Curar la piel

There was a time when tattoos were associated with characters from marginalized backgrounds, such as sailors, convicts or freaks. They were a provocative declaration of intent: "I have returned from another place." Nowadays the tattoo has become universal and has lost this status. The author himself shows them off and declares: "Getting a tattoo is a party. For us who mark ourselves, getting a tattoo is the biggest party imaginable, a mixture of a solemn vow and a childish trick". This is an essay about a subculture that has become culture. What drives you to get tattooed? What do you want to declare with this? The reasons can be ritual, identity, decorative... Healing the skin talks about the history and evolution of tattoos, their meaning, their presence in novels and films; of tattoo artists, of the body as a canvas and as a map. But, like tattoos, it talks above all about life: about bonds, emotions and feelings; about how we live and how we could do it, perhaps at a slower pace, more attentive to the passage of time, to make things last.