Tattoo Girls
“Tattoo Girls” follows seven women who have tattoos around in their daily lives. They don’t interact with the camera. The camera doesn’t interfere with their lives. Instead, the audience slowly becomes immersed as we watch them go about their daily routines in a beautifully shot manner. The point of this documentary is to be a fly on the wall. The women in the film do a great job at ignoring the camera and the crew and the whole film feels authentic.
The film is broken up into different segments. Each segment revolves one of the tattooed women. It then switches to these amazing aerial shots of the city to an area where the next subject is at. What’s interesting about all these women is they all have something to do with beauty in some way. One is a fashion designer, another is a model, another is a dressmaker, another is a dancer, and another is even a mortician. The mortician one is interesting because she introduces a whole new element to the movie. The way they tie beauty into her storyline is really poetic. Each segment is poetic. Beauty is an underlying theme throughout the movie and it’s basically saying: be who you are. Embrace your art.
The way this is shot is stunningly beautiful. From the aerial shots to when the camera decides to focus on whatever woman it chooses. The amount of time the camera lingers onto each subject in the film offers the audience a new insight into who this person might possibly be. Each segment is mesmerizing. The absence of a score forces us to zone in on surrounding sounds as we watch each girl unfold their life. There’s something extremely meditative about it and it’s easy to get lost in each of their lives. Although we know nothing of who these women are, I felt like I slowly got to know them – or I was more wanting to get to know them per se.
The overall structure is a bit off putting and I get if some people won’t be interested as there’s really no central conflict that’s being worked towards to be resolved like other documentaries. It’s more of a social experiment that is documenting these women without having to interfere on their lives. That alone is why I really enjoyed the film. It’s interesting. It’s a different approach. It’s not your typical documentary of trying to get to the bottom of things or uncovering something.
I say watch this just for the experience and the visuals. I was in awe at some of the footage and how beautiful it looked. The way it’s shot added a lot of depth to the women. It doesn’t linger on any of them too long and comes off across extremely unbiased. The filmmakers have invited us to take a look into the lives of these women just as the women had allowed the filmmakers to do the same with them. It’s through a different perspective. That different perspective was nice. I was okay that it didn’t really have much else for it because of how much I enjoyed trying to figure these women out. What is their story? What is the meaning of their tattoos? This film may not be for everybody, but I do think it’s for those who are willing to experience cinema in a different fashion than what we have become accustomed to.
