The Normans disdained tattooing. It disappeared from Western culture from the 12th to the 16th centuries. While tattooing diminished in the west, it thrived in Japan. At first, tattoos were used to mark criminals. First offenses were marked with a line across the forehead. A second crime was marked by adding an arch. A third offense was marked by another line. Together these marks formed the Japanese character for "dog".
It appears this was the original "Three strikes your out" law. In time, the Japanese escalated the tattoo to an aesthetic art form. The Japanese body suit originated around as a reaction to strict laws concerning conspicuous consumption. Only royalty were allowed to wear ornate clothing. As a result of this, the middle class adorned themselves with elaborate full body tattoos. A highly tattooed person wearing only a loin cloth was considered well dressed, but only in the privacy of their own home.
William Dampher is responsible for re-introducing tattooing to the west. He was a sailor and explorer who traveled the South Seas.
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He was put on exhibition , a money making attraction, and became the rage of London. It had been years since tattoos had been seen in Europe and it would be another years before tattooing would make it mark in the West. In the late s, Captain Cook made several trips to the South Pacific.
The people of London welcomed his stories and were anxious to see the art and artifacts he brought back.
A brief history of tattoos | Wellcome Collection
Returning form one of this trips, he brought a heavily tattooed Polynesian named Omai. He was a sensation in London. Soon, the upper- class were getting small tattoos in discreet places. For a short time tattooing became a fad.
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What kept tattooing from becoming more widespread was its slow and painstaking procedure. Each puncture of the skin was done by hand the ink was applied. In , Samuel O'Rtiely patented the first electric tattooing machine. It was based on Edison's electric pen which punctured paper with a needle point. The basic design with moving coils, a tube and a needle bar, are the components of today's tattoo gun.
The electric tattoo machine allowed anyone to obtain a reasonably priced, and readily available tattoo. As the average person could easily get a tattoo, the upper classes turned away from it. By the turn of the century, tattooing had lost a great deal of credibility. Tattooists worked the sleazier sections of town. Heavily tattooed people traveled with circuses and "freak Shows.
A Short History of Tattoo
The cultural view of tattooing was so poor for most of the century that tattooing went underground. Few were accepted into the secret society of artists and there were no schools to study the craft. There were no magazines or associations. Tattoo suppliers rarely advertised their products. One had to learn through the scuttlebutt where to go and who to see for quality tattoos. At the turn of the century it was a seaport and entertainment center attracting working-class people with money.
Samuel O'Riely cam from Boston and set up shop there. He took on an apprentice named Charlie Wagner. Alberts had trained as a wallpaper designer and he transferred those skills to the design of tattoos.
He is noted for redesigning a large portion of early tattoo flash art. While tattooing was declining in popularity across the country, in Chatham Square in flourished. Husbands tattooed their wives with examples of their best work. They played the role of walking advertisements for their husbands' work.
At this time, cosmetic tattooing became popular, blush for cheeks, coloured lips, and eyeliner. With world war I, the flash art images changed to those of bravery and wartime icons. In the s, with prohibition and then the depression, Chathma Square lost its appeal.
The center for tattoo art moved to Coney Island. Across the country, tattooists opened shops in areas that would support them, namely cities with military bases close by, particularly naval bases. Tattoos were know as travel markers. You could tell where a person had been by their tattoos.
A brief history of the tattoo coverup
After world war II, tattoos became further denigrated by their associations with Marlon Brando type bikers and Juvenile delinquents. Tattooing had little respect in American culture. Then, in there was an outbreak of hepatitis and tattooing was sent reeling on its heels. Though most tattoo shops had sterilization machines, few used them.
Newspapers reported stories of blood poisoning, hepatitis, and other diseases. Take Corey for instance. After several passionate nights of tent-shaking, you tattooed his name on your hip. His wife is mellow with it. In sailor culture of the early to mid 20th century, young men began tattooing the names of their beloveds. In , a London magazine shared painfully funny stories of inked lovers:. In Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos , a tattoo artist narrates:.
And you know Johnny Depp agrees. An interviewer in Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing , originally published in , asked one woman what her husband said when he saw her tattoo? Some merely resort to covering the tattoo temporarily, for example, to meet the in-laws or interview for a job. In order to conceal their tattoos, Victorian women wore creative clothing or jewelry in strategic locations. They often only revealed tattoos at evening parties or social gatherings. When the electric tattoo machine was invented, more middle and lower class people began getting their own ink.
In Customizing the Body , most interviewees did not express regret over the stigma of a tattoo, real or perceived.