Stitching Identity into Skin: Aurélie Wintsch and the Materialization of Self

Wintsch, Aurélie. 2019. “Stitching Self-Identity: The Role of Embroidery in Reconstructing the Self.” Journal of Arts and Humanities8 (2): 25–34.

Embroidery and tattooing may seem like distant cousins, but Aurélie Wintsch’s analysis of embroidery as a practice of "stitching the self" offers profound insights into how bodily practices can become vessels of identity reconstruction. In her article, Wintsch explores how thread becomes a medium for healing, trauma processing, and self-definition—each stitch a trace of internal emotional life made material. This resonates deeply with my tattoo-based practice. Like embroidery, tattooing is intimate, repetitive, and rooted in ritual. It transforms the skin into a canvas of lived experiences—mental landscapes given form. Just as embroidery embeds personal history into cloth, my tattoos embed psychological states and identity negotiations into living skin. Both use the needle not just as a tool of craft but as an agent of care and meaning-making. Wintsch’s ideas helped me reframe my practice not simply as decorative or illustrative but as performative and participatory. Each tattoo is a co-authored act between artist and client—a visual narrative permanently inked into flesh. Her text reinforces my understanding of tattooing as a method of mapping the mind, connecting internal processes to physical surfaces, and inviting shared emotional exchange.

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