Tattooing in Contemporary Society: History and Evolution

The History of Western Tattooing

Tattooing is increasingly popular, evident in the growing number of tattooed individuals and media devoted to it.
Globally distributed tattoo magazines, TV programs (e.g., Inked, Tattoo Hunter, Ink series), and the internet provide extensive information about tattoo designs, the tattooing process, and artist profiles.
Sociologists investigate modern society, but understanding social phenomena requires historical context.

Understanding Tattooing's Popularity

Understanding tattooing's popularity in the 21st century requires tracing its historical development.
Establishing a sequential order in history is difficult as chronologies are place-bound (Goudsblom, 1990: 69).
Key periods in Western tattooing's development have had a socio-genesis on current tattoo figurations (Elias 2000, 2012a; Atkinson 2003a).
Exploring social relevance during each period reveals meanings ascribed to tattooing are closely related to dominant bodily habits and preferences.
Competing definitions of tattoos exist in any era.
The aim is to utilise various and competing definitions of tattooing to inform our understanding of the practice in the twenty-first century.

Pre-Modern Tattooing (until late fifteenth century)

Archaeological evidence dates tattooing back to at least the late Stone Age.
Well-preserved human remains found in Siberia (1948) showed evidence of tattooing and were dated to the fifth century BC.
The human mummy 'Otzl', discovered in Northern Italy in 1991, bore tattoos and lived between 3350 and 3100 BC.
Extensively tattooed mummified remains representing Aztec, Inca, and Mayan culture, and dating from the first century AD have been found in Peruvian excavations.
The purpose of these tattoos is speculated to represent membership of specific tribal groups (similar to Picts, Celts, and Maori).

Greek and Roman Empires

Greeks and Romans considered tattooing barbarous and used it as a punitive measure.
Slaves were tattooed with words like 'Stop me, I'm a runaway' in Greece.
The Roman army inscribed recruits with permanent dots representing unit names or numbers (Jones 2000: 12; Durkheim 1995).
Criminals and traitors were forcibly tattooed on the forehead to name the crime, the ruler offended, or the punishment.
Constantine (306-337) decreed criminals be tattooed on hands or calves instead of the face to preserve the 'image of divine beauty' (Jones 2000: 13).
Later, inscribed metal collars were used instead (Thurmond 1994).
Christians voluntarily became tattooed with signs of the cross (Gustafson 2000: 29; Durkheim 1995: 234).
Early European pilgrims to Palestine were tattooed (Ebensten 1953; Durkheim 1995; Sweetman 1999a; Caplan 2000).
These markings provided visible symbols of religious collective membership (Durkheim 1995).
The practice was later seen as a sign of Paganism, and Pope Hadrian banned it at a Church Council in Northumberland in 787 (Ebensten 1953; Parry 2006; Sanders 2008).

Significance

Pre-modern tattooing was largely limited to specific groups and signified membership.
Contemporary usage can be recognised by demonstrating tattooing as meaningful historical cultural performance (Caplan 2000).
Gender-, racial-, and sexuality-based political movements have used tattooing for identity politics (Dunn 1998; DeMello 2000; Atkinson 2003a; Thompson 2017).
Tattooing has continued to be associated with particular social groups, sailors, bikers and criminals for example, and many contemporary commentators continue to demonstrate how tattoos act to signify membership to particular groups, for example the middle-class (DeMello 2000), tattoo collectors (Vail 1999a, 1999b; Irwin 2003), or subcultures (e.g. Vale and Juno 1989; Wojcik 1995; Atkinson and Young 2001; Atkinson 2003a; 2003b).

Cook's Pacific Voyages and the 'Rediscovery of Tattooing' (1690s-1870s)

Captain Cook's voyages mark the beginning of modern tattoo figurations.
Christianity's adoption led to the practice's disappearance in Europe until the 18th century.
Captain Cook transported tattooed natives from North America and Polynesia to Europe, displaying them as cultural oddities.
Prince Jeoly was brought to Europe by Dampier in 1691, and Omai was brought to England by Captain Cook in 1774 (Ebensten 1953).

New Dimension of Tattooing

Historically, tattooing marked membership to specific groups.
The transportation of natives to Europe focused on the display of tattooed bodies, despite their symbolic importance in tribal cultures.
Displayed as oddities, these natives contrasted with Western codes emphasizing modesty (Atkinson 2003a: 31; Elias 2000).
Displays enforced Western cultural advancement over primitive societies, legitimizing the imperialist agenda (Atkinson 2003a: 31; DeMello 2000).

