In 2025 and 2026, LOW PROFILE and Laura Hopes undertook a collaborative residency as part of the Sea for Yourself programme celebrating Plymouth’s deep connection to the sea through an exploration of tattoos.
For centuries, tattoos have linked land-dwellers with the sea. Maritime and nautical tattoos have carried layers of meaning and significance for those whose skin they adorn, and others who see them.
We ran a campaign to ask people with a connection to Plymouth to send us their photos of their maritime, nautical and sea related tattoos and the stories behind them; we held free creative workshops to design new tattoos; and invited artists with a relationship to Plymouth to make new temporary tattoos for a special souvenir edition.
An informal presentation at GROW brought together these activities, a temporary tattoo parlour and some new work-in-progress moving image artworks.
Acknowledgments:
Let's SEA Your Tatts is part of Sea for Yourself, a programme led by Plymouth Culture in partnership with Plymouth City Council and Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. The programme development and delivery is supported by The Box, Real Ideas, Arts University Plymouth, University of Plymouth and Theatre Royal Plymouth. Sea for Yourself is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England Place Partnership Fund. The production and presentation of Let's SEA Your Tatts has been generously supported by Grow Studios.
Photos courtesy of Agata Kalend of UpArt Photography
For centuries, tattoos have linked land-dwellers with the sea. Maritime and nautical tattoos have carried layers of meaning and significance for those whose skin they adorn, and others who see them.
We ran a campaign to ask people with a connection to Plymouth to send us their photos of their maritime, nautical and sea related tattoos and the stories behind them; we held free creative workshops to design new tattoos; and invited artists with a relationship to Plymouth to make new temporary tattoos for a special souvenir edition.
An informal presentation at GROW brought together these activities, a temporary tattoo parlour and some new work-in-progress moving image artworks.
Acknowledgments:
Let's SEA Your Tatts is part of Sea for Yourself, a programme led by Plymouth Culture in partnership with Plymouth City Council and Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. The programme development and delivery is supported by The Box, Real Ideas, Arts University Plymouth, University of Plymouth and Theatre Royal Plymouth. Sea for Yourself is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England Place Partnership Fund. The production and presentation of Let's SEA Your Tatts has been generously supported by Grow Studios.
Photos courtesy of Agata Kalend of UpArt Photography
