Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease (2013) 11, 444e447

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect

journal homepage: www.elsevierhealth.com/journals / tmid

Tattoos e An historical essay

Selma Schmid

University of Zurich, Switzerland

Received 21 October 2013; accepted 21 October 2013

In ancient cultures, the house served not only as a physicalshelter but also as a border between the family and theoutside world. People used items and rituals with magicalor spiritual meanings to protect the front door e which wasseen as the most “fragile” opening of the house. Similar tothis belief, the skin was often regarded as the border be-tween the human body and the exterior world and thehuman body was also protected in fragile places with thehelp of permanent skin markings. It is certain that thesecustoms go far back in history: scientists discovered tattooson the feet and hands of a 7000 year old mummy found inNorthern Chile. Another prominent case is Otzi, an over5000 year old mummy found in 1991, in the Otztal Alps, onthe border between Austria and Italy. Otzi had tattoos onhis loins and right ankle that were stitched into the skinwith coal dust. Otzi also had marks on some knownacupuncture points supporting the hypothesis of tattoosbeing used as a means of protection.

Throughout history, tattoos were used for differentpurposes and with various meanings. This includes theaffiliation to a group, i.e. tattoos have been used to includeor exclude an individual from a group or even an entiresociety, identification of a certain person, forced brandingof people, or simply a voluntary tattoo marking an impor-tant part of an individual’s personal history. Early historicalreports on tattoos date back to ancient times, including theOld Testament, writings by the Roman emperor Constantinethe Great in 313 AD and Pope Hadrian I in 787 AD. Severalreports by Roman military commanders describe the in-habitants of what is Scotland today, the Picts, who terrifiedthe Roman legions with their naked painted bodies (Picts.The Latin word Picti first occurs in a panegyric written byEumenius in AD 297 and is taken to mean “painted or tat-tooed” people).

E-mail address: Selma@gmx.net.

1477-8939/$ - see front matter ª 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reservedhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2013.10.013

“Branding” as physical punishment and groupidentification method

Next to voluntary tattoos, branding occupies a prominentpart in the history of tattoos. Branding describes a forcedmarking of individuals by a ruling authority. Slaves or con-victed criminals, for example, were usually burned with ared-hot iron and the wound rubbed with a black liquid sothat a visible scar remained. This practice was evenanchored in Roman law and allowed in Europe until quiterecent times. An early example of branding in the RomanEmpire was the first Christians who were branded in orderto identify them as an “outsider” group of Roman society. Inturn, the branding served as an identification sign amongearly Christians and therefore became a mark of an “in-sider” group.

Because branding is not mutilating, it was regarded inmedieval times as a “lighter” physical punishment. In thelate Middle Ages, the practice focused on a differentiationbetween burning, pinching with a cold iron, and perforatingthe skin with needle stitches which were rubbed over withcoal dust. The latter technique was already quite close totoday’s tattoo technique. The purpose of these brandingtattoos was usually to recognise what criminal act a personhad committed, and besides being a physical punishment,this branding “marked” a criminal and led to his isolationwithin society.

Voluntary tattoos became increasingly important duringthe crusades to the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea.Crusaders used mostly Christian motifs to ensure that theyreceived a Christian funeral in case they died in a foreigncountry. It is assumed that during this time, the meaning ofthe tattoo changed from a sign displaying an affiliation to acertain group to a personal identification mark.

In some cases, it is not entirely clear whether a tattoowas made voluntarily or whether it was a forced act. In the

.

Picture 1 Drawing of a “wild tattooed man”. Source: K.Groning: Geschmuckte Haut: Ein Kulturgeschichte der Korper-kunst, 1997.

Tattoos e An historical essay 445

18th century, mothers of newly born infants received thesame tattoo as their child in order to prevent them aban-doning or murdering their child. Furthermore, historic re-ports show that, in Tirol, poverty led peasants to send theirchildren abroad; before departure the children receivedtattoos as a means of identification.

Until around 1700, and even later in rural areas, acriminal act was seen as a violation of the sovereignty of aruler which resulted in physical punishment of the convict,i.e. through a tattoo as described above. This practicechanged with the rise of the bourgeoisie. A bourgeoisregards himself as a part of the community and believes thatcriminal action therefore harms him too. Repentance andremorse was now done through atonement and not physicalpunishment or expulsion from society anymore. The customof physically branding a convicted person was perceived astoo “permanent” and was subsequently abolished.

Exhibition of “wild tattooed people”

Around this same time in the 18th century, interaction withand exposure to people from previously unknown regions ofthe world significantly increased. There were several exhibi-tions of “exotic” people. The Iroquois chief in 1710, MohawksandCherokees in the1760s, Eskimos in 1772, PrinceOmai fromPolynesia in 1774, Hottentots Venus in 1810, and Lapps fromthe Northern Scandinavia in 1822 aroused enormous interestand were “exhibited” in Europe. The initial motivation of theexplorers and their sponsors was to satisfy their own curiositysince they funded costly expeditions to other parts of theworld. At a later stage, scientists wanted to increase theirunderstanding of foreign cultures and populations. With time,the focus moved towards satisfying the fascination and enor-mous interest of the broad masses in Europe; the imported“wild creatures” from far away reflected the triumph overEurope’s colonies and aproof of domination. Theword tatau isSamoan and came to Europe following contact with Polynesiain the 18th century (Picture 1).

Prince Omai who was brought to England in 1774 byJames Cook, can be regarded as one of the most essentialelements in the history of tattoos in Europe. With Omai andthe word tatau a new era for tattoos began in Europe. Inthese times, the first Europeans that had tattoos wererenegades and convicted criminals that were shipped toand abandoned in the South Pacific. They received tattoosfrom the locals and were in particular forced to have atattoo when they decided to stay for good in one location.Researchers assume that this was a form of an inaugurationor part of the local religion, i.e. conversion to the localreligion usually included making a tattoo. The motifs anddesigns for the tattoos were initially taken from the localson the islands. Soon, however, the tattoos took on moreEuropean designs including palm trees, anchors, hearts,women as well as weapons such as swords or cannons.

European tattoo designs

Often a tattoo reflected the desire for the life in its original(albeit utopian) formwhichEuropeans expectedon theSouthSea islands. Links between these idealistic designs andChristian symbols can be observed at that stage. A palm tree,

for example, can be compared to the date tree that sym-bolises fortune and peace in the bible, while the nakedwoman represents Eve in the Garden of Eden or the Hula girl.

Because of the demand for these “European” designs,there were soon no traditional tattoo designs in Oceaniaanymore with the European designs replacing them almostentirely. Also the meaning of the tattoo changed: while thetraditional full-body decorations of some local tribes inOceania were used as an almost “organic” part of the body,the isolated European designs were more like a label.

With increased popularity for tattoos in Europe from themiddle of the 19th century onwards, the line betweentattooed and non-tattooed people moved towards adifferent meaning. Tattoos did not highlight the frontier tocivilisation anymore but pointed more towards certainpopulation groups, i.e. people with tattoos are those whodo not need or want to work such as aristocrats on one sideand the lower classes on the other side. Significant interestfor tattoos came also from unexpected corners of society.Around 1870, lawyers, in particular, started to focus ontattoos, trying to conclude from the physiognomy of theexterior appearance as to the moral standards or criminalintent of a person.

Tattoos for European aristocrats

The fascination for tattoos further increased at the begin-ning of the 20th century, one can even speak of a true

446 S. Schmid

tattoo mania among European aristocrats. The boulevardpress reported comprehensively about body decoration,even if the chosen topics seemed sometimes rather bizarresuch as a tattoo listing the contents of the family winecellar! One of the most famous aristocrats having a tattoowas the Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Kaiserin Sissi) whohad an anchor on her shoulder. It was the first time in thehistory of tattoos that the body decoration was seen as abeauty accessory or jewellery and at the same time amanifestation of individuality and personal freedom. Thehigh standing of tattoos in the aristocracy of the 19th and20th centuries and the related media hysteria are probablyeasy for us to understand today. The phenomenon can becompared to today’s role models and the reaction of theboulevard press to the current tattoo mania of rock starsand football players.

Carnival and circus workers are another importantgroup of people that often had tattoos. From the middle

Picture 2 Tattoo p

of the 19th century onwards, a tattooed person was a setelement in any sideshow of an American circus show. It isassumed that this was the first time that being tattooedhad professional connotations. Also in Europe, opportu-nities developed to earn money with tattooed skin. Inparticular it was the women who carried tattooed por-traits of politicians, musicians, or flowers or coat of armson their bodies, usually showing them in variety shows. Itcaused some problems with moral standards at that timesince the women showed their bare thighs and breasts. Inmost cases, however, it was understood as art andtherefore not punished by the authorities. In Germany,the presentation of tattoos and related form of exhibi-tions were completely prohibited from the 1930s onwards.It was, however, still allowed in France as well as in circusshows in the USA while at the World Congress of HumanOddities in London in 1954, tattooed people had a specialpart in the programme.

arlour in Zurich.

Tattoos e An historical essay 447

Japanese tattoo culture

Besides Europe and Oceania, another interesting source fortattoo culture is Japan. Since 1600, tattoos have been verypopular in Japan, in particular among workers. Similar to thedevelopments in Europe, criminalswerebrandedwith tattoosin Japan from 1720 onwards with the consequence thatacceptance for tattoos among “decent” people droppeddrastically. Since criminals could not be integrated into so-ciety anymore due to the irremovable tattoo sign, a new de-mographic group of tattooed people developed in Japan, theso-called Yakuza. The custom of the branding was abolishedaround 1870, and tattooing was completely forbidden until1948. The stigma of the tattoo still exists in Japan until today,although it has become increasingly popular among youngpeople in recent decades. Among Japanese gang members,tattoos have become increasingly unpopular as they unin-tentionally drawattention. Today, it can beobserved that theconnection between tattoos and criminality has largelydeclined in Japan similar to the rest of the world.

Tattoos in today’s society

A tattoo is no longer a stigma anymore in the westernworld. It can still cause disapproval since we still link it to

risky behaviour but it seems that having a tattoo does notpresent, for example, a barrier for finding work as long asthe tattoo can easily be covered with clothing during workhours. Nevertheless, in California a programme wasrecently established with the aim to decrease unemploy-ment. In this project, people with tattoos are being sup-ported to remove their visible tattoos in order to increasetheir chances to find work.

At present, no official training is needed to become atattoo artist. Usually, people receive training from anexperienced tattoo artist and learn the different tech-niques and hygienic regulations “on-the-job”. Many pressreports highlight that the colours used for tattoos can causehealth problems but no standardised regulations exist.There is therefore the risk that a visit to the tattoo parlourmay result in an infection of Hepatitis B or HIV, or that thetattoo is becomes infected and has to be treated with an-tibiotics. Still the procedure of tattooing today is quiteconvenient comparing to earlier stages in history, when thecolour was practically hacked into the skin (Picture 2).

Conflict of interest

None.