Some time ago, I met the very colourful (and heavily tattooed!) Geoff Ostling, when he came to visit the Wellcome tattoo collection. Recently, our paths crossed again whilst I was in Australia for a speaking engagement at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), alongside artist Sandra Minchin, who is currently having 17th century Dutch painting Vase of Flowers by Jan Van Davidz de Heem tattooed on her back as part of her art project Ars Longa,Vita Brevis.

Geoff and I both spoke to Tom Tilley about the contemporary interest in future tattoo preservation for ABC radio programme Hack for Triple J, which you can listen to in full here:

I will be updating Life&6Months with a longer piece on the future of tattoo preservation soon, but in the meantime, check out the links below…

• Triple J Hack producer James Purtill‘s post-interview write up on the ABC website.
• Save My Ink – Established by American non-profit organisation, the National Association for Preservation of Skin Art (NAPSA), currently offering members a post-mortem tattoo preservation service.
• Wall and Skin Tattoo, Amsterdam’s first commercial tattoo preservation venture.

Please also feel free to add your comments on what you think about preserving tattoos for the future after the poll below!