In Trade Tattoo, the flamboyant technique of Rainbow Dance (1936) achieves a very successful synthesis between different complex techniques explored by Len Lye – the use of images and hand painted textures, very lively colours, negatives – but also between real points of view (of more “serious” subjects) and abstract elements. The “subject” of the film was the importance of postal communications for industry. Len Lye employed unused sequences from documentaries about industry, possibly from directors he had worked with in the General Post Office Film Unit. The editing skills are such that it aroused the admiration of Vertov himself! Among some of the other techniques explored in the film is the image per image technique which gives the film its rhythmic pulse. This is also the first film where the image of a film perforation is used as a conscious element: surely in the beginning it must have been an accident but it is clear that, straight away, Len Lye used it deliberately as a reference to film material.” Malcolm LE GRICE.