Tattoos

Are tattoos tradition or taboo' Not that long ago tattoos were connected primarily to the military or hard core rebelliousness. While opinions on the resurgent popularity of tattooing vary; sailors and tattoos have a long and storied history. Humankind marking skin was not new when Europeans began exploring the vast oceans; the practice dates to the early Egyptian era, and more recent discoveries propose an even earlier date. (Krcmarik, 2003) An account by Ahmad ibn Fadlan an Arabian diplomat seeing first-hand the Viking culture along the Volga River in the late 10th Century wrote that the men were very rude, dirty, and covered with pictures (Designboom 2009). Early classical authors mention tattooing in connection with Greeks, Germans, and ancient Britons among others, (Krcmarik, 2003) but the art remained a tribal or localized practice, forgotten by the Europeans, until the age of ocean exploration began in the 18th Century where it was then “Carried by currents of trade and conquest, from port to port ” (Rothstein, 2009, para. 2). When Europeans set out to find a shorter route to the Orient Christopher Columbus sailed into what is now known as the Caribbean, and because Columbus’ original logbook was lost, the island where his party first set foot in the New World is still being debated (Shreve 1991), but a fact of history not in debate is that Columbus and his men were met by aboriginal people of the area who called themselves Traino who were described as a handsome people who painted their bodies with earth dyes and adorned themselves with shells and metals with others having what we would call today tattoos. Thinking he had discovered a new route to the Orient and India, these were the people Columbus would later refer to as Indians. (Barreiro, 1990). Among the earliest practitioner’s of the art of tattooing and explorers in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean were the Polynesians. These primitive sailors covered thousands of miles of ocean in open boats taking with them the art practiced on their native islands. The word used today tattoo comes from the Tahitian word tattau, or tattow, which means “to mark,” and first mentions of the word come in the logbook of Captain James Cook from his first voyage to the Pacific in 1769 (Krcmarik, 2003), and the writings of the ship’s Naturalist on the voyage Joseph Banks; who later in his career became a dealer in severed heads of tattooed Maori natives. (TattooJoy, 2004). The tattooed islanders were considered very exotic in European and U.S. societies and drew crowds at circuses and fairs during the 18th and 19th Centuries. (Krcmarik, 2003). The crews of these English vessels began getting tattooed by the Pacific Islanders; a practice noted by Captain Cook who recorded in his logbook the details of the new markings on his crewmen; a practice to be used years later by another Captain in one of the best known crimes on the high seas. The middle of the 18th Century saw the exploration of the vast Pacific Ocean become the focus of the world’s sea powers and the race was on to claim territory for country and individual fame. Tattooed islanders were there to meet Captain James Cook who, in January of 1778 on his third Pacific voyage, aboard the ship Resolution reached a group of islands, which Captain Cook named the Sandwich Islands in honor of his benefactor the 4th Earl of Sandwich, but the name fell into disuse as dominance of the island changed hands. Today we know that island chain as the Hawaiian Islands (Encarta 2009). Captain Cook and the crew of the Resolution were met with much friendliness by the native people, but when the expedition returned to the islands in December of 1778 a series of misunderstandings and confrontations followed that ended when, in February 1779, Captain Cook died from wounds inflicted by the enraged Hawaiian warriors (Hunterian Museum 2009). Another ship and crew that might be familiar is HMS Bounty from which the story Mutiny on the Bounty is drawn. The Bounty set sail from Spithead, England in December 1787 the mission of the voyage to Tahiti was to collect breadfruit plants and transport them to the West Indies; there the breadfruit was to be transplanted and grown as cheap food for English colony slaves. The Bounty and its crew stayed in Tahiti for almost six months until the breadfruit crop was ready to be collected and properly stored to make the long journey to the Caribbean. (Kerr, n.d.). This was an unusually long stay, and many of the Bounty’s crew developed strong ties to the island and its inhabitants; many also received tattoos from the Tahitian practitioners (Kerr, n.d.). The Bounty left Tahiti in January 1789 and after about three weeks of sailing the mutineers took control of the ship; the setting adrift of Captain Bligh and 18 of his men would become one of the fabled stories of seamanship and survival; remarkable to this day(Kerr, n.d.). When Bligh returned to England, he was convicted, and later pardoned, for the loss of his ship. While in court he read from the Bounty’s log a description of the mutineers from physical appearance to the tattoos they had gotten during their stay in Tahiti, which aided in the identification the men (Tattoo Joy 2004). In his defense report, the infamous HMS Bounty’s Captain Bligh who served as Navigator aboard the Resolution on Captain Cook’s fateful third Pacific voyage (Kerr, n.d.) recorded that 18 of the 25 mutineer wore tattoos and that the leader of the uprising Fletcher Christian could be identified by a star tattooed on his left chest (Krcmarik, 2003). Recording the detailed markings of his crewmen was a practice Bligh learned while serving under Captain James Cook. The meaning or symbolism of a tattoo can range from a sign of cultural status, a significant event, souvenirs of exotic places, or a lucky charm to keep the wearer from harm. Many early sailors assigned mystical powers to their tattoos if they happened to be swept overboard, or be involved in a shipwreck; including some that might sound very unusual. A rooster on one foot and a pig on the other were to keep the sailor from drowning; the reason being these animals, carried aboard early voyages, often survived shipwrecks, and in their wooden crates managed to float to land (Rothstein 2009). As ships turned from sails to steam the animal foot tattoos were eventually replaces by twin propellers, usually one on each buttock, and this tradition is still in use today. Other images that were used frequently commemorated milestones such as crossing the equator, a Shellback turtle; sailing across the International Date Line, a golden dragon; or a full-rigged ship to show the wearer had sailed around Cape Horn (Tattoo-Designs, 2006), which in the early days of sailing ships was no easy task. The HMS Bounty mentioned previously had on its fateful voyage tried for 30 days to navigate the treacherous Cape Horn waters at the tip of South America only to be turned back by terrible storms. The Bounty would change course and head East to the tip of Africa and around the Cape of Good Hope as the ship made its way to Tahiti (Kerr, n.d.). In the early years of the United States, and in most other countries of the time, there was no structured form of identification for the common citizen, so early American sailors carried a “Sailors Protection Certificate” that detailed all the sailor’s tattoos and would be used to identify his body; the idea being these tattoos could not be eradicated by pirates, shipwrecks, or enemy capture (Rothstein 2009) The earliest of tattooing methods involved pricking just the skin, later color was added by some cultures, but the one that became well-known to the early European explorers of the Pacific was that of the Polynesians in which pigment is pricked into the skin with a rake-like tool (Krcmarik, 2003 ). A similar method of piercing and pigmentation was the method used by early Europeans sailors; brought home and exported to the Americas where the tattoo artist would use a sail maker’s needle to mark the indelible images sometimes using urine and gunpowder (Rothstein 2009). Many who practiced the art of tattooing while sailing around the world would retire to the harbors and major ports of call they had visited to set up shop and apply their talents on generations to come. An interesting part of a recent exhibition at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia traces the history of a particular tattoo parlor in the Bowery district of New York’s Lower Manhattan as the possible source for one of today’s very well know corporate logos. The tattoo parlors founder had sailed on whaling ships and wore a red star on his arm; the sailors name was Roland Macy (Rothstein 2009 ). It has been said the famed Naturalist Charles Darwin once commented “Not one great country can be named, from the polar regions in the north to New Zealand in the south, in which the aborigines do not tattoo themselves.” (Rothstein 2009 para. 14), but as the tattoo exhibition Skin & Bones points out what is not well-known is that this custom of indelible body marking, the art of tattooing, was introduced to America in the late 18th Century by seafarers. So for those who have a tattoo today, thank a sailor (Skin & Bones, 2009) References Barreiro, J (2009) A note on Tainos: whither progress' Northeast Indian Quarterly. Retrieved October 16, 2009, from http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/41/013.html Designboom (2009) A Brief history of Tattoos Retrieved October 9, 2009, from http://www.designboom.com/history/tattoo_history.html Hawaii (state) Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2009. Retrieved September 26, 2009, from http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761576663_12/Hawaii_(state).html Hunterian Museum (n.d.) Captain Cook Voyages of Discovery. Retrieved October 10, 2009, from http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/museum/cook/cookbio.shtml Independence Seaport Museum (2009) Skin & Bones-Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.phillyseaport.org/new_exhibits-tattoos-skin_bones.shtml Kerr, B (n.d.) Mutiny on the HMS Bounty. The Saga of HMS Bounty and Pitcairn Island. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.lareau.org/sagaintro.html Krcmarik, K. (2003). Tattoo gallery. The Art of Tattoo. Retrieved September 18, 2009, from http://www.msu.edu/~krcmari1/individual/des_color.html Krcmarik, K. (2003). Tattoo gallery. History of Tattooing. Retrieved September 18, 2009, from http://www.msu.edu/~krcmari1/individual/des_color.html Rothstein, E. (2009, May 23).Exhibition review skin & bones: seafarer's memoirs, inscribed on skin. New York Times. p.C.1. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from ProQuest database. Shreve, J. (1991, January 1991) Christopher Columbus: A bibliographic voyage. Choice, 29 pp. 703-711. Retrieved October 3, 2009, from http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/bib/SHREVE01.BIB Tattoo Designs (2006). Types of Sailor Tattoos and Their Meanings. Retrieved October 16, 2009, from http://www.tattoo-designs.dk/sailors-tattoos.html Tattoo Joy (2008). Sir Joseph Bank. Retrieved October 16, 2009, from http://www.tattoojoy.com/tattoo_history/sir_joseph_banks.html Tattoo Joy (2008). William Bligh. Retrieved October 16, 2009, from http://www.tattoojoy.com/tattoo_history/william_bligh.html