Students tattoo their professor's body in collective performance at Rome's Litografia Bulla

On March 4, 2025, at Litografia Bulla in Rome, 14 students from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma permanently tattooed their professor Paolo Canevari as part of the project "To my students." Curated by Irene Angenica and Giulia Gaibisso, the year-long editorial and performative project culminated in a live tattooing session by Andrea Lo Giudice. The designs, selected or created anew, were inscribed on Canevari's skin, creating a tangible map of the teacher-student relationship. The project challenges traditional vertical hierarchies in education, transforming the professor's body into a shared space of collective knowledge and affection. The tattoos were later transferred onto stone and reproduced in a limited edition of 50 prints, available for purchase to support the project. Co-curator Angenica described the act as "a gesture of care, affection, and gratitude" where students take agency to imprint an indelible sign of their collective journey. Gaibisso noted that the tattoos form a Warburgian atlas of relational genealogies, linking Canevari to the participants and each other.