IOTA Institute is honored to be working with artist and researcher Dion Kaszas in 2020 through our curatorial Bio Art project. Dion Kaszas is an Nlaka’pamux cultural tattoo practitioner and a leader in the revival of Indigenous tattooing in Canada. His area of research is Indigenous tattooing, focusing keenly on the revival of Indigenous peoples tattooing practices using Indigenous and Creative research methodologies.
Dion will be researching links between the creation of Nlaka’pamux Blackwork tattooing and Bio Art, considering the politicized Indigenous body in contemporary Indigenous tattooing, ‘body projects’ in contrast to idealized standards set through advertising and consumer culture.
Dion holds a MA in Indigenous Studies from UBC in Okanagan. He is a founding member of the Earthline Tattoo Collective, His work has been featured in Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification, Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity, and The World Atlas of Tattoo. He was also featured in Skindigenous, a 13-part documentary series produced in association with APTN exploring Indigenous tattooing traditions around the world.