Minneapolis has a fascinating new museum date to circle on the calendar. On December 18, the Science Museum of Minnesota opens Body of Work: Tattoo Culture, a traveling exhibition from Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture that traces more than 5,000 years of tattooing, from ancient ritual to one of today’s most visible and celebrated art forms. It will be on view through April 18, 2027.
The exhibition follows tattooing’s long and joyful journey across cultures and continents: its roots in sacred ritual and cultural tradition, its Indigenous influences, and the many ways ink has marked identity, spirituality, protection, status, remembrance and personal story. Historic artifacts and imagery sit alongside contemporary photography, original artwork, documentary films, oral histories and large-scale infographics.
Visitors can also get hands-on. Guests can discover their own tattoo style with interactive finders, explore a tattoo “pain heat map,” browse hundreds of tattoo submissions from around the world, and settle into a vintage tattoo chair for a photo. Time-lapse films show artists designing and creating tattoos, while soundscapes inspired by working studios fill the gallery.
The show features original works by 11 tattoo artists, plus pieces by acclaimed innovators Bob Tyrrell, Damon Conklin, Nikko Hurtado and Heather Maranda, and photographs of Lyle Tuttle, the legendary tattoo artist and historian. Whether you have a sleeve full of ink or have never set foot in a studio, this is a warm, colorful story about art, science, tradition and the deeply human urge to tell our stories — a perfect winter museum outing for the Twin Cities.
Photo: Grant Hindsley, courtesy of the Science Museum of Minnesota
