In February 2024, I was invited to attend the Inuit Tunniit tattoo gathering in Ulukhaktok Northwest Territories by Western Arctic Youth Collective (WAYC) as my passion for traditional tattooing evolves. It was such a beautiful event that opened many opportunities for me as an apprentice. I am so grateful and would like to thank WAYC for giving me the chance to meet other apprentices and artists from all over Inuit Nunangat and to learn different skills and techniques.

I flew from Kuujjuaq to Montreal, Montreal to Toronto and then took a connecting flight to Yellowknife where I met beautiful new friends. The following day we took a charter, flight to Ulukhaktok from Yellowknife where the event took place. During our stay we spoke about each other’s experiences and shared a little bit about how we can support each other as it is often hard to find support. We also learnt how to stitch tattoo which I found was so amazing! We were a group of 7 artists and were able to tattoo an average of 5 people each from the community. It was so healing and so amazing to see elders with traditional markings and to hear stories of their families having tattoos as well. They were very supportive of our work to regain our ancestral markings. It was a very memorable trip, and I hope to one day go back to Ulukhaktok as the community members were extremely welcoming.

ALISON MESHER