18 mar Screening A body to live in + Vernissage Queer Tattoo History / Stories!
/Sta.Demonia Tattoo Stockholm 2026.02.19/
Warmly welcome 25/4 at 15-22 hs to vernissage of the exhibition Queer Tatueringshistoria / Historier at House of Q! Sara Swanson from StaDemonia Tattoo Stockholm has interviewed queers who got tattooed during the 70s and 80s and photographer Del LaGrace Volcano has portrayed the storytellers. Queer tattoo history / Stories is an ongoing art project, work of memory and research. Fragments collected for ourselves and our siblings, which tells of times where tattooing and queerness was taboo, shameful and/or forbidden AND an act filled with resistance, power and desire.The exhibition consists of Del la Grace volcano’s portraits and glimpses from the interviews. Location: House of Q, Malmvägen1.
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Program (might change, so check when it gets closer):
15.00 opening
16.00 Conversation Del LaGrace Volcano, Delilah and Sara Swanson
18.00 Online talk about Fakir Musafar and presentation of the film, by Angelo Madsen,
19.00 Screening “A body to live in”, (98 min, USA, 2025) by Angelo Madsen
20.30-21.00 Queer Bar and hangout
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In a public conversation Sara Swanson will speak with Del LaGrace Volcano and one of the project’s participants, Delilah, about memories and visions. Delilah was one of the founders of klubb LASH (now Wish) in 1995. She was inspired by Del’s images and also Fakir Musafar’s work, from USA and UK, when images of queer tattooed and pierced bodies were extremely hard to get hold on in Sweden.
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StaDemonia Tattoo Stockholm and Trans Fest Stockholm invites you, for the first time in Sweden, to see Angelo Madsen’s beautiful documentary film about Fakir Musafar, a predecessor in his obsession with body modification, ritualistic performance, piercing and tattooing, and as a gender fluid person who never fit in any box. The life and work of Fakir Musafar is inspiring and complex. Angelo Madsen will give us an online talk and presentation, about his important research and the film.
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About the film: “The queer art of Body modification took center stage in 1989 when Fakir Musafar’s “Modern Primitives” movement hit alternative cultures around the globe via the punk subcultural magazine Re/Search. A photographer, performance artist, and ritualist, Musafar’s work mobilized an entire generation of artists, thinkers, and seekers. A Body To Live In introduces this riveting “Gender Flex” icon to uncover the rich history of western body modification and its complex intersection with sexuality and spiritual practices.”
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More about the film: “A BODY TO LIVE IN is a feature film that traces the life and work of legendary photographer, performer, and ”Gender Flex” cultural icon, Fakir Musafar (1930-2018). Through investigating the body modification movement and the trajectory of Fakir’s art career and philosophy, A BODY TO LIVE IN uncovers a riveting facet of queer history. Using Fakir’s early experiments in body play and his photographic works from the 1940s and 50s as a springboard, the film traces the body modification movement as it emerged in LGBT subculture in the early 1970s. The film introduces us to early collaborative experimentation at gay underground BDSM parties, leading to the first piercing shop, moving through the radical faerie movement and the role of body modification during the AIDS epidemic, the emergence of body-based performance art, and the rise of an entire subculture. Insights from key figures including Annie Sprinkle, Ron Athey, Idexa Stern, Cléo Dubois, Jim Ward, Midori, and others provoke deeper reflections about art making, surviving AIDS, and the controversial collaging of various spiritual and cultural practices to build a philosophy. Captured in static 16mm film portraits, A BODY TO LIVE IN unfolds conversationally between Fakir’s archive of 100+ hours of unseen footage, and the voices of the canonical elders of this movement, to create intergenerational dialog, question cultural responsibility, and provoke larger ideas about the drive to transcend the limits of the body. “
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Angelo Madsen (Previously known as Madsen Minax) is a multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker, and educator. His projects consider how human relationships are woven through personal and collective histories, cultures, and kinships, with specific attention to subcultural experience, phenomenology, and the politics of desire.
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The event is a collaboration between StaDemonia Tattoo Stockholm, Trans Fest Stockholm, House of Q and ABF Stockholm.
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For more info contact sara@stademonia.com!