Smithsonian speaker to trace tattoo history

In conjunction with the LSU Student Union Gallery’s exhibit, Ancient Marks: The Sacred Origins of Tattoos and Body Marking, the LSU Student Union Art Advisory Committee will be hosting a presentation by Lars Krutak at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, in the Atchafalaya Room 399 of the LSU Student Union, Raphael Semmes Drive on campus.

Krutak is a full-time staff member at the Smithsonian in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History and host of Discovery Channel’s Tattoo Hunter. His photographs are featured in the exhibit.

Krutak’s presentation, “Skin Deep: The History and Art of Indigenous Tattooing,” will discuss the cultural and artistic significance of tattooing in tribal societies. He will explore the importance of this medium in representing and preserving ancient myths, ancestral traditions and deities, as well as cultural heroes.

Krutak also will address the influences of superstition and folklore in the creation of these enduring symbols, from the earliest known tattoos of 7,000 years ago in Chile to the 5,300-year-old “Iceman” found in the Alps to many current cultures around the world, including the Yupiget of St. Lawrence Island (Alaska), the Kalinga of the Philippines, the Theravada Buddhist monks of Thailand, and the Iban of Sarawak. Video clips from historical documentaries and Krutak’s documentary series Tattoo Hunter will supplement the presentation.

Krutak’s illustrated books, The Tattooing Arts of Tribal Women (2007), Kalinga Tattoo: Ancient and Modern Expressions of the Tribal (2010) and Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification (2012), will be available for signing at the event. His new work on Native American tattooing, Drawing with Great Needles: Ancient Tattoo Traditions of Eastern North America, will be published in 2013.

Both Krutak’s presentation and the Ancient Marks exhibit are free and open to the public.

For more information, call [phone] or visit http://www.lsu.edu/union .

Weekday parking passes are available for the Visitor’s Center parking lot at the corner of Highland Road and Dalrymple Drive from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Contact the Visitor’s Center at (225) 578–5030. Metered parking is available in front of the LSU Student Union from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. Weekend parking is free and easily accessible in front of the Union or in the adjacent Coates parking lot.

LSU Student Union Gallery