New documentary looks at ancient forms of tattooing

The first episode will see Maellyn travel to India to document the remote tribes who use tattooing for healing, as a form of currency and to mark their religious beliefs. Many of these communities have been sheltered from the Western world, their cultural heritage protected by their isolation. Each episode will focus on a different region, including South East Asia, West Africa, East Africa, South America and Australasia.

Tattoos, piercing and scarification are now becoming mainstream, thanks to celebrities like David Beckham, and the taboos surrounding them are slowly vanishing. But most fashions originate somewhere, usually in the past. In fact, indigenous communities have cut, coloured, pierced and shaped the body for centuries as part of complex rituals, for identity, beauty, healing, spirituality, coming-of-age ceremonies, and even occasionally as punishments. Many of these cultures are dying out fast and their stories and customs with them. Maellyn believes these stories need to be documented before this happens. Dr. Lars Krutak, the world's foremost tattoo anthropologist and presenter of the Discovery series 'Tattoo Hunter', will be acting as advisor on the series. He says, 'A lot of these tattooing and scarification traditions are vanishing across the indigenous world, and so the people I work with I consider to be living World Heritage Sites, (their bodies) they need to be documented so that we can preserve that knowledge for future generations."

Maellyn became fascinated by body modification while filming with a group of modern body modification artists and performers in London. Her curiosity lead her to begin researching the origins of these practices. She travelled to Italy and the Netherlands to attend tattoo conventions and meet tattoo artists, scientists and experts in indigenous body modification, including Henk Schiffmacher, owner of the famous Amsterdam Tattoo Museum, and Colin Dale, possibly the world's only expert in Innuit skin stitching tattoos, among others. After reading an article written by Lars Lrutak on the tattooing tribes of India, she picked up her camera and made a trip from Kathmandu in Nepal, through Central India to Southern India in search of indigenous communities who still live as their ancestors did.

In Central India, far from the tourist route, she met the colourful Baiga tribe, natives of the forest who use plant medicine in their tattoos, which are also placed on pressure points for healing. Their healing is based on an ancient form of Ayurveda. The women of this tribe wear their tattoos with pride as they are considered a currency which can be passed on to the next life. Travelling hundreds of miles on dusty roads, she also met the elusive Ramnamis, a low caste tribe whose facial and full body tattoos bear the name of the upper caste god, Ram. This was a brief trip, but now she will return to spend time with these tribes to dig deeper into their stories and understand what tattooing means to them. She will also travel to other regions of India where piercings and tattooing are part of cultural ceremonies and an essential way of life.

Maellyn has chosen to crowd-fund the first episode, taking the project one step at a time. If she is able to raise more than the initial goal, this will be used to begin the next episode. She believes crowd-funding is the perfect vehicle to democratize film making, offering the public a chance to become involved with something they believe in. It also enables film makers to create films that don't necessarily prescribe to the restrictions imposed by broadcasters. She says, "I have been told that I need a celebrity presenter and that the focus should be on that presenter's journey. This would mean that I couldn't tell the real stories of the people I am documenting, and for me this is very important."

Funds will be raised by offering the film as a digital download and DVD. Signed copies with behind the scenes footage will also be available. Using Lomography cameras, Maellyn will create a photo-book of the journey, with the stories of the people she meets, and this can be bought as an e-book or as a hard copy. Backers can also become a Producer or Sponsor of the film. They will receive a personal mention on the website, in the book and in the credits of the film, respectively.

Maellyn is a London based film maker with over 10 years experience directing, filming and editing documentaries, promos, music, event and fashion videos, as well as ethnography. She has filmed in Italy, France, Germany, Ibiza, India, The Netherlands, The Middle East and throughout the UK.

She is the Director of Sacred Skin Ltd., the company she set up for this documentary series. She is the driving force behind the project and has worked tirelessly to make it a reality for many years. She is primarily interested in documenting alternate ways of living, altered states of consciousness and marginalised communities.

She will be supported by Helena Appio as Consultant Producer. Helena is an award winning Director/ Producer with over 20 years experience in television, including 18 years at the BBC where she became a Commissioning Executive in BBC Factual Entertainment and Documentaries.

Dr. Lars Krutak, the world's foremost tattoo anthropologist will act as Expert Advisor. He is also the presenter of the Discovery series, ‘Tattoo Hunter’, where he journeyed to meet indigenous communities to understand the reasons for their tattoos, and earned the right to be tattooed as they are. He has worked as a consultant on three major National Geographic television documentaries and has published numerous books including, ‘Spiritual Skin; Magical Tattoos & Scarification’, ‘The Tattooing Arts of Tribal Women’, and ‘Kalinga Tattoo, Ancient and Modern Expressions of the Tribal’. His body of work is unparalleled and his knowledge of tattooing communities spans almost every continent.

Contact :

Maellyn Macintosh Director,

 Sacred Skin Ltd.

 e-mail: info@sacredskin.tv 

Tel: +44 (0)7932 752939

links:

http://igg.me/at/sacredskindoc

www.sacredskin.tv 

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twitter.com/Sacredskindoc

larskrutak.com