A Danish artist has courted controversy by choosing to tattoo a number of deleted celebrity tweets to his body for a new art project.
Kasper Nørland, who began his ‘Tweettoo Project’ on Instagram last year, has already immortalised social posts from a number of the world’s most famous people. This includes a sexist jibe from Donald Trump (“If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?”), a drugs confession from Justin Bieber (“Everyone seems to be making a fuss over my cannabis situation. It’s not going to stop me doing it”), and a political power statement from Rihanna (“#FreePalestine”).
Nørland – who has already got around 10 tattoos for the project – claims that these additions are a way of exploring the “the powerful and potentially dangerous combination of celebrity and social media.”
“The Tweettoo Project is a work-in-progress art project,” he explains. “If a celebrity tweets a statement that he or she then for some reason deletes, it qualifies for my Tweettoo project.”
“Anyone can thoughtlessly say offensive things they regret but when you do it on the internet it will stay there forever. Like a tattoo. Combine this with an audience of 1 million followers and you have a situation that could easily get out of control.”
Nørland adds that the tattoos are not “personal attacks” on these celebrities. Instead, they’re just a way of remembering the influence they have over their followers. “If a celebrity tweets a statement that he or she then for some reason deletes, it qualifies for my Tweettoo project,” he adds simply.
Follow Nørland’s Tweettoo project on Instagram (@Tweettoo) here.
