(Image: Alexander Turnbull Library)
They range from purely decorative and stunningly artistic to symbolic and personal. Some are humourous, others foreboding. But despite their increasingly mainstream appeal, tattoos and other body modifications are nothing new. For generations, from ancient cultures to more modern ones, people have decorated themselves with the stories of their lives, their loves, their memorials, and their beliefs.
Humankind has been wearing its heart on its sleeve. And in some cases, tattoos have continued to tell personal stories long after those to whom they belonged have gone, revealing in pictures and symbols what they could no longer express in words. The latest edition of our Past Lives series examines 10 cultures and individuals throughout the centuries, for whom tattoos have been an integral and important part of life – and in some cases, death.
10. The Ainu
A group of people indigenous to northern Japan and Russia, the Ainu are descended from an even older group who settled the same lands 12,000 years ago. Their culture showcases a series of incredible artistic traditions though sadly, the last of the traditionally tattooed Ainu women passed away in 1998.
(Image: via Russia Beyond the Headlines)
Within the Ainu culture, tattooing was traditionally a female-only pursuit. Only women would give and receive tattoos, the most distinctive being one around the lips and mouth, which was typically begun on women when they were little more than girls, and slowly extended as they aged. This incredibly painful process was not only thought to prepare them for the pain of adulthood and childbirth; it was also thought to keep evil spirits from entering through the mouth.
(Image: via Russia Beyond the Headlines)
Arms and hands were also often tattooed in a process that started around the age of five or six. Their intricate, braided patterns were also thought to help protect the soul from evil and prepare for the afterlife. The practice was strongly rooted in spirituality and religion; tradition told that it began with the sister of the god who had created the world and all within it. In order to preserve the connection with ancestral females, the artistic tradition was passed down through the women of the family.
(Image: via Russia Beyond the Headlines)
For generations, the Ainu fought attempts by Japan to end the practice. More than once, particularly at the turn of the 19th century, Japanese authorities forbid such tattooing as cruel. Those that practiced it were forced to do so in secret, and the years to come would witness a constant battle to preserve the tradition that, according to Ainu belief, stemmed from their creation as a people. Girls were forbidden to marry before they had been tattooed, and those that died before having the intricate patterns on their lips and hands would not be allowed into the afterlife.
(Image: via Russia Beyond the Headlines)
Taking away tattooing was taking away who they were. Part of the problem was a cultural one – for the Ainu, tattoos were a way of honouring their ancestors and keeping them safe from evil spirits. But the Japanese state had established a firm association between tattoos and crime, a practice akin to body mutilation.
9. The Divine Tattoos of Polynesia
When it comes to the idea of tattooing as