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Finding Human Connection Through Tattooing

By Karl Templeton
Published October 23, 2024 at 5:07 PM EDT
Tattoo artist Clementine Wilson at work
Tattoo artist Clementine Wilson at work

Like many creative kids when they were younger, Clementine Wilson always found themself doodling on their arms. At 12, Wilson discovered tattooing, finding any way they could to practice on themself and the people around them. Now a working artist, they work at Tattoo Gloriosum, taking pride in creating a space for clients to have a safe and comfortable tattoo experience. For Clementine, getting to tattoo their own art on someone else's body is an honor like no other. They feel tattooing is something truly special and much more intimate compared to other art forms out there.

Alex Chambers
Alex Chambers runs WFIU’s arts desk, and produces and hosts WFIU’s Inner States, a weekly podcast and radio show about arts, culture, and ideas from southern Indiana and beyond. He’s the co-creator of How to Survive the Future, a podcast about the present, produced in partnership with Indiana Humanities. He has a PhD in American Studies, with a dissertation called Climate Violence and the Poetics of Refuge, and a book of poems called Bindings: A Preparation, about domestic life and empire. In his spare time, he teaches audio storytelling at the IU Media School. When he’s not in the woods gathering sound, you might see him out for a run on the streets of Bloomington.
See stories by Alex Chambers