Podcast Corner: Getting beneath the skin on the history of tattoos
Beneath the Skin is hosted by Tomás O Máthúna and Dr Matt Lodder. Picture: iStock
Beneath The Skin is a podcast chronicling the interconnected history of the world through the complicated history of tattooing. The show is hosted by producer and tattoo collector Tomás O Máthúna and art history professor, museum curator, and tattoo historian Dr Matt Lodder.
It’s only been running since the start of August, their breezy conversations delving into the prehistoric origins of tattoos to watchalongs of Ink Master, with extra episodes available on Patreon.
Regardless of opinions on tattoos, it’s simply a good podcast to put on throughout the course of the day - Lodder in particular is fascinating to listen to, someone you’d be happy to chew the ear off if you met in person.
“I really want to make it clear that I am not here to try and explain to people that they should think tattooing is an art form or is good. It’s not my job to do that… I’m not interested in value claims,” he says on the first episode, adding that tattooing is “weird in that it’s counterculture inherently”.
And for those thinking of getting a tattoo, some sage advice from O Máthúna: “For a lot of people, their first tattoo is the one they’ll think of most fondly that will be probably their worst one.”
They promise an episode dedicated to the, ahem, art of getting that initial tattoo. “You always remember your first,” O Máthúna sagely points out.
There’s plenty in Beneath the Skin to occupy your ears already, but historian Donal Fallon’s Three Castles Burning podcast - he’s just released a new book too, A History of Dublin in Twelve Streets - has a short episode in the archive looking at the history of Dublin and tattoos.
He says on episode 34: “If one were to write the social history of youth in Dublin, it would have to include Johnny Eagle, whose former tattoo shop, The Eagle Studio on Capel St, physically remains today.”
Fallon points out on this July 2020 show that the building had just sold but was in need of some TLC. Perhaps the podcast itself is becoming a historical reference point as Fallon posted on Instagram last week that the building is still up for sale, but the “shopfront and distinctive blue is disappearing”.
Dua Lipa: At Your Service returned for its second season on Friday with first guest Monica Lewinsky. There had been some short episodes over summer - between Dua’s hectic touring schedule - that included a guided yoga class, guided meditation, and a “no-recipe” roast chicken walkthrough. Is there anything she can’t do?
