Call for Papers
The Skin as Matrix
Conference

Squarely sited at the intersection of art and life, engraving on human skin – tattoos – has recently emerged as an engrossing object of investigation (see 'Paper like Skin', Print Quarterly, March 2014, pp. 83–84 and skin as matrix, Print Quarterly, March 2012, p. 84, fig. 76). Following in the footsteps of museums interpreting the material through exhibitions such as 'Engraving Prestige: Hand Tattoo of Paiwan', Print Quarterly intends to fully engage, hosting a conference in 2017 that aims to act as a crucial interpolation in the ongoing dialogue between tattoos and aesthetic studies, envisaged here in an historical and transcultural perspective from the earliest known human artistic manifestations to the present day. Outstanding papers will be considered for publication in the Journal. We would welcome any kind of contextualized approach that permeates frontiers and proposes to analyse the various practices through which this art form is constructed and contested and look forward to exploring the dynamic nature of this discursive field.

Proposed themes for consideration:

The Significance of the Tattoo from Prehistory to Angelina Jolie
European Tattoos: Sources and Meaning
Wim Delvoye's Pigs: 1997 to today
A Wrinkle in Time: Issues of Conservation in Tattoo-engravings
The Well-Tanned Matrix
Pushing the Boundaries: Expanding Waistlines and the Tattoo
The Posthumous States


Please submit abstracts and images (no originals please!) to editorprintquarterly.co.uk by 31 June 2016.