birthed from the belly of a bomb

The origins of the Vietnamese tattoo traditions are tied to the origin myth of its peoples, signifying as a marker of identity and ancestral connection. This chapter, manifested through 14 paintings, serves as one of the origin myths of "the land of the tattooed" and reconciles the birth of the tradition with the diasporic experience to imagine how its revival can overcome reductive narratives. It proposes traditions as witnesses of history and a notion of origins that, instead of fundamentalism and borders, is guided by ancestral love. An origin myth for a people half here, half there. The birth of a diaspora. And the rebirth of the tradition.