Cover-up tattoos are a pattern or picture that covers a previous tattoo, scar or undesired skin sign. Highlighting portraits of people who choose to transform already exiting tattoos, in order to forget or revive their inked memories, the author aims to raise questions, instead of giving answers. What happens when you want to forget something that was inked – a name, a face, a symbol? Can be cover-up-ness expanded to a whole set of mechanisms we all posses when making choices or selecting meaningful memories? The human body becomes a contrasting palimpsest for the stories, the time and space we are marked by. As one of the characters in the series declares: „the human body is a living canvas”, a diary.
After the first three days from the launching, “Tattoo Twist” had a hit record of views, being watched by more than 100 000 persons only in the UK. The project is addressing UK audiences, Romanians based in UK and much beyond and the audience feedback will directly contribute to improving the series in the future.
Featuring a eight protagonists, tattooed by legends in the world of tattooing like Lal Hardy or fresh tattooing apprentices, the series fascinates the audience by being highly diverse. It explores wider themes as the genealogy of the self through evolving identities, redefining permanence vs. instance and constant changing perspectives in one’s life.
The shooting took place in August 2014 and tried to capture not only the personal stories of each protagonist, but also the upbeat urban touch of London. The visual style complements the slow motion rhythm with close-ups of tattooing in a rather poetic manner.
The current series is a segment of the macro-project “Mirrors of the Self”, an in-progress interactive documentary that was initiated in Bucharest, Romania, with the national support of Storyscapes, a Romanian association focusing transmedia storytelling and interactive narratives. The concept of the documentary was developed at the I_DOC workshop for expanded documentaries, held in May 2014, in Nyon, Switzerland. In June 2014, after constant development, it became the only Romanian project selected for Cross Video Days, the European market for cross-media projects, held in Paris, France.
As a directorial mark, the series have opted for observational intimacy. The director of the documentaries conveys both an intimate experience and to portray an expanded collective typology - “In my view, cover up tattoos are a much wider metaphor for the way we lead our lives in an eclectic contemporary world. We are very often marked by internal tattoos and we share constant shifts in our lives. “Tattoo Twists” is from this point of view, a vividly appealing kaleidoscope of recognizable experiences, that prologue inner patterns such as joie de vivre, escapism, bitter-sweet life shifts. We aimed to convey a progressive, non-cynical, forward-looking approach.”
The series of eight short documentaries is directed by the Romanian writer/director Ioana Mischie. Ioana’s previous written and directed shorts were selected and showcased by more than 50 international film festivals like GoEast IFF (Germany), Tampere IFF (Finland), Ficmec IFF (Liban), Timishort IFF (Romania) and top development programs like Berlinale Talents – Script Station 2012, Locarno Academy Meetings 2012, Midpoint Central European Script Center 2012, Les Arcs Co-Production Village 2013, Low Budget Film Forum 2013, I_DOCS and many more. Her portfolio of cinematic storytelling is a vivid complementary-ism of filmmaking, creative writing, transmedia storytelling and envisioning the world as a neo-creative playground.
The cinematography is signed by Anda Puscas, a fresh Romanian young hope, whose previous short films such as “Stremt 89” already travelled at multiple international film festivals, being multi-awarded by the audience and international juries. The executive producer is the BAFTA-awarded Gillian Mosely, in cooperation with Sarah Lambert as producer and Annie Moore as production manager. Editing-wise the shorts are successfully handled by Matt Berkeley-Lobato and Dani Jacobs. Production-wise, the project was developed in London with the support of Channel 4 and Medialab, with the creative involvement of interactive media producer and commissioner Adam Gee.
The full series can be watched on 4oD, being available, for the moment, only in the UK, starting with september 2014: http://channel4.com/programmes/tattoo-twists/
