Tattooed stories is an audio-visual project that explores the boundaries between narrative and images of tattoos that people mark on their skin. The project aims to explore what role art plays into what it means to be human by looking into illustrated skin, mourning, absence, physical pain, love, the power of memory and their narrative. This project has collected tales and conversations about why people decide to inscribe permanent images on their skin. The project has created an ongoing series of interactive public installations based on the database collected by a participatory website, augmented by intimate real-life interviews with heavily tattooed people which were illustrated by the author as part of the project.