284: Stories on Skin: A Librarian’s Guide to Tattoos as Personal Archives

Circulating Ideas

Steve chats with Terry Baxter and Libby Coyner-Tsosie, authors of Stories on Skin: A Librarian’s Guide to Tattoos as Personal Archives, about the cultural and historical significance of tattoos, how body art intersects with themes like gender, queerness, and community memory, and broader topics related to archival practices, community engagement, and the evolving nature of libraries and archives in preserving diverse lived experiences.

Read the transcript!

Tattoos are not merely decorative; they contain deep meaning for individuals and communities. They document their wearers’ personal histories and position in families or society, and they engage with a communal understanding of symbols.
This unique book makes the case that archivists who want to preserve as full a human story as possible must recognize the rich documentation provided by tattoos. It also argues, in a broader sense, that traditional archives are not representative of the ways human beings transmit information through time and that they must be augmented by other types of storytelling to provide a more complete record of our species.
Authors Baxter and Coyner touch on timely topics such as historical narratives, storytelling, cultural traditions, the body as a text, social control, and memorialization by considering tattoos as a personal and community archive. Discussing tattoos as a storytelling tool, the authors also challenge how history is kept and who gets included. Stories on Skin is committed to the rights of communities to tell their stories in their own way and to the power that right brings.

Terry Baxter (he/him) has been an archivist for almost 40 years, the last 25 with the Multnomah County (OR) Archives, USA. He helped establish the County Archives in 2001 and continues seeking ways to use it to assist information seekers of all sorts. Baxter is a member of and has served in a variety of leadership positions in Northwest Archivists; Society of American Archivists; Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums; Archives Leadership Institute; and The Academy of Certified Archivists.

Libby Coyner-Tsosie (she/they) is the University Archivist at UMass Amherst in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, USA, where she primarily cares for collections related to the history of the university. She was trained in archival studies and library science at the University of British Columbia and is a member of the 2016 cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute. She is a cancer survivor whose life has been reshaped by disability. Libby lives with her partner Shepherd and their five cats.

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Stories on Skin: A Librarian’s Guide to Tattoos as Personal Archives