With great tenderness and intimacy, this short documentary by the Japanese video artist Mari Shibata brings us into a very unusual tattooing session. Katie, who has had a double mastectomy following breast cancer, receives 3D nipple tattoos from Claire, a career make-up artist who provides free services to former cancer patients. The moment when Katie sees herself transformed shows how a small act of altruism can help to heal a patient’s complex post-cancer relationship with her body.
Director: Mari Shibata
video
Consciousness and altered states
How an artist learned to ‘co-live’ with the distressing voice in her head
6 minutes
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History of science
Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful
8 minutes
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Medicine
Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment
11 minutes
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Nature and landscape
After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint
15 minutes
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Art
A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea
7 minutes
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Art
Defying classification, fantastical artworks reframe the racism of Carl Linnaeus
8 minutes
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Film and visual culture
Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation
5 minutes
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Illness and disease
Humanity eradicated smallpox 45 years ago. It’s a story worth remembering
25 minutes
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Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes