Artwork information

Dutch tattooist and dealer in ‘tribal arts’ strips down to reveal his full-body pe’a (Samoan tattoo), role-playing the primitive subject. The subject was photographed in fantastic detail using a large format camera in his gallery in Amsterdam.

This diptych is part of a series by Mark Adams which traced the work of Su’a Sulu’ape Paulo II and other Samoan tattooists, from 1978 to 2005. Begun as an exercise in revealing their art form in context within the suburbs of Auckland, Adams followed the movement of Sulu’ape Paulo’s work as it travelled globally.