Realized: Michaela Melián - Piratensender AP1/100

Realized by: Maya Dew, Berlin, April 17th 2025 for Caroline Härdter

 

I never thought I’d get a tattoo.

Nobody who knew me thought I’d ever get a tattoo. 

A guy I met at the opening of Works on Skin: Flight 2, who was himself  sporting an impressive collection of tattoos,  told me: “I mean this in the best possible sense, but I never thought you’d be the type of person to get a tattoo.”

Well, I did. I got my first tattoo that night, realized by the incredible Maya Dew, and I could not be happier. 

This was not a spur of the moment decision. I have closely followed the Works on Skin project since its first instalment in 2024, and I found the idea fascinating, even though I thought that actually realizing one of the artworks on my own skin was out of the question. 

Then came Nov. 2, 2024, and with it the Works on Skin Pop up Exhibition at Galerie Max Weber in Munich, where the artworks for Flight 2 were presented for the first time. And for the first time, one of the artworks actually spoke to me in a way that made me say, “If I HAD to get a tattoo, it would be this one.”

It was “Pirate Radio” by Michaela Melián, whom I have admired since way back in the late 80’s when I first became a fan of F.S.K. The motif is a drawing of one of the vessels from which legendary pirate radio station Radio Caroline was broadcasting. 

As a former college radio DJ at KALX Berkeley, whose first name happens to be Caroline, there could not have been a more fitting choice for my first (and maybe only) tattoo. 

So the idea took root, and it grew, until I decided to take the leap on the occasion of the opening night. And yes, getting tattooed hurt quite a bit, and it was glorious, and now I am in love with my right inner forearm like never before.

Thank you, Michaela Melián, thank you, Maya Dew, and thank you to the fabulous team that gives us Works on Skin! 

Caroline Härdter