This chapter, that also serves as an origin myth, navigates the revival of tattoo traditions as an ancestral marker of identity: markings through which one can be recognised by their ancestors. Drawing on this belief system, it proposes the revival of the Vietnamese tattoo tradition as a way to overcome reductive narratives surrounding the Vietnamese identity, often confined to narratives of war and trauma. Instead, it reconciles the tradition as both a witness to history and a source of origin, one guided not by fundamentalism, borders or a legacy of loss, but one guided by ancestral love. An origin myth for a people half here, half there. And the rebirth of the tradition.

While most chapters of “the land of the tattooed” evolve into complete textile installations, this one (totalling fourteen paintings) is presented alike our diaspora; dispersed and scattered into pieces. May they one day find a reunion.

THEY SAY OUR WORLD STARTED WITH A BIG BANG

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This chapter was made with the support of Mondriaan Fonds and MINO Art space.

Photo: Tommy Smits

Photo: Agatha Sznurkowska