The Biblio Files by Reference @ WPL: Tats: Tattoos and their Social Significance

Do you have any tattoos?

A tattoo is a design made on a living being, by inserting ink, dyes or pigments into the dermis layer of the skin to change its appearance.

A tattoo may be a flower, an anchor, a word, a religious symbol, a literary allusion, an entire scene, something from the sciences, a lover's name...

The Planets

Sometimes it seems like 90% of everyone I see has a tattoo (or two... or 27), a method of body adornment especially abundant among young adults. Tattooing has become quite popular these last 25 years, but it is by no means a modern art.

In September, 1991, in the Ötztal Alps near the border between Italy and Austria, hikers found the mummified remains of a man. Researchers nicknamed him Ötzi and Frozen Fritz (and later concluded that he had been murdered). His remains were dated to about 3200 BCE, but what interests us here is that he had 61 tattoos. A very old tradition, indeed!

From Wikipedia (accessed on 12/30/2020):

"[Ötzi's tattoos consisted of] 19 groups of black lines ranging from 1 to 3 mm in thickness and 7 to 40 mm long. These include groups of parallel lines running along the longitudinal axis of his body and to both sides of the lumbar spine, as well as a cruciform mark behind the right knee and on the right ankle, and parallel lines around the left wrist. The greatest concentration of markings is found on his legs, which together exhibit 12 groups of lines. A microscopic examination of samples collected from these tattoos revealed that they were created from pigment manufactured out of fireplace ash or soot. This pigment was then rubbed into small linear incisions or punctures. It has been suggested that Ötzi has been repeatedly tattooed in the same locations, since the majority of them are quite dark.
Radiological examination of Ötzi's bones showed "age-conditioned or strain-induced degeneration" corresponding to many tattooed areas... It has been speculated that these tattoos may have been related to pain relief treatments similar to acupressure or acupuncture. If so, this is at least 2,000 years before their previously known earliest use in China (c. 1000 BCE).
At one point, research into archaeological evidence for ancient tattooing confirmed that Ötzi was the oldest tattooed human mummy yet discovered. In 2018, however, nearly contemporaneous tattooed mummies were discovered in Egypt."

Tattooing was invented in many cultures over the centuries. Besides China (as noted in the Wiki article quoted above) tattooing was practiced in ancient Egypt, Greece, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, by the Inuit, and in Polynesia. In fact, our word "tattoo" comes from the Polynesian word "tatau", which means "to strike". If you're unfamiliar with the process, typically the tattoo artist "strikes" the target skin with a sharpened stick or needle. However, in some societies tattoos are created by cutting the skin and rubbing a colored agent into the cuts. Modern tattoo machines have one or more reciprocating needles that move in and out 100 or more times per second.

Some tattoos are purely decorative, some are chosen for their symbolism, some are for medicinal purposes (either to mark the site where surgery is to be done or in the belief that the tattoo itself has healing properties), and some are used as identifying marks of ownership on animals (for example, on cattle). Some cohorts, such as gangs or military units, use tattoos to create a common identity among members.

The European history of tattoos is one of originally perceiving them as curiosities of "savage" peoples.

Nancy Drew on the arm of Erin O'Neall/Teen Librarian

In the 16th century French sailors kidnapped an Inuit woman and her child from Labrador. For over ten years the tattooed woman, whose name is lost to history, was put on display in Antwerp.

Jeoly

Jeoly, an enslaved man from Mindanao, had a similar fate; his tattoos were objects of fascination to visitors to a tavern in England. When he died his tattooed skin was preserved for a time and displayed in the Anatomy School of Oxford.

And the famous Captain James Cook [1728 -1779] who captained the first British ship to explore the South Pacific islands and the eastern coast of Australia, also transported a tattooed person away from his native lands, in this case, from Tahiti. Omai was brought to the court of King George and became quite popular.

Artist Sidney Parkinson accompanied Cook on his first voyage of exploration. It is believed he had himself tattooed in Tahiti, perhaps the 1st European to be "inked". But that started a tradition of naval men getting tattoos. In fact, eventually, it was assumed that a tattooed man was a sailor. American naval identification documents (called "Protection Papers"), used to prevent the British Royal Navy from "impressing" American sailors, often included a description of a sailor's unique tattoos.

In 1894 a Londoner named Sutherland Macdonald [1860-1942] opened the first documented tattoo shop in England. His clients were mostly lower-class; the art-form was still associated with the edges of society and criminals.

Here in America, the first recorded professional tattoo artist was a German immigrant named Martin Hildebrandt. Hildebrandt opened a shop in New York City in 1846. This was during the Civil War, and, in addition to the services offered at his professional premises, he began traveling from military camp to military camp to tattoo soldiers.

One of our librarians has this tat

In the West, tattoos were originally a male thing but tattoo artists and the tattooed themselves eventually included both men and women. A good tattooist could command high prices for his or her complex designs. Among the tattooed were the wealthy, and even royalty.

When the tattoo machine was invented (and patented in 1891), prices came down and high-quality tattoos were now affordable by the general populace. This led to a rejection by the upper-income market, members of which didn't want to be associated with lower-class habits.

There is abomination and brutality associated with tattoos: the Nazis tattooed sequential numbers onto the arms of their Jewish prisoners - male and female, adult and child; they kept excellent records of the millions of Jews (and others) that they murdered in the death camps.

Many studies have been done of tattooing and the social eddies surrounding this art. In 1975, there were only 40 tattoo artists in the USA but by 1980, there were more than 5,000. A phone survey in 2006 determined that 36% of Americans ages 18–29, 24% of those 30–40, and 15% of those 41–51 had a tattoo. But of those who are inked, 72% of adults have tattoos that are hidden by their clothing.

The American tattoo industry generates an estimated $1.6 billion in revenue. There is also a market in tattoo-removal services: an industry study concluded that 17% of people with tattoos regret having them, usually because the tat was the name of another person.

Kentucky became the last state in the USA to legalize "tattoo parlors", in 2006.

No discussion of tattoos would be complete without examining the tattoo culture and designs of Japan. Although at times illegal, at times high art, irezumi are remarkable for their complexity and beauty.

The popularity of this means of artistic expression led to the creation of a reality TV show in 2005. Called "Miami Ink", it took place is an actual tattoo shop - each episode highlighted several customers and delved into why they chose to get inked and why they chose the design they did. The show had a large following and several spin-offs were produced: "LA Ink", "London Ink", "NY Ink", and "Madrid Ink". Many celebrities appeared on the show, including world-famous chef Anthony Bourdain.