The Lexington Tattoo Project is a collaboration between Lexington, KY-based artists Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova. What started as a Facebook request for Lexington residents to have the words of a love poem to their city inked on their bodies has become a local and national phenomenon.
click here to read the poem, which was written by Lexington-based poet Bianca Spriggs
This artwork unfolded in three phases. The first phase entailed the completion of all the tattoos in January 2013, thanks to the incredible work of Robert Alleyne and Jay Armstrong of Charmed Life Tattoo. Next, Kurt and Kremena photographed each of the healed tattoos. The final stage entailed the creation of a video artwork that showcases the finished tattoos and unveils a hidden image (an image made by the dots and circles that are part of each tattoo), as well as the publication of a book. The video premiered on November 15, 2013 during PRHBTN, Lexington’s annual street-art festival (watch a preview of the video). The book was released in February 2014 at a party hosted by the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
In 2014, the Lexington Tattoo Project was recognized as one of 37 outstanding public art projects by the Americans for the Arts’ Public Art Network 2014 Year in Review.
Currently, Kurt and Kremena are working on Love Letter To the World, a public artwork that intertwines poetry, tattoos, photography, spoken word, storytelling, and music in order to foster global connections.
Feel free to contact them.
The Lexington Tattoo Project 