#The mural project canvas ansel adams skin#

That canvas, writes author Wade Davis in the book’s foreword, if laid out flat as a single sheet, “would cover more than 20 square feet… a work surface more than four times the size of the ‘Mona Lisa.’ ” But the body decor represented in Ancient Marks seems to strive beyond even lofty works of great art, to, in Davis’ words, “a sacred geography of the soul, a map of culture and myth.” There’s a universality among these images that supports this notion. His ongoing “Ancient Marks” project, represented in these images, documents a highly personal fascination with what the publisher describes as, “the age-old, ritualized act of painting, carving, incising or etching upon the canvas of the human form.” This elegantly reproduced black-and-white collection (all originally shot on Tri-X, then digitally enhanced and color separated) is the work of photojournalist Chris Rainier, a former apprentice of Ansel Adams and a serious de facto cultural anthropologist. In a lavish tribute to this phenomenon, northern California publisher Earth Aware Editions now gives us Ancient Marks: The Sacred Origins of Tattoos and Body Marking.

#The mural project canvas ansel adams skin#

Even the most commonplace expressions of skin décor-butterflies and fleurs-de-lis, blood-dripping daggers, heartshaped declarations of love, inked on arm bands and ankle bracelets of barbed wire or delicate filigree, have all become as socially acceptable as eyeshadow and moussed hair. Multimillionaire athletes, paparazzi-targeted entertainers, junior executives, plumbers, prom queens and soccer moms have all collectively blessed the tattoo’s once-seedy image with the stamp of propriety. Today, any tale like this that even hints at the disreputable past of tattooing in our culture is pretty much an anachronism. Since then, I’ve never been able to look at a tattoo without thinking about that kid. When this poor guy-an otherwise intelligent, affable trooper-showed up one Monday morning with a huge multicolored tiger’s head unfortunately emblazoned on his chest, his fate was sealed. Either way, it cost the government a ton of money, and thus, as a matter of pure economics, any unnecessary exposure to possible injury or infection was verboten.

When a trainee got sick enough, he had to be pulled from the program, and either moved back to the next class or retrained in another specialty. The reasoning behind this stemmed from the high rate of infection that seemed to accompany the tattooing process, particularly in the beer bar district of the dusty little town just off base. Among our many standing orders was a proscription against airmen having themselves tattooed during their three months of tech school. Our mission at this particular installation was to train Air Force recruits as aircraft engine mechanics-a fairly crucial job specialty, involving a costly, intensive training program.

In all fairness to moi, this was not a case of a grinchy, power- hungry lieutenant picking on some poor GI. During my four years of military service, back in the misty antiquity of the Vietnam War era, I awarded myself the dubious distinction of being the only officer I ever met-before or since-who actually had to court-martial someone for getting a tattoo.