Inked: Stigma, Otherness, and Art

For at least five thousand years, humans have used tattoos to permanently modify their appearance. Tattoos—inked designs embedded in the skin—function as markers of both belonging and exclusion. In Ancient Greek, the word for tattooed mark or puncture is stigma, and the meaning of the word in contemporary English (a mark of disgrace, a setting apart) remains pertinent today. Steeped in taboo, tattoos have visually read as markers of otherness since the early modern Euro-American colonization of the medium.

Sep 27, 2025 – Sep 27, 2026