A little over one year ago, Marianela Capelo initiated a project called A Stranger A Day, where she made it her mission to convince one stranger a day to let her take a picture of one of their tattoos, and share the story behind it. She posted them to her blog daily and we invited her to post one a week here on V.I.A., and it garnered such an amazing response. Now that the project is all wrapped up she's hosting a one night show at Project Space on November 3rd (DETAILS), showcasing prints of every single tattoo she's gathered. We decided to turn the tables on her and ask a few questions about her own tattoos and her experience talking to strangers.
What's the most interesting story you've gathered during your time doing A Stranger A Day?
It is extremely hard to pick ONE story. To be absolutely honest, I don’t think there’s one that can be qualified as ‘the best’ (for either looks, story or circumstance), specially after hearing the vast array of stories and meeting a bunch of amazing people, and I kind of like that. There are a few that are outrageous and hard to believe, like the one made with ink mixed with a friend’s ashes, or the guy who got his private parts tattooed and let me photograph it. Probably not the ‘most interesting’ but certainly memorable.
Did you ever approach anybody and they didn't want to talk to you or does pretty much everyone want to talk about their tattoos?
I’d say that less than 10 people (who have tattoos) have openly said that they don’t want to share. Considering the length of the project and the amount of people I’ve talked to, that’s pretty damn good! Vancouver is amazing this way. I didn’t have the same luck in Mexico or Southern US.
What's the most visually appealing tattoo you've seen in the project? Like take the story away from it, strictly from an aesthetic point of view, which one do you like the most?
You’re putting me in a hard position here. I love the classic-looking tattoos, the anchors and ships (like this one) and the big and bold ones (like this one). Hard to think they are done with needles on skin.
Do you have any tattoos? If so, can YOU tell US a story about any of them?
I do have a few, my first one was a very simple one: a line drawing that Picasso made of his dog Lump (a dachshund), but mine has a broken tail. My dog passed away shortly after I moved to Vancouver. He was a Dachshund too and his tail was already broken when we adopted him. He was my buddy. My mom and brother loved him too, so the happiest family moments I have are with him.
Have you got any work done while gathering these stories and do you think the stories and the project itself influenced your decision on what to get?
I think this project helped me to let go, as cliché as it sounds. I didn’t have any tattoos when I started it, and it didn’t take long for me to get some. I thought I didn’t know what to get, or that the perfect tattoo will come to me, but there is no such thing as ‘the perfect tattoo’, and to be honest I already knew what I was getting.
Culture also played an important role: back in Mexico, where I’m from, many people look down on people with tattoos. You can get jobs denied for having one, and for girls, it could be the perfect (stupid) excuse for people to disrespect you. Without realizing it, I was perpetuating this shallow point of view by denying myself something I love, just to avoid cultural repercussions. I was the happiest person when I got my first one. It represented me owning my own body, and respecting my own beliefs.
Marianela's dachshund tattoo
Do you think you're as shy as you were when you started?
Nope! This really helped. It forced me to put myself out there and challenge what I called ‘fear of rejection’ (what I found was the source of my shyness). I discovered that the worst that could happen was someone saying ‘NO’, in which case I’d just have to move on and find someone else. The kindness of people amazed me. This has been an amazing journey. I think people should talk to strangers a bit more often.
Are you going to continue to do this project now that you've gone past 365 days?
I’ll continue collecting tattoo stories for sure, but not every day. It was important for me to set a goal and put the project to rest after that. The cool thing is that VIA gave me the chance to continue featuring a weekly stranger story, so that’s where my tattoo/stranger efforts will go to.
