“Tattoo Circus is a meeting between different groups and structures working for solidarity with prisoners. We want to promote alternative responses to penalty based criminal policies,” the organization’s summary of the initiative. They consider that prison is indispensable for the proper functioning of the State – “The Police, the Courts,

lawmakers, … are nothing without the day-to-day life of prisons” – and that is why they link the fight against prisons and the state.

The people, groups and groups participating in the Tatto Circus programme do not receive any money, and the economic performance of the meeting is aimed at initiatives or movements in favour of prisoners and against prisons.

A varied and varied programme

The Tattoo Circus will start on Friday 17th June and will continue until Sunday, with a varied and varied schedule. There will be movie sessions, concerts, conferences, drag workshop... The central show is a Saturday night cabaret that mixes suspensing, clowns, mentalism, acrobatics, shibari, or hip-hop in free style.

In addition, every day between 10:00 and 21:00 in the evening there will be tattoo, massage and hairdressing services, and shibari and suspenpensing workshops.

Blue Birds in Tattoo Circus

The meeting will begin with the musical presentation of the book Txori Urdinak, edited by Argia. The book gathers the life and reflections of the prisoner Santi Cobos FIES. Beginning at 18:00 a.m., the authors of the book Zigor Olabarria and former Basque political president Ekaitz Samaniego will talk about the penitentiary system, the relations of solidarity between ‘social’ and ‘political’ prisoners and the culture of punishment. The musical group Ziklone and Tupa then play the selected fragments of the book.

Tatto Circus is an initiative that takes place in different countries of the world. The Basque Country has been held in Añorga, Bergara and Carmen de Bilbao, among other places.

Here we present the schedule of this year and a collection of photos (poster and photos of the meeting organized at the Carmen Tatto Circus):