Past exhibition 

Maï Lucas "Tatoos, 125 th Street"

Maï Lucas

Photos from young Americains in NY, getting tatoos done for life and for a few dollars to testify of their existence. | Show: 03.05.2005 - 28.05.2005

Photos of young americans inflicting tatoos for life and for some dollars. Testifying their existence. It is a research on the body, the personality, the intimate, representation... On what tatoos give us to see.

Tatoos are only authorized by the New York law since 1996 and since then, they flourish on almost all the younger population in NY ghettos. Today, tatoos are part of their culture. Young people engrave on their skin important moments of their life, beliefs and being gang related. Bodies become the open pages of their intimate diaries. To please and affirm their force, to shout out their hopes and despairs.

Yesterday prohibited, New York today abounds of small tatoos shops. “I decided to immortalize the individual going to a ghetto tattooer, improvised in the center of Harlem. The aim is to present an intimate and creative facet of the actors of the street culture in one of their pilgrimage place”.

From the New York suburbs to the heart of Nigeria, from fashion to advertisement and record sleeves, Maï Lucas has always been interested in details, style and creativity that people use to shine.
After the show “Ghetto Shine”, “Tatoos, 125 th street” are photos made with a 4x5 inch camera. Maï Lucas last show opens the second opus of her work about the American street culture. The eye of the photographer shows us the reality and lets the spectator become the witness of a shared moments amongst young people of the ghetto.

© M. lucas / Gallery Speerstra, December 2005