The Archive · 01

The Wing

A large-scale black and grey piece, made for one person and built across sessions on the ribs and side. It was photographed from the first conversation to the moment she saw it in the mirror.

The record runs from color into black and grey on purpose. The making is alive. The finished work is not bound to a day.

Rafael Cassaro and Marlene going through the sketchbook before the first session

Before the first line, there is a conversation.The meeting

The wing drawn in blue stencil ink on paper, before it touched skin

It becomes a drawing no one has worn yet.The design

The stencil held against her side, finding its place on the body

Then it finds the body it was made for.The placement

The tattoo machine working the wing into the ribs

Hours we don't count. Nothing to prove.The craft

The finished wing settled across the ribs, in black and grey

The wing settles into the skin as if it had always been there.The work

Marlene photographed with the finished wing across her side

What she carried quietly, she now carries in the open.The muse

Marlene seeing the finished piece in the mirror

She meets herself. The work stays.What remains

Tattoo: Rafael Cassaro
Photography: Gerusa Younes
Placement: Ribs and side
Where: Boca Raton, Florida

Every piece in the archive began as a conversation.

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