Damaging Effect on Tribal Cultures

The voyages had a damaging effect on the tribal cultures they encountered.
The New Zealand Maori were famous for their facial tattoos (moko).
Europeans traded weapons for the heads of deceased Maori, leading to forced tattooing before decapitation (Gathercole 1988).
European missionaries prohibited tattooing in Polynesia (DeMello 2000; Kuwahara 2005).

Western Interest

Western interest in tattooing was a 'paradoxical mix of fascination, disgust, irreverence, and wonder' (Atkinson 2003a: 32).
Sailors of Cook's ship were tattooed by natives of Tahiti and returned to Europe, re-introducing the practice (DeMello 2000; Atkinson 2003a).
Later voyages noted extended designs including rifles, cannons, and dates/words commemorating tribal chiefs.
In Hawaii, tattoos became solely decorative due to the introduction of guns (Kaeppler 1988).
Without this early cross-fertilization, tattooing would not have been re-established in Europe (DeMello 2000: 46).
White tattooed performers began to display themselves, seeing an opportunity to make money from audiences willing to pay to view tattooed attractions.

Sideshow and Fairground Performers (1800s-1930s)

Display of tattooed 'primitives' in sideshows and fairgrounds were popular attractions throughout Europe and America for many years.
As audiences became familiar with these exhibits their popularity waned; however, the fascination with tattooing, and crucially the willingness to pay to see tattooed bodies, did not.
Westerners began to display heavily tattooed bodies alongside other 'freaks'.
Performers invented narratives of capture and forced tattooing to sell tickets (DeMello 2000: 53).
Jean Baptise Cabris was the first performer, tattooed in the Marquesas after a shipwreck (Ebensten 1953: 16).
John Rutherford claimed to be captured and forcibly tattooed by Maori (Oettermann 2000).
Narratives relied on the assumption of primitiveness associated with non-Western societies.
Audiences flocked to see tattooed entertainers despite suspicious narratives and Western motifs.

P.T. Barnum

P.T. Barnum professionalized the display of tattooed Westerners (Ebensten 1953; DeMello 2000).
Tattooed entertainers moved into dime museums and circuses.
Alexandrinos (Constantine) was a famous Albanian performer with almost 400 tattoos (DeMello 2000: 56).
His narrative claimed capture and forced tattooing by 'Chinese Tartars' in Burma.
By the turn of the twentieth century, audiences became familiar with tattooed entertainers, and new entertainment was needed to entice them.
Tattooed dwarves, lion tamers, and sword swallowers appeared.

Tattooed Females

Tattooed females, promising exoticism and eroticism, took centre stage.
La Belle Irene (Irene Woodward) was credited with being the first tattooed lady.
They challenged the cultural association between tattooing and masculinity and became a form of soft pornography (Atkinson 2003a; Mifflin 2013; Thompson 2015).
Stripping before audiences, they would reveal titillating parts of their bodies such as bosoms and thighs, something not possible outside of the sideshow due to cultural norms regarding bodily display at the time.
Frank and Emma de Burgh were the first tattooed couple, displaying themselves in Berlin in 1893.
They used tattoos for commemoration and large-scale 'back pieces'.

Horace Riddler

Horace Riddler (The Great Omi) was tattooed with black lines all over his body by George Burchett.
He took on the persona of The Great Omi with other body modifications.
As an example of the period's legacy on tattoo figurations, treated poorly in a French circus (DeMello 2000: 57).

Atkinson (2003a: 36)

Profane representations of the body allowed [audiences] … to experience subversive pleasures with and tortures of the flesh without sacrificing commonly held cultural understandings of corporeal respectability.
The presentation of alternative body styles and pursuit of libidinal body play at circuses and carnivals actually reaffirmed dominant cultural ideals about the sanctity of the body.
Marked bodies were depicted as vicious, savage, and, in some cases, prehistoric and subhuman.
The tattoo side-show became a vehicle for exploring deviant yet exciting body practices, a means of engaging in forms of corporeal subversion strictly forbidden in everyday life.
Importantly, though, there arose out of this period a widespread association between tattooing and disrepute.

Professional Tattooist

The rise of the professional tattooist occurred during this period.
Tattooed performers and tattooists existed in 'a state of symbiosis' (DeMello 2000; Sanders 2008).
Martin Hildebrand was the first American tattooist (1846), and David Purdy was the first in Britain (1870) (Ebensten 1953; Sweetman 1999a).
Samuel O'Reilly invented the electric tattoo machine in 1891 (Lodder 2010).
This innovation led to an increase in tattooists and tattooees.

High Society (1860s-1900s)

An interest in tattooing developed among the nobility, particularly in Europe.
Edward VII was tattooed in Jerusalem in 1862, and his sons were tattooed in Yokahama (Sweetman 1999a; Sanders 2008).
Motivated by primitivism and the 'noble savage' ideal (Parry 2006).
'We pinch our feet like the Chinese and torture our poor waists with steel corsets; why should we not emulate the Indians and tattoo ourselves?'. (Quoted in Parry 2006: 96)
European princes acquired tattoos to prove they were as 'good fellows' as any ordinary sea-going men… that they were not remote from their subjects and enjoyed similar tastes'. (Ebensten 1953: 23)
Royals and nobility who chose to become tattooed include Czar Nicholas II of Russia, King George of Greece, King Oscar of Sweden, and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany (Ebensten 1953; Parry 2006; Sanders 2008).
Other members of court followed suit.
The trend crossed the Atlantic (Parry 2006: 103).
Social elite ensured their marks acted as signifiers of class distinction (Bourdieu 2010).
They paid higher prices to tattoo-masters, ordered their own coats of arms tattooed upon their skin, or the names and emblems of their exclusive clubs, or reproductions of money-bills, or scenes of fox hunts in full cry.
With the invention of the electric tattoo machine making the application of tattooing cheaper and easier, and the resulting increase of lower social classes acquiring them, the social elite turned in increasing numbers to the Japanese masters known as Hori.
Japanese masters produced more artistic work utilizing the hand method of applying tattoos (Parry 2006: 100).
At the turn of the century, tattoos fell out of grace with the social elite (Ebensten 1953).
Medical and media reports emphasized the unclean nature of the practice and the risk of communicable diseases.
Reports from psychological and criminological texts claimed an association between tattoos and criminality and/or the mentally unstable.
The taste for this style is not a good indication of the refinement and delicacy of the English ladies, for the custom is held in too great honour among criminals! We feel genuine disgust! O Fashion, you are very frivolous; you have caused many complaints against the most beautiful half of the human race. (Lombroso 1896, quoted in Parry 2006: 102)
Tattooing increasingly came to be seen as practised only by the undesirable members of society.

'Low Herd' (1900s-1950s)

Tattooing had been practised amongst the working classes since its rediscovery during the Pacific voyages.
Sailors and working-class individuals chose to adorn themselves with tattoos (Ebensten 1953; Parry 2006).
With technological innovation leading to the cheap and relatively easy application of tattoos, the number of working-class individuals choosing to become tattooed since the turn of the twentieth century grew immeasurably.
Having been abandoned by the social elite, tattooing become clearly defined as a working-class practice associated with carnival workers, servicemen, criminals, social outcasts, and pseudo-tough guys (Atkinson 2003a: 36).
Tattoos during this period consisted of badge-like designs, including such motifs as military insignia, hearts, banners, and roses, arranged on the body in a haphazard manner with no obvious relation (Rubin 1988a; DeMello 2000; Atkinson 2003a; Sanders 2008).
The tattoo studio was relocated to the 'slummy or industrial section of the town' (Ebensten 1953: 68-69).
Society tattooists who had catered for the social elite such as Sutherland MacDonald and Tom Riley had been lauded for their skill, but tattooists who catered for the working classes were also condemned by Ebensten.
These declarations effectively demonstrate how the practice quickly fell quickly into disrepute; yet the popularity of tattooing during this period remained high among the working classes, so much so that DeMello (2000) characterised this period as the 'Golden Age of Tattooing'.
Building upon the designs of Samuel O'Reilly, more precise and durable needles were invented and another tattooist, Lew 'the Jew' Alberts a former wallpaper designer - developed the first sheets of standardised tattoo designs, commonly known as flash and still used today, around the turn of the century.
The lack of thought needed in choosing a design - with lack of insight being a supposed hallmark of the masses - and the lower levels of artistic skill needed by the new tattooists allowed the practice to be further defined as working-class.
Times of war were particularly lucrative for tattooists.
Working-class occupational designs were popular.
DeMello (2000) has characterised this period as the one in which tattoos were least stigmatised.
After World War Two, knowledge of the Nazi's forced tattooing of prisoners of war meant the popularity of the practice waned among the working classes too.
This allowed for adoption by marginal and deviant cultural groups (Atkinson 2003a: 38).

Adoption by Social 'Undesirables' (1950s-present)

The period after World War Two witnessed a rapid expansion of the middle classes
A number of marginal (sub)cultural groups, whose membership was outside of this middle-class expansion, began to draw on the deviant association of tattoos as a form of resistance and defiance to these emerging values; most notably bikers, gang members, and prisoners.
Tattooing criminals acted as a control mechanism for socially disruptive bodies by removing them from the general populace and marginalising them with lifelong marks of stigma (Goffman 1963; Foucault 1995; Atkinson 2003a).
Those involuntarily receiving tattoos began to resist their labelling as discredited social actors and sought to reclaim their bodies.
In Japan, the criminal underclass known as the Yakuza responded to being tattooed with words such as 'pig' or 'dog' by completely tattooing their bodies with bodysuits known as irezumi to cover these stigmatising marks.
Lombroso viewed sentiments such as 'Death to all French Officers', 'Death to the Police', and 'Rather die than reform' tattooed on prisoners as specific strategies of resistance (Scutt and Gotch 1986: 109).
Estimates for the number of tattooed prisoners during this period stand at about 50% in both England and the United States, with tattoos most commonly found serving to denote gang membership (through gang names, mottos, or symbols), or feelings of imprisonment (such as spider-webs on elbows, tear drops under the eye, and justice shown holding lop-sided scales as a representation of what is considered the unfair nature of the legal system) (Scutt and Gotch 1986; DeMello 1993, 2000; Atkinson 2003a).
Prison tattooing developed its own distinct style of blue or black, fine line, single needle, designs, as a result of the techniques employed in the tattooing process, and as prisoners bearing such marks were released, prison tattoo styles and imagery 'hit the street' and influenced dominant tattoo styles and practices (Govenar 1988; DeMello 1993, 2000).
Around the same time as tattooing was increasing in popularity in prisons, biker gangs, most famously the Hell's Angels, adopted tattooing as a signifying practice of their own subculture.
Classic tattoos include Harley Davidson logos, biker club logos, marijuana leaves, skulls and other motifs associated with death, and logos such as 'FTW' (Fuck the World), 'EWMN' (Evil, Wicked, Mean, Nasty), 'Born to Lose', and 'Ride to Live'.
Moral panics concerning the social perils posed by biker gangs developed during this period (Katz 2011).
Media accounts of biker gangs defined them as outlaws who terrorised the law-abiding public with tattoos symbolised as an identifiable aspect of biker culture.
Being associated with outlaw bikers and criminals in the public's eye, tattoos became firmly entrenched as the mark of the outsider.
Youth gangs, rockers, modernists, and punks appropriated tattoos for their own purposes (Hebdige 1979; DeMello 2000; Atkinson 2003a; Sanders 2008).
Utilising the image of otherness, prisoners, bikers, and marginal subcultures became the new tattooed savages.
The legacy of this period firmly entrenched associations between tattooing and deviants, criminals, and the socially marginal.

The Tattoo Renaissance (1970s-1990s)

The 1970s to early 1990s witnessed a renaissance in the popularity of tattooing.
Increasingly heterogeneous clientele: larger numbers of women and individuals from higher socio-economic status.
Increasing numbers of professionally trained fine art artists choosing to become tattooists (Sweetman 1999a; DeMello 2000; Atkinson 2003a; Sanders 2008).
Brought about because of political movements that used the body for 'doing' identity politics.
The racial, sexual, and gender-based movements continued to challenge dominant social constructions of race, gender, and class. (Atkinson 2003a: 42; see also Dunn 1998).
The group most at the forefront of challenging these ideologies and bringing about vast change both outside, and within, tattoo figurations, is women.
With the sexual revolution [that began] in the 1960s, when women began casting off their bras as they had their corsets a half-century earlier, tattoos were rescued from ignominy and resurrected in the counter-culture by women who were rethinking womanhood. The arrival of the Pill in 1961 had given women new sexual freedom; a little over a decade later legalized abortion secured their reproductive rights. Not surprisingly, the breast became a popular spot for tattoos - it was here that many women inscribed symbols of their own newfound sexual independence. (Mifflin 2013: 56)
The adoption of tattooing by increasing numbers of women had a twofold effect.
Firstly, through their use of tattooing, women challenged and undermined cultural constructions of femininity, and secondly, they challenged cultural associations between tattooing and the social underbelly that had developed in the previous period.
New tattooed celebrity role models also appeared as international stars such as Janice Joplin, Joan Baez, Peter Fonda, and Cher, publicly became tattooed.
As sentiments of 'self-exploration, physical experimentation, and mind expansion' propagated by liberation movements became ever more prevalent during the era, dabbling in and with the socially avant-garde - including tattooing practices became chic for the middle and upper classes' (Atkinson 2003a: 44; see also DeMello 2000).
The increasing heterogeneity of the tattoo consumer led to a radical shift in the nature and social practice of tattooing as demand for more personal, less offensive, and unique tattoos was generated.
American artists such as Cliff Raven, Don Ed Hardy, and Lyle Tuttle are most associated with leading the emergence of avant-garde tattoo artists and promoting innovations including new designs, new artistic techniques, and more hygienic working practices, both in the United States and beyond (Sweetman 1999a; DeMello 2000), although Dutch tattooist Henk Schiffmacher, known as Hanky Panky, was also highly influential (Vale and Juno 1989).
The new artists entering tattoo figurations refused the moniker 'tattooist' used by previous generations, instead defining themselves as tattoo artists. The tattoos they produced were presented as art and 'subjected to critical discussion by academics and critics/agents of the traditional art world' (Sanders 2008: 19).
Those artists crossed the boundaries between tattoo figurations and the traditional art world by displaying traditional art mediums as well.

New Professionalism

New York, tattooing had been banned due a link between incidences of hepatitis being transmitted via infected tattoo needles.
Lyle Tuttle and 'Doc' Spider Webb both improved the sanitation of the practice and introduced better sterilisation techniques, ensuring each client would be tattooed with new, sterile needles, and ink would be administered for each client individually in sterile containers.
Prominent artists of the period, including Tuttle, Webb, Sailor Jerry Collins, and Don Ed Hardy, travelled and shared information on tattooing techniques and processes with one another in order to improve the practice, information that had been closely guarded by previous generations.

First Tattoo Conventions and Magazines

The world's first known tattoo convention was held by the North American Tattoo Club in 1976, and the International Tattoo Artists Association quickly followed in 1977.
The 1982 Tattoo Expo, staged on the Queen Mary cruise ship in Long Beach, and organised by Ed Hardy, which had the most considerable influence on tattoo figurations.
TattooTime was also not the first tattoo magazine published (the International Tattoo Artists Association and National Tattoo Association had been publishing their own for a few years prior), but it was the first published with the specific intent of correcting the 'negative, overly sensationalistic view of tattooing held by most mainstream North Americans' (DeMello 2000: 80).

Contemporary Tattoo Figurations (1990s-present)

The periods described above have had unintended sociogenesis on current tattoo figurations.
The practice's polysemic nature highlighted by the varied ways individuals utilise tattooing.
Since the 1990s has been termed as the 'second renaissance', and as the 'supermarket era', with tattooing becoming more a popular phenomenon than during any previous period, and the practice establishing itself within mainstream culture.
Contemporary tattoo figurations are primarily concerned with quests for authenticity (Taylor 2007).
As the body has become increasingly important to the construction of identity, tattooing has become one of many corporeal modifications that individuals can make to their bodies in order to construct their sense of self-identity; a key determiner of this is whether an individual can considered authentic.
Throughout this book, I will explore the competing meanings attributed to tattooing practices, but central to the narratives of all respondents to the research were quests for authenticity in contemporary society.
Tattooing has become an increasingly global(ised) phenomenon, dominated by choice

Factors

Knowledge about tattooing is fuelled by magazines, TV, and the internet.
Magazines, TV shows, and the internet have demystified the practice of tattooing.
Tattooing has emerged out of the social shadows and into popular culture' (Atkinson 2003a: 48; see also DeMello 2000; Sanders 2008).
Paralleling this increased cultural popularity has been a burgeoning interest in the practice within academia.

Current State and Influences

Despite the current level of popularity, the legacy of the periods discussed above continues to influence contemporary tattoo figurations.
The tattoo renaissance improved the artistic quality of the practice - and it continues to increase dramatically.
Respondents for this study repeatedly emphasised that although the practice is more established there continue to be those - notably those they considered as holding more power within their figurations - who associate the practice with the social underbelly, whilst some media reporting continues to draw associations between tattooing and deviance.
DeMello ignores that tattooing remains a legitimate way of indicating membership to working-class, subcultural, and deviant groups.
The continuing use by deviant groups, and more importantly the continuing association between tattoos and deviance or criminality by some members of society, means that, for now at least, the practice has not been fully accepted and assimilated into mainstream popular culture and continues to have a lingering association with deviance (Atkinson 2003a).