Poetically conceived and lyrically executed, Tattooed Women elicits in the viewer recollections of the Western tradition of the nude female figure. These women, although they are facing away, are hardly to be understood as coy odalisques. Their poses are free and rather powerful. Arnaqu’s image also reminds us of the once forgotten practice of black soot tattooing, which was greatly suppressed by the introduction of Christianty. Unlike other practices that went underground, the tradition of tattooing persisted almost exclusively as a cultural memory through artistic imagery, such as in The Woman who Lives in the Sun by Arnaqu’s mother, Kenojuak [1]. In Arnaqu’s Tattooed Women we see a celebration of both traditional and modern tattoos, depicted in rich and warmly toned inks that gradually assert themselves against the subdued intensity of the neutral ground. The Inuit practice of tattooing has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years due to the example and activism of Aaju Peter, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, and others. Perhaps some Inuit have been inspired by the sheer beauty of this print.

Literature: Tattooed Women was reproduced on the cover of Inuit Art Quarterly (Vol. 23, No 4, Winter 2008), and on p. 22; also reproduced in Christine Lalonde and Leslie Boyd Ryan, Uuturautiit: Cape Dorset Celebrates 50 Years of Printmaking, exh. cat., (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009), p. 51, cat. no. 57.