Ötzi By Nicole Wilson at PHOTOFAIRS New York 2023

In the 1990s, a body was discovered in the Alps on the border of Austria and Italy. This glacier mummy is now known as Ötzi, a Copper Age male (scientists date him to 3300 BCE) whose body is preserved, cared for, and researched at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy. According to the museum, “61 tattoos were found on Ötzi’s body, all in the form of lines or crosses. Unlike modern tattoos, they were not made with a needle; they were fine incisions into which pulverised charcoal was rubbed. The tattoos are located near his ribcage and lumbar spine, on his wrist, knee, calves and ankles.” Ötzi is considered the oldest tattooed human mummy yet discovered (in 2018, nearly contemporaneous tattooed mummies were discovered in Egypt).

 

A world away in the United States, the artist Nicole Wilson learned about Ötzi, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy. An artist who has focused on sculpture and durational, process-driven works, Wilson created this work because “Ötzi stands in for an archetype, his marks are the signifiers without the signified. In that way, I saw an opportunity to use that lack of meaning (or our inability to to find meaning) as a way to go further of what this mummy means to us contemporaneously and access him as an archetypal figure of ‘man’.”

Instructions for collectors of the digital file(s) from the Ötzi exhibition and project by Nicole Wilson, referred herein as the "Artist", are described in this document. A digital file can be purchased for two purposes: collection and one-time individual use. The "Artist" acknowledges that in some cases these two purposes may overlap. She's fine with that. "Collection" is defined as the ownership of, stewardship over, and preservation of the file, including maintenance of the file's security, in perpetuity. "One-time individual use" is defined as utilizing the digital file and executing instructions set forth here by the "Artist" to tattoo the digital file onto the individual owner's body once. Incorrectly collected or incorrect one-time individual use will unauthenticate the digital file. Unauthentication is defined as the voiding the digital file as an authentic work of art, meaning that the digital file will no longer be available for sale, use, and/or collection. A digital file is not to be reproduced, imaged, copied, photographed, etc., in any way. It can be shown to others and put on display in cultural institutions or collections with the permission of the artist/ the artist's estate. If any digital file is reproduced, imaged, copied, photographed, etc., in any way, the digital file will be immediately unauthenticated. Unauthentication is defined as the voiding the digital file as an authentic work of art, meaning that the digital file will no longer be available for sale, use, and/or collection. Any digital file unauthenticated through any misuse (as defined in this document) will never again be reissued by the artist. After collection and/or one-time individual use, the digital file may be sold through Fairchain to another buyer for collection and/or one-time individual use.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR "COLLECTION"
The "Artist" acknowledges the right of the collector to hold on to the digital file in perpetuity. The collector is not obliged to create a physical tattoo on their body.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR "ONE-TIME INDIVIDUAL USE"
1. Contact a tattoo shop and find a willing and collaborative tattoo artist to work with. The collaborative process is integral to the process of making tattoo. If you are both a tattoo artist and the owner of the digital file, you must find another tattoo artist to tattoo the digital file onto your body. Home-tattooing, self-tattooing, stick-and-pokes, and any other methods beyond that which the "Artist" has instructed in this section will unauthenticate the digital file.
2. With your willing and collaborative tattoo artist, agree upon the pigment that will be used, and obtain that pigment for your tattoo artist if they ask you to do so. Your tattoo artist must agree to use the pigment for your tattoo before continuing. While the "Artist" acknowledges that she used blood to make these tattoos on her body, she sees your relationship to pigment as one that you can establish for yourself with the willingness of your tattoo artist. She suggests using tattoo ink. Tattoos must be made with the tattoo artist's standard tattoo gun(s) and the needle(s) that they see fit upon viewing the digital file.
3. The tattoo artist will then print only page #1 of the digital file to make one stencil on transfer paper (that will then be used to transfer the image to the skin). Printing of any additional pages will unauthenticate the digital files, as will non-compliance with any one or more of the following:
- The stencil from the digital file cannot be created more than once per individual collector.
- Digital files must be printed at 100%, or at 1-to-1 ratio, and cannot be scaled up or down. The digital file/stencil cannot be cut, broken, or altered in any way.
- Purchasers of tattoo sets T04 and T07 must space these groupings exactly as they are laid out in the digital file and as they print on the stencil.
- Stencil(s) or photographs of the stencil(s) on or off your body may not be circulated.
4. Utilizing the map and reference photo, as well as your own research, transfer that one stencil onto your body in a place that most closely matches the map. The "Artist" suggests that you spend time on this process, as the stencil cannot be created more than once. The "Artist" acknowledges that there may be a myriad of circumstances that may not allow you to match your tattoo precisely to where that tattoo sits on the map (such as other tattoos already on that space, natural markings or scars already on the skin, missing limbs, etc.) and instructs you and your willing and collaborative tattoo artist to follow your own instincts and place the stencil where it can fit fully onto the body in the next closest place. The tattoo artist must make the tattoo exactly following the stencil and referencing the map, reference photo, and your own research. Photographs taken at any time during the process of placing the stencil or tattooing will unauthenticate the digital file.
5. The tattoo artist is responsible for destroying (shredded, ripped up, cut up, incinerated or any other means that make it impossible for the stencil to be recreated) the stencil transfer paper immediately upon tattooing.
6. As they heal, take care of the tattoo in the weeks ahead. Take care of the tattoo in the skin in the years ahead.
7. At this point, the tattoo is yours. The "Artist" suggests that you document the final tattoo as you see fit, when you see fit, and by your own metrics.
8. In perpetuity, when asked about your tattoo, explain their origin(s) to the best of your abilities and as you understand them.
9. Upon one-time individual use, the digital file can be held onto in perpetuity or sold to another buyer through Fairchain for collection and/or one-time individual use.