Geoff Ostling has an impressive body of work. From the waratah tattooed on the base of his spine to the roses on his underarms, his body is a canvas with few blank spaces left.
The retired teacher believes in organ donation - with a twist. When he dies, he wants his internal organs to be used for medical purposes. He would like his skin, which has taken the best part of 15 years to decorate with tattoos inspired by Sydney gardens, to be shown in a gallery or museum. What form this should take is yet to be decided.
"That depends how old I am and what the body looks like at the time," he said. "If I had an athlete's body, like one of the great swimmers, then maybe I would want it stretched into a lifelike shape. If it's old and saggy, I would like it to be stretched flat."
The Canberra tattoo artist eX de Medici did most of Ostling's ink-work. Drawing mostly from real flowers, not illustrations, she started with a banksia arrangement up one side of his torso and bottlebrushes up the other. The National Gallery of Australia has some of the artist's canvases and the illustrated man hopes his hide can join this collection.
Skin, a short documentary to be screened as part of the Sydney Film Festival, follows the relationship between the tattooist and her subject.
Most of the time clothing keeps Ostling's tattoos out of view. Until recently, few people had seen his decorations.
"What's a bit scary is that I'm going to reveal my tattoos to a whole lot of students I have taught over the years, and their parents. But I'm retired now. You can do anything you like when you retire," he said.
Skin will be screened as part of Anatomy, a collection of three documentaries probing the connection between art and the body, at Sydney's Greater Union George Street Cinemas tomorrow (Saturday, June 14) at noon.
- By Emily Dunn and Elicia Murray for SMH.