Truly Tribal

“In Truly Tribal: Contemporary Indigenous Tattooing, Nlaka’pamux artist and scholar Dion Kaszas brings together a diversity of Indigenous tattoo practitioners to demonstrate how memory and identity is being reconnected to knowledge of place, and material culture, for those working to reassert Indigeneity around the globe. The stories shared by the featured skin markers are contemporary and personal, yet united in situating tattooing as part of ongoing efforts to reclaim a larger web of traditional knowledge in the ongoing wake of colonialism. Although tattoos are organic and temporary, linked to the lifespan of the individual that wears them, the knowledge surrounding their creation is holistic and dispersed. This inspiring publication, authored by Indigenous creators, is a significant contribution to our understanding of how contemporary Indigeneity is being expressed.”

“In Truly Tribal, tattooist, podcaster and born-again coyote Dion Kaszas has assembled a rare collection of essays reflecting on the challenges, opportunities and history of contemporary Indigenous tattooing. With perspectives from Turtle Island and Oceania, Truly Tribal is one of very few books written by Indigenous tattooists and other creatives about the work they do. Through their rich and often personal accounts they write about cultural loss and recovery, highlighting the value of tattooing as a resource and practice that indelibly marks who we are and where we come from. Truly Tribal is a timely record of indigenous tattooing, but also a significant contribution to our understanding of indigenous cultural politics and the projects of cultural revival and survivance.”

Dion Kaszas is a Nlaka’pamux ancestral skin marker and born-again Coyote. He has been at the forefront of Indigenous tattooing in Canada since 2012, training and mentoring the next wave of revivalists. He has curated two major exhibitions highlighting Indigenous ancestral skin markers and their ancestral practices: Body Language: Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest at the Bill Reid Gallery, and True Tribal: Contemporary Expressions of Ancestral Tattoo Practices at the Museum of Vancouver.

In 2024, he launched the Transformative Marks podcast, which journeys through the world of Indigenous tattooing, amplifying the voices of ancestral skin markers, Indigenous tattoo artists, and cultural tattoo practitioners. In 2019, he began developing Nlaka’pamux Blackwork, a contemporary customary practice rooted in his ancestors’ visual language and his understanding of ceremonies that celebrate and enhance the lives of all human beings.

Dion’s ancestors marked their skin for a multitude of reasons, each a spiritual act intended to guide and influence the wearer’s life path. These reasons included coming-of-age ceremonies, marking spiritual quests, and beautifying themselves. Today, he tattoos so the coming generations have a living, vibrant tattooing tradition informed by their ancestors’ teachings, methods, and imagery.

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