Mirrors of the Self
Mirrors of the self is a collection of web-friendly character-driven documentaries, exploring the experience of cover-up tattoos and their power to rewrite personal stories. Cover up tattoos are patterns or pictures that covers a previous tattoo, scar, or undesired skin feature. Combining the feeling of a diary film with observational slices, the film portrays ordinary people with powerful personal stories who choose to transform already existing tattoos in order to forget or renew their inked memories. The project aims to explore a multi-layered odyssey of questions connected to this intimate process, rather than axiomatic answers: why do they choose to cover-up old tattoos - a name, a face, a symbol? How do they feel when they achieve their wish? Is the change to their lives purely emotional or is there a palpable physical change for instance how other people react to them? How does the cover-up process mirror the mechanisms of how every one of us makes our most important choices? How much does this process heal their past, their inner stories, their aims? Directorial-wise, we imagine the documentary in a rather poetic manner, avoiding „talking heads”, but rather concentrating on small gestures, significant details and textures. We aim to explore each character’s trichotomy: their „befores” (previous tattoo), the nowness („tattooing”) and the „afters” (inked cover up tattoos). Technically-wise, we imagine this documentary as an expanded platform: a second screen-based construct, will allow users to the past and new tattoo, while the voice over is the common palimpsest that melts the two.