tattooback
When Transylvania University professors and community art activists Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova first came up with the loose framework for the Lexington Tattoo Project – a community art initiative asking participants to permanently tattoo phrases from a love poem about Lexington onto their bodies – they were uncertain about what sort of public interest there might be in the project.
So they did what just about anyone looking to float a half-baked idea among their immediate social circles might do: they posted an inquiry on Facebook.
“We thought we would maybe get 100 participants,” Gohde said. Within weeks of the post, sign-ups to participate in the project nearly doubled that expectation – and the poem, penned by local writer Bianca Spriggs, hadn’t even been written yet. “We had to close it down after 220 and say we’re not taking any more.”
“And people ignored us,” Todorova said. She added that when they first created the Facebook event last October, neither she, Gohde or the participants had any idea what shape the project would ultimately take.
The shape of the project (literally) will be revealed at a celebratory event at Buster’s Billiards & Backroom on Nov. 15, at which time the duo will unveil the “secret image” composed by the signature dots and circles that were integrated with the lettering of the 253 tattoos that have been issued as part of the project.
“If all the tattoos were photographed and reassembled, the secret image would become visible,” Gohde explained, adding that reassembling photos of all the tattoos is a “massive challenge,” but a project he and Todorova are working on and hope to eventually complete.
In the year since the concept was initialized, The Lexington Tattoo Project has taken on a life of its own, giving Gohde, Todorova and all the participants in the project much to celebrate. In addition to issuing more than 250 tattoos that comprise a collaborative ode to Lexington, a coffee table book about the project is in the works, to be released in February 2014, and the project has garnered enough national attention over the past year that it is now being replicated in several cities across the country – notably, more than 200 Boulder residents are expected to receive tattoos as part of the Boulder Tattoo Project in early November.
The duo, who is known for their oftentimes quirky art projects which include a photographic essay of discarded couches and an oral history of local drag queens, has been amazed by the outpouring of community support and interest in the project, and the personal meanings that the tattoos have taken on with their owners. Personal stories surrounding the tattoo project, which was inspired in part by an increased consciousness of Lexington’s growing civic pride, are recounted on a blog kept up by Gohde and Todorova at www.lexingtontattoproject.com.
While the Lexington Tattoo Project originators are very much involved with the Boulder Tattoo Project and will likely be involved with a handful of tattoo projects in other cities that have expressed interest, including Cincinnati and Miami, the duo are working with the Knight Foundation, which has helped fund and support the venture, to make it an open source project that other cities can replicate at little expense.
“We don’t want Lexington to have had something that was unique but is no longer unique at all,” Gohde said. “Instead we want Lexington to have something that becomes a stronger network.”
Lexington Tattoo Project Video Premiere & Party
(In conjunction with the PRHBTN street art festival)
8-10 p.m. Nov. 15
Buster’s Billiards & Backroom 899 Manchester St.
Featuring live music from the Ford Theatre Reunion, March Madness Marching Band, the Lexingtones Uke Group and the premiere of a short video documenting the project, which features a reading of the poem by its author Bianca Spriggs and an original composition by Ben Sollee.