The Directed image

“Q: You have been tattooed by a variety of traditional methods. What was most meaningful to you? What was the most painful?

Krutak: All of my tattoos are equally meaningful and special in their own way. So I can’t place one above another. One unforgettable experience was when I received my first traditional tattoo in 2002, a hand-tapped rosette in a longhouse in Borneo. It took about 4½ hours to complete. But the worst part was not necessarily the pain of the needle. Because the village was not electrified, and we were tattooing at night, we had to create our own lighting with a car battery attached to floodlights. Every large flying insect was attracted to those lights that evening. And for more than four hours bugs would hit the lamps, then fall down directly on my skin and crawl all over (and into) my body orifices. It was like torture because as the tattoo artist hammered away with his tool, I had to remain still as thousands of prickly legs crawled across the surfaces of my skin!”

“Q: What do you think of modern tattoo culture?

Krutak: Tattooing, like culture, is constantly changing and has been evolving for millennia. Today, there are numerous styles, and the motivations to give and receive tattoos are as varied as the people who have worn them throughout the past 5,000 years. I feel that the study of ancient and more contemporary tattooing culture offers one of the most profound biographical, artistic and intellectual statements on the importance of cultural diversity, human experience and visual communication. Tattoos transmit a vast body of information about who were are, where we came from, our desires and fears and who we aspire to be.”

In keeping with this truth, those who elect to get a tattoo make a significant, lifelong investment. Tattoos turn the human body into a storyboard of sorts – a collection of visual aids by which to express something meaningful, something significant, something wholly unique to the individual.

And by choosing your skin as a storytelling mechanism, you take on the responsibility of that decision -- the onus of tending to your investment.

Inked Ritual's founder was endlessly frustrated watching his tattoos predictably and mercilessly fade as he got older. By the time he’d gotten his tenth tattoo, his first tattoos were looking dull and lifeless.”

The difference in immortalising stories through tattooing and other forms of medians of art is that you carry those inked tales with everywhere you go, and you take it to the grave. This is what I wanted to explore and analyse through a lens and showcase beautiful stories engraved in beautiful ink. In the last few weeks I decided to gather my boys and document their ink they got, and also take a few statements from them about the meanings behind their tattoos. Things like “I got this inked in prison when I copped my first lag” and “I earned this through my service to my family” were bought up when discussing their tattoos and the significance they have to their personal story. My main focus besides from the tattoos was the environments they were in. If anything, the Polynesian culture has had to adapt within concrete jungles, though the weight traditional Tatau (Traditional Samoan tattoos) carry within the polynesian communities of the western world, the traditional values and practices have been integrated into modern societal structures. On the other hand, if my boys aren’t represent and showcasing the pride they have in their culture and beliefs through their traditional tattoos, then they are showcasing their gangster through the ink on their skin.

When asking the boys about their scratched ink (prison or garage tattoos, commonly gang related), they talked about being apart of something bigger. Not just a gang, but a brotherhood. In their eyes, so long as the ink stays on their skin, they are part of the life and would gladly showcase it on any part of their body. For the other boys, their outlook on their Tatau is it represents their family and ancestors. The significance it holds in their life, the life of their blood line, and the life of the island itself, means more than anyone could fathom. I felt that these aspects shined through my lens, and I was proud and honoured to be able to shoot these tattoos and document the beauty they have, both by look and meaning.

My favourite shoot to do was right on my block. The simplicity in my method of documenting these tattoos was real helpful. Just being able to leave my house and whistle out to the boys on the block to see if they were keen on getting their picture taken was new to me, but solid none the less. Also getting to document some o the boys I haven’t seen in a while was important for me because I was able do my assignment and catch up with them all at the same time. All the shoots were very light and breezy in terms of what and how I wanted to capture, and the cooperation of all the lads was helpful, especially when the boys were getting a bit too rowdy. I liked it though. Just being able to bring some of the boys along with me on my university journey meant a lot, and I know they had fun being in front of the lens for a positive reason for the first time.

A difficult part of this campaign was basically starting it. I knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted to say through my photographs, but I was unsure on where to start and how to get it off the ground. However, I feel like what got me there in the end was my urge to put on for my hood, and tell stories that have meaning to me and those like me. I also found it hard to balance this with other assignments, but we made it in the end. I saw the interest and curiosity in the eyes of the boys and all the people driving round. Someone walking around with a camera isn’t a everyday occurrence in the hood, and most people only see a camera like that on TV or when the homicide investigation team is out here.

Wete Wete. 

This one was probably the easiest coz i just strolled outside and asked all the boys on the block to come through for a photo. All the boys was keen lol, some of them was abit drunk too, but it wasnt anything out of the ordinary lol. Gang-way. 

Went out to Manurewa and Got one of my cousins to agree to let me take a photo of his leg pieces. i wanted to get these in the book because of the story behind. Combining the three things he holds closest to him. God, Culture, Family.