"You: expansion of the self" is an experience about the self while the tattooing process takes place. Similarly to sensory deprivation, in which someone’s brain is ideally isolated from external stimuli with the aim of removing distractions, here the individual is invited to be in touch with themselves while watching and listening to the reflections of their own body. Yet, instead of removing perception of surrounding stimuli, the tattooed subject is fed with projections and a soundscape, both generated by their emotional state and by how this changes during the tattooing experience.

Among humans and animals, changes in sweat glands activity and heart rate depend on the activity of the visceral motor (autonomic) system and are linked with emotional arousal. Monitoring the variation of the first physiological indicator, a Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) device measures the intensity of the person's arousal (without identifying what kind of emotion is felt) and influences the projection of a uniform background, which ranges from blue (low intensity/not excited) to red (high intensity/highly excited). Meanwhile, the sound of their beating heart is live-captured through a stethoscope converted into a microphone and turned into ambient sound. The result is a feedback loop generated by the tattooed subject influencing and being affected by the environment around them; an expanded view of their inner state.

The whole experience is recorded in POV mode by using an action cam attached to the person's head and then uploaded to an online archive. By using a dedicated mobile app embedding image recognition technology, the tattoo scored during the process can be scanned by the wearer to access and relive that specific experience in the future.

While transforming into a mainstream phenomenon, in modern and even contemporary western culture tattooing has been and is still widely assumed as a kind of artistic/artisanal service. Characteristic of the so-called “traditional” scene, in particular, is the idea of entering a tattoo shop located along a public street for getting scored by a more or less known tattoo practitioner a pre-made image ("flash"). In general, such bodily sign may be desired by the wearer for its aesthetic qualities and/or symbolic power, in which case it acts as a material memory of the experience (feeling or event) that it abstractly represents. Either the score is sought just as a form of adornment or for holding a meaning, in both circumstances it will always embed some reminiscence of the tattooing process and the related experience.

Observing the current state of the art, some practitioners are addressing the importance of the tattooing procedure over or in relation to the tattoo as its final outcome. Despite the differences, their works converge to a common aim: to enhance the cathartic and body-reclaiming potential of the tattooing experience through the establishment of contemporary rituals.

(“Blood Script”, Mary Coble, 2008; “Brutal Black Project”, Valerio Cancellier, Cammy Stewart, 2015 - present; “Body of Reverbs”, Michele Servadio, 2014 - present)

In view of this context, with “You: expansion of the self” SINTETICO questions whether the final outcome of the tattooing practice may be just a mark on the skin and therefore the physical memory of an experience, or the tattooing experience itself, in its mindful and introspective conception, recorded and accessible through the tattoo as a bodily interface.