Page 35 - South Mississippi Living - March, 2020

Walter and also with tattooing,” Stebly said.
The exhibit takes up two galleries at the museum. It
includes paintings, drawings, preparatory materials and photography celebrating Stebly’s unique body of work. Quite often Stebly will draw the design on paper before
applying the tattoo. He is fond of using watered down tattoo ink to paint with.
“A painting can be passed down from generation to generation, but a tattoo passes away when the wearer dies.
So even through it’s permanent in the context of a life, it’s also very impermanent because it will leave when the
person is gone,” Rankin said.
Codling developed a history of tattooing in the Gulf
South that is included in the exhibit. It depicts the art as being practiced as far back as 8000 B.C.E. Explorers to
North America described permanent drawings on the skin of the Indigenous peoples. While tattoos on sailors became popular in the 1940s, it wasn’t until 1970s that
celebrities made the art mainstream. For “Bloodlines” opening in October 2019, the
attendance crossed generations. The traditional reception earlier in the evening later evolved into Stebly applying
a tattoo live in the gallery under his great-grandfather’s
ski . Admission to the late night event only required guests to show their tattoos.
While Stebly’s heritage is known in Ocean Springs, when he travels worldwide to other tattoo events, he’s
known only for the amazing art he creates, Rankin said. “There are so many talented members of this family and in the community at-large. As a museum, we have
an obligation to show the contemporary art that’s being made while celebrating part of the reason why there is
so much contemporary art here, and it’s because of the Anderson family,” Rankin said.
Walter Anderson Museum of Art
510 Washington Ave., Ocean Springs 228.872.3164
story by Susan Ruddiman photos by Susan Ruddiman and courtesy of WAMA
Matt Stebly tattooing a live model during the opening
night of “Bloodlines.”
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March 2020 | 35
www.walterandersonmuseum.org