Nævus

tattoo, 2014

On the artist’s back, a tattoo reproducing the shape of a mole is applied.

This added image does not seek to stand out but to blend in with those already present on the skin. Mimetic, it acts as camouflage: an almost invisible image, indistinguishable to the untrained eye.

Trompe-l’oeil turned trompe-corps, it simulates naturalness and obscures the very possibility of identifying the origin of the marks. By integrating itself into the surface of the body, Nævus tends to disappear into what it imitates. Its presence becomes normalized, until it is almost imperceptible. As time passes, the real and the fake can no longer be separated, giving way to a lasting indistinction between biological data and the image produced.