Artist Statement
Women in the Tattoo Subculture
The series, consisting of 21 portraits of women, explores the fluctuating periphery between exhibitionism and marginalization through the ritualized practice of tattooing. Bertucci’s portraits reveal psychological tensions between the pursuit of inner conviction and a desire to seek out trends. In order to examine this contemporary subculture, Bertucci travelled to various tattoo conventions in the United States and abroad, photographing women between 19 and 59 years old both in her studio and on location. Here, she chooses to frame the subjects in simple, timeless poses that formally accentuate the female figure and at the same time poetically delineate their illustrious tattoos.
