installation

Tatuator Maciej’s motto is “ink first, think later!”. As a result, there are more and more playful tattoos on his skin (and the skin of his friends). Needless to say, some of them are better than others. Yet the aesthetic value is not the decisive factor here. What counts is the atmosphere of the moment, which – inked on the skin – stays with us forever. In the Water Tattoo installation, we get a tattoo that contradicts the very essence of tattoos – just like temporary tattoo stickers found in bubble gum packages. The drawing on the building is created by water flowing through pipes attached to its wall in the shape designed by the artist. The installation uses water from the Strzyża brook, which frequently overflows its banks in the warm summer months, turning into a rushing stream. In moments like these, the channelized Strzyża turns into an untamed river.
Tattoos used to be associated with membership in a particular social group: some people saw them as an emblem, others as a stigma. Today, hardly anyone thinks about them like that – and definitely not Tatuator Maciej, who inks before he thinks in tattoo fervour.

Tatuator Maciej, i.e. Maciej the Tattoo Artist (est. 2016), is a self-taught primitivist artist. As he himself says, he learned tattoo art from how-to films published on YouTube. Tatuator Maciej does not have a signature style. His motto is ‘carpe diem’ and his designs often refer to current global events, personal experience, weather or mood. He runs a nomadic studio, always travelling with all the necessary tattoo equipment. His works may be seen on the bodies of people in Poland and around the world. He collaborates with the visual artist Maciej Szczęśniak. He lives in Kraków and Warsaw.