Abstract

Dion Kaszas is an Nlaka’pamux cultural tattoo practitioner and a leader in the revival of Indigenous tattooing in Canada. He has been tattooing professionally since 2009 and started the revival of Nlaka’pamux tattooing in 2012. Dion travels to National and International events, conferences, and tattoo festivals representing Indigenous tattooing in Canada.
Dion's passion for tattooing extends beyond his artistic work into the successful completion of his Masters degree in Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. His continued area of research is Indigenous tattooing, focusing keenly on the revival of Indigenous peoples tattooing practices, using Indigenous and Creative research methodologies. Since his graduation Dion has contributed to a variety of publications as author and editor.
His work has been featured in Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification, Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity, The World Atlas of Tattoo, and highlighted in Newspaper articles from the New Zealand Herald to the CBC. In 2018, he was featured in Skindigenous, a 13-part documentary series produced in association with APTN exploring Indigenous tattooing traditions around the world.
Dion is a recipient of a Long Term Project grant through the Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis
Peoples component of the Canada Council for the Arts, for his project “Taking Nlaka’pamux Tattooing to the World.”
Dion acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.