The Tattooist

Rooster Teeth’s Geoff Ramsey explores the subculture of tattoos and takes a crash course from a master tattoo artist.

Suspension: The Ultimate Body Experience

A look into the world of body piercing and suspension and the people who do it.

La vida loca

Reflects a depressing and hopeless reality by following some of the members of "la dieciocho", the so-called 18th Street gang in a poor San Salvador neighborhood.

Signatures of the Soul

Tattooing — "the world's oldest skin game" — is the subject of this iconic documentary. Writer/director Geoff Steven scored a major coup by signing Easy Rider legend Peter Fonda as his presenter. Travelling to Aotearoa, Samoa, Japan and the United States, the doco traces key developments in tattooing, including its importance in the Pacific, prison-inspired styles, and the influence of 1960s counterculture. Legendary tattooists feature (including Americans Ed Hardy and Jack Rudy), while the closing credits parade some eye-opening full body tattoos.

Skin Pics

A bold reveal of a rose tattoo opens this 1980 documentary on tattooing in New Zealand. The potted history includes visits to tattoo parlours on K' Road and Hastings, and the studios of industry legends Steve Johnson and Roger Ingerton. Tattooists discuss public stigma, people's reasons for getting inked, and popular designs: sailors, serpents, swallows and tā moko. Made for documentary slot Contact, Skin Pics chronicles a time when "folk art has become high art".

Outlaw Motorcycles

In 1965 actor and hopeful first time director Titus Moede befriended ‘Preacher’ of the outlaw motorcycle club the Coffin Cheaters while looking for a project. He soon realized that this was exactly the subject he had been looking for.

Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos

Inuit traditional face tattoos have been forbidden for a century, and almost forgotten. Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, together with long-time friend and activist Aaju Peter, is determined to uncover the mystery and meaning behind this beautiful ancient tradition. Together they embark on an adventure through Arctic communities, speaking with elders and recording the stories of a once popularized female artform. Central to the film is Arnaquq-Baril’s personal debate over whether or not to get tattood herself. With candour and humour, she welcomes us into her world, to experience firsthand the complex emotions that accompany her struggle. Past meets present in this intimate account of one woman’s journey towards self-empowerment and cultural understanding.

D'Inked: A Tattoo Removal Documentary

D'Inked is a documentary about the development of laser tattoo removal technology and how it has changed the culture of tattoos. The film follows a man named Jake on his 5-year journey through the process of removing a full color half sleeve tattoo. The film also features interviews with prominent figures in the tattoo and laser removal communities discussing the technological, physical and ethical realities of removing what has always been considered a definition of permanent.

PHOENIX

Tattoos: A Scarred History

An exploration of how the once taboo art form has become socially acceptable.

The Man Whose Mind Exploded

In this "beautifully intimate and utterly unique piece of cinema", Toby Amies crosses the line between filmmaker and carer, trying to cope with the strange and hilarious world view of the fragile eccentric, Drako Zarharzar. A love story. Drako Oho Zaraharzar can remember modeling for Salvador Dali and hanging out with The Stones. But he can’t remember yesterday. Following a severe head injury, Drako Zaraharzar suffers from terrible memory loss, he can access memories from before his accident, but can’t imprint new ones. As he puts it, “the recording machine in my head doesn’t work”. Consequently, and as an antidote to depression he chose to live “completely in the now” according to the bizarre mottoes delivered to him whilst in a coma.

Mario Barth: Under The Skin

TATTOO: A Celebration Of Body Art

Documentary based on interviews during the Birmingham Tattoo Convention in the early '90s.

La folie du tatouage

호모 에렉타투스

A terrible accident leaves a young soldier horribly scarred, but his rediscovery of art heals his wounded soul, in this brief but powerful animated documentary.

Stoney Knows How

A visit with a master of the Oldest Art In The World: tattooing. Disabled by arthritis since the age of four, confined to a wheelchair, his growth stunted, Stoney St. Clair joined the circus at 15 as a sword swallower. A year later he took up tattooing, and traveled with circuses and carnivals for fifty years practicing his craft. As we watch him at work, we see the determination which led Stoney to use his crippled hands in an art where mistakes are permanent, and we realize Stoney has overcome his handicap to heal himself and others with the magic of symbols. The film ends with a visit by New Age tattoo master Don Ed Hardy, who receives a permanent souvenir by Old School tattoo master Stoney.

Tattoo Girls

Tattoo girls is a memoir of life as it is and of women as they are. A window to the lives of seven women from the same city where nothing is exactly as it seems and reality is often hidden behind illusions. It's a female centric-film showcasing about a group of ordinary women (within a range of ages), and their different styles of daily life, showcasing their stories and the impact they have on society as real, everyday women. We are living in a era of the importance and empowerment of women throughout the world, and this documentary aims to convey ideas and topics to be felt, absorbed and discussed.

Strange Life: The Breech

A collection of footage and interviews with strange people and their exploration into the unusual and extreme side of body modification.

Grandma's Tattoo

A family story that reveals the fate of the Armenian women driven out of Ottoman Turkey during the First World War. The story of "Grandma's Tattoos" is a personal film about what happened to many Armenian women during the genocide In 1919, just at the end of World War I, the Allied forces reclaimed 90,819 Armenian young girls and children who, during the war years, were forced to become prostitutes to survive, or had given birth to children after forced or arranged marriages or rape. Many of these women were tattooed as a sign that they belonged to abductor. European and American missionaries organized help and saved thousands of refugees who were later scattered all over the world to places like Beirut, Marseille, and Fresno.Director Suzanne Khardalian

ESSENTIEL — A Portrait

His work illustrates people. Densha Tattoo reflects on craft, inspiration and the scene. — What is the essence of a human being? One stitch at a time. A portrait about the tattoo artist.