stolen generations still we will find our way back to ourselves. the nice thing about that is we don't have to invent so much as we think we do



Gianna Gaudry on IG
bite sized video chats about queer tattooers

Lamar Van Dyke Video Interview
80s-90s tattooer and legendary leatherdyke

"Trans History Will Hurt You" by Leah Tigers
heavy but great article that mentions trans tattooer Tala Brandeis

Fight Us, Entropy: Requiem For A Tattoo Artist
reflection on Tala Brandeis' life by Jetta Rae

Cliff Raven’s Tattoo Works on IG
forthcoming book on Cliff Raven edited by Kevin Riley

Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos on OpenLibrary
1990 book by Sam Steward / Phil Sparrow - "a social history of the tattoo with gangs, sailors, and street-corner punks, 1950-1965". read w free internet archive account

FRIENDS & INSPIRATIONAL FIGURES