My artifact is a documentary that presents the body as a living text, marked – literally and metaphorically – with autobiographic stories of resistance and self-discovery. In its somatic medium I contest the premise that tattoos are purely ornamental or cosmetic but rather signs of personal testimonies that merge with collective mythologies. Aside from ritualistic practices, I explore the tattoo form as an assertion of agency in contemporary metropolitan subcultures where denotations and presumptions collide. I also explore the reasoning to remain unmarked, and the subsequent alternatives of performing and archiving identity. In essence, within the film’s polyphony of voices, I aim to construct a layered tapestry of narratives that destabilise favoured singular truths and institutionalised paradigms.