Tatts inspiration

Alex de Vos
After painting a dozen tattooed people, Janne Kearney has discovered there is more to the ink than meets the eye.
“There are lots of reasons why people get tattoos and often they are very private and personal reasons,” the Geelong West artist said.
“People get them at different stages of their life; to mark an event or help them through trauma.
“Every tattoo tells a story.”
Initially drawn to the artistic side of tattoos, Ms Kearney’s collection of paintings has also helped break a long-held stereotype that holders are drunken sailors, muscle-bound bikies or career criminals.
“I always wondered why people would display such permanent art,” she said.
“Often they are introverted and not people you would expect to have a tattoo.”
A piece from her tattoo art collection, called Hope, Strength and Beauty, has been selected for exhibition at the internationally-acclaimed Cancer Council Victoria Arts Awards.
Ms Kearney said the “virtually” life size adaptation was her favourite painting in the series.
The piece portrays a breast cancer survivor with her tattoo of a cherry blossom and a dragon fly.
“There’s actually a funny story behind it,” she said.
“The lady was at a folk music festival and she entered a raffle and ended up winning second prize, which was a voucher for a tattoo.
“She wasn’t into tattoos at all.”
The woman’s perspective on the popular form of body art was altered during a discussion with a tattooist after a mastectomy, which robbed the woman of her nipple.
“One of the things that bothered her the most was losing her nipple,” Ms Kearney said.
“She was talking to someone and they said ‘We can beautify that’, so they replaced the nipple with a cherry blossom and the rest of the tattoo is of a dragon fly, which symbolises the illusion of beauty.”
Ms Kearney hoped her painting would raise awareness about the potentially life-threatening disease.
“I’ve lost two very good friends to breast cancer and I really wanted to support women,” she said.
The Cancer Council Victoria Arts Awards exhibition opens July 11 in Melbourne.