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'World's Biggest Tattoo' Could Be Etched in East Boston

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You remember the Stairs of Fabulousness at Boston City Hall, right? Part of a slew of public-art projects meant to enliven the metropolis that much more. Well, the artist behind the kaleidoscopic steps, Liz LaManche, is currently conceptualizing something a lot bigger.

LaManche is in the process of staining and dying what she hopes will total 14 tattoos, as well as connecting motifs, into the weathered cement of the Boston Harbor Shipyard's pier in East Boston. It's part of the free HarborArts public space and the designs of the tattoos are no accident (nor is the medium—it's tattoos as in sailors). From a website dedicated to the project, which LaManche hopes to finish by Sept. 20:

So the idea of the project became: Creating tattoo designs for the pier, that point out the different places and peoples we have been connected to by sea. These various cultures will be represented by their art motifs from the period of the last 400 years, the time of our connection. Tattoo motifs from some of the peoples who lived, sailed or landed here, ceramic and fabric motifs from the cultures who sent us wares and ideas over the sea as part of our trade history… with some words of description and compass arrows to show the general direction of their land.

The designs could stretch to 1,000 feet in length, making them together, according to the website, quite possibly "the World's Largest Tattoo!" Stay tuned.
· Website: Dock Tattoo Project [Liz LaManche]
· Coming Soon to a Public Space in Boston Near You [Curbed Boston]