"Nalle" 1999-2000
 
Jouko Lehtola Finland
Born 1963
University of Art and Design UIAH, Photography department, Helsinki 1986-93 Free Art School, Helsinki 1983-86
 
   
Lethola depicts some of Finland's most tattooed humans in the series "Marked Skin". The artist has found people that made their skin to a piece of art and who couldn't stop the obsession of decoration. As backgrounds are used the typical Finnish landscapes: forest, seashore, birch and sauna etc. The will of the piercing and tattoo-culture to find new forms of "authentic identity", came up in a world that is everything else but authentic and homogenous and where our traditional identification-points are threatened.

Nalle
Nalle is an artist. The primitive designs of his tattoos repeat in his other art; drawings, paintings and china paintings. He has also done many piercing performances, where the important thing was to find his own limits. Ever since Nalle was a small child he has been prone to fatness, and when he was young he was so ashamed that he used to go fully dressed even in the summertime. It was only when he started moulding his body with piercing and tattoos that he found a balance with his looks.
 
 




"Tommi" 1999-2000


Tommi

Tommi is a painter. He had his first tattoos in the 70s and was the king of the pack because he had tattoos and he had been to jail. Tommi did 15 years altogether and most of the pictures were done inside. He did most tattoos by himself; the other prisoners helped him on the places where he couldn't reach. He even tattooed his face and the TV came to make a story of him as the most tattooed man in Finland. Now he'd pay anything to get his face clean. It's the biggest mistake you can make.