MARSEILLE.- The Museums of Marseille present at the Centre de la Vieille Charité “Tattoo. Histories of the Mediterranean”, an exploration of tattoo practices through the centuries, from Antiquity to contemporary culture. From the earliest traces found in Egypt, Syria, and the Cyclades, to Greece, tattooing in the Mediterranean has traversed the ages, influenced by medical, religious, political, and aesthetic uses, eventually becoming a fully-fledged artistic expression in modern times, fueled by pop culture. The exhibition traces this evolution, from ancient tattoos to contemporary influences, particularly in the city of Marseille, where tattooing has also become an expression of Marseille identity.

From Italy to Algeria, the Balkans to Iran, and from Spain to Cyprus, this project is grounded in the methodologies of global art history, embracing the complex geographies of the Mediterranean, as well as gender studies and postcolonial research. It offers a renewed reflection on this space, marked by the permeability of its borders and the multiple religious, commercial, artistic, and cultural exchanges that have shaped it over time.

Paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, fashion, and everyday objects punctuate the visitor’s journey, blending contributions from history, art history, archaeology, ethnology, and anthropology. The focus also extends to contemporary interpretations of tattooing in Marseille and its place in the imaginations of pop culture.

Extending research initiated in 2023 as part of the exhibition “Baya. An Algerian Heroine of Modern Art,” this exhibition also gives central attention to artists from the Mediterranean region who have drawn from tattoo motifs as a formal repertoire that nourished avant-garde movements as well as feminist and decolonial currents in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Iran.

Unpublished works by prominent figures such as Choukri Mesli, Samta Benyahia, Farid Belkahia, Lalla Essaydi, and El Meya are being presented to the public, alongside two drawings by the artist Ahmed Cherkaoui created in 1967, which were acquired by the City of Marseille in 2024.

Finally, the exhibition features an unprecedented work by the Algerian artist Denis Martinez, created specifically for this exhibition on the walls of the Centre de la Vieille Charité. One of the founders of the avant-garde group Aouchem (literally “Tattoos”) in the mid-1960s, Martinez now lives between Blida and Marseille.

In partnership with 24 ORE Cultura and with the exceptional support of the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, the exhibition “Tattoo. Histories of the Mediterranean” benefits from significant loans from national and international institutions, such as the Louvre Museum, the Musée d’Orsay, the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, the National Center for Visual Arts, as well as the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia in Rome, the Musei Civici of Pavia, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale e Castello di Manfredonia, the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, the Glyptothek in Munich, the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, in dialogue with the heritage collections held by the Museums of Marseille.