Hard-coded investigates the intersection between the linguistic sign and the flesh, drawing its title from programming language where hard-coding refers to the direct and unalterable embedding of data into source code.

According to Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, language is an organic set of signs that forms the code of a language. Building upon the Saussurean triad of signifier, signified and sign, the project explores a "fourth dimension": that of blood and breath, where the tattooed word ceases to be an abstract concept to become body.

Through an analog lens, the research documents how ink renders the message intrinsic and immutable, transforming the arbitrariness of language into a material memory. In this process, the tattoo transcends its role as a public sign to become an intimate and secret code, a private cipher that exists solely within the shared space between the viewer and the viewed.