This Ink Runs Deep (2019)

• 76%
• 2019
• Documentary
• Asia Youngman

This Ink Runs Deep features indigenous tattoo artists from across Canada who are reviving ancestral traditions that disappeared during colonization. Through the film, we learn about the practices that were thought to be lost forever, and how their revival reflects a reawakening of indigenous identity. We travel across Canada to learn about the role that tattoos once played in different indigenous cultures, how they disappeared, and why they are being brought back to life. In Haida Gwaii, we speak to Kwiaahwa Jones, who uses a traditional stick and poke method to tattoo ancestral crests. Just a few doors down, Gregory Williams, the first Haida tattoo practitioner in over a century, uses a tattoo gun to build upon traditional designs. In Terrace, British Columbia, Nakkita Trimble tattoos as a way to connect the generations of her community and ignite an interest in tradition for Nisga'a youth. Dion Kaszas helped found the Earth Line Tattoo collective and gives presentations at Acadia University in Nova Scotia in order to pass on tattoo traditions. Jana Angulalik describes how receiving her traditional forehead tattoo solidified her Inuit identity. She has dedicated her work to helping other Inuit women feel grounded in their identity. We explore these different perspectives as a way to offer a complete picture of the ways indigenous tattoo artists are reviving the culture and how it is helping indigenous peoples "stitch themselves back together".