Autor(…) Most of these images were produced by leading Łodzian tattooist Aleksander Iwancz at Sigil Tattoo. Andrzej Gagz, manager of Sigil Tattoo provided the following context for the designs:
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Łódź had a reputation for being the worst and the poorest large city in Poland. Indeed, it was very neglected and had a prominent working-class character. Living here wasn’t particularly exciting. On the other hand, for me and many of my friends from punk and artistic circles, the city’s severity was an inspiration for our own actions. We reminded ourselves of its multicultural roots and the disastrous effects of two totalitarian regimes that left their mark on it.
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It wasn’t particularly easy to latch onto a larger idea in Łódź. Even a wrong one because Łódź was one of a few cities to resist nationalist, racist, and xenophobic attitudes that were very noticeable in Poland at a certain period. Even the radical football patriotism didn’t gain so much acceptance here. At that time [i.e. the 1990s/2000s], many people expressed their vision of ‘Greater Poland,’ all of which stemmed from mythomania, provincialism, and blind rage that would usually find no outlet. For instance, racist flags were displayed at matches, there were attacks on those who looked different, and ultra-right-wing symbols were tattooed.
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To counterbalance such acts, I felt that we could rely on something different, smaller, more local, but also universally scorned, and give it a different meaning. We started tattooing dark, industrial motifs such as machine parts, gears, and landscapes with factories, and then the first ‘little boats’ appeared. It was so well-received that more and more people came to get their Łódź-themed tattoos.
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(Translated interview with Tomasz Fisiak, 6 November 2023)
