The oldest human body that we know of, that is 5,300 years old, had sixty tattoos. He lived in the Italian Alps, but his contemporaries from the South Pacific to the indigenous people of New Jersey were also inked. In 1991, in the Tyrolian Alps, archeologists discovered the body of a murder victim and named him Otzi. The man had been hit on the head, shot in the head with an arrow, and dumped in a snowy crevice 5,300 years ago. Otzi had dark skin and eyes and was probably bald. Amazingly, his clothing, tools, and skin were still preserved. He also was decorated with over sixty tattoos.
The archeologists hypothesized that the tattoos were created by cutting the skin and stuffing the cuts with pigment. In 2024, a reexamination of his tattoos revealed that they were made very similarly to modern tattoos, with a sharp point tipped with carbon. Now kept in a refrigerated room, Otzi gives us our only glimpse into daily life in Europe contemporary with Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, and the Indus Valley Civilization in India.
During the 19th Century, Queen Victoria’s husband, son, and many of her grandsons and nephews, who were the rulers of Europe, were tattooed. They commemorated trips to Asia and to the “Holy Land” with tattoos. Amazingly, the tattoo artists in Jerusalem who inked the Royals are still in their shop, drawing the same Jerusalem Cross as they did 150 years ago.
The Duke of York grew up to be King George V of the United Kingdom. He had many tattoos. He had a tiger pictured on one arm and a dragon in blue and red on the other. According to his tutor, he also had a couple of storks somewhere on his body. The Victorian fashion among European nobility was for large tattoos.
Nicholas II, the Czar of Russia, was Queen Victoria’s descendant and cousin to King George V. During his trip through Japan, Nicholas had a large dragon tattooed on his right forearm by Japanese tattoo artist Hori Chyo.
Winston Churchill and his mother both had tattoos, as did the Duke of Newcastle, the Kings and Queens of Spain, Greece, Britain, Austria, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Romania, Germany and Russia, to name a few.
At the other end of the social spectrum, sailors and convicts also had their own repertoires of designs. Reflecting their achievements and desires, their successes and their fears, seamen wore souvenirs of their life’s adventures. Convicts commemorated their loves, their families, their gangs and their victories.
“A sailor without a tattoo is like a ship without grog: not seaworthy,” — Samuel O’Reilly, tattooist,1854–1909.
A tattoo of a swallow was a good omen for future voyages — only earned after a sailor had traveled 5,000 nautical miles. A ship with three sails meant the sailor had sailed around Cape Horn in South America. A dragon tattoo represented a stop in China.
A turtle would mark a man who had sailed across the equator. An anchor represented a man who had sailed the Atlantic. Other tattoos, such as a pig on the top of one foot and a rooster on the top of the other, were said to protect the sailor from drowning; since neither animal can swim, they would help the sailor find dry land as quickly as possible.
South Pacific Polynesians and their traditional tattooing only became known to Americans in the 19th century. The first tattoos in imitation of South Pacific islanders were often to commemorate a sailor’s visit to Samoa, Tahiti, or Hawaii.
Many indigenous people of the United States had tattoo traditions for spiritual, practical, and decorative purposes. Among the Lenni Lenape, an indigenous people on the East coast, tattooing was common. Generally animal figures were favored. Some warriors would have tattoos which represented their war exploits.
Writing about one such warrior in 1817, Christian missionary John Heckewelder reported:
“On his whole face, neck, shoulders, arms, thighs and legs, as well as on his breast and back, were represented scenes of the various actions and engagements he had been in; in short, the whole of this history was there deposited, which was well known to those of his nation, and was such that all who heard it thought it could never be surpassed.”
Tattooed Ladies
During the very late 19th century and the early 20th, a fashion for “freak shows,” sideshows, and “museums” of oddities swept across the United States. Tattooed ladies were among these performers. Society dictated obedience, modesty, and chastity in women while tattoos implied the opposite. Instead, the Tattooed Lady could be seen as flouting conventional ideas, and that always includes sex.
Sideshow proprietors usually made up “exotic” backstories for their human exhibits. Tattooed ladies were often described as having been kidnapped by indigenous American “Indians” or savage Polynesian islanders, married off against their will and held captive. In fact, most of these women came from families where their fathers, brothers, or husbands were tattoo artists and chose this route out of a poor, working class life.
By the early 20th century, several women tattoo artists were so successful that they taught their daughters the craft. The daughters went on to pass the skill along to their daughters.
“Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopydia
Oh Lydia the Queen of Tattoo
On her back is the Battle of Waterloo
Beside it the wreck of the Hesperus, too
And proudly above waves the red, white, and blue
You can learn a lot from Lydia” ___ “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady” is a 1939 song written by Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen.