Aayla Mae is a photographer based in Portland, Oregon.
“Why I love Tattoos” by Amsterdam based photographer Ralf Mitsch.
“What are those people doing, what kind of life do they have? As a teenager in the eighties people with skulls, snakes and other skin-art always made me ask those kind of questions to myself. I thought it testified their courage that they dared to express themselves in such a permanent way.
People who had tattoos in those days didn’t belong to the bourgeoisie, but usually came from certain segments of the society that didn’t care for the norms of the ruling class. Their skin decorations told a kind of life-story, with every tattoo that was added becoming more and more of a patchwork.
Currently tatoos are a fashion article and you see them among people troughout all the societal classes. From a banker with a part of a Maori tribal design peeping out of his shirt, to a waitress on whose feet the snakes moves with every step she makes.
The more the skin surface is covered with this permanent ink, the more it looks like a painting on which there is lots to discover, hence the bigger is my fascination. “Why I love tattoos’ is a series of portraits and shows why people love tattoos. In this series I aim to show the contrast between tattoos as fashion and as a life-story.
From the Author:
Inspired is an artistic and journalistic project about tattooing.
Inspired takes an active interest in the individual and gives a unique perspective on what it means to be tattooed today.
The project aims to explore the psychological dimensions related to this singular art by emphasizing the creative process.
Tattooing is a matter of experiences and emotions. Inspired recants the experiences that have motivated these choices and highlights the diverse artistic influences behind them.
Animated by a very personal aesthetic, Inspired promotes tattooing as an art and as a visual identity in constant evolution.
Tattooing is a way of life, and those who follow it give insights into their world through interviews, photographs and videos, realized in partnership with BIIMPROD.
Céline Aieta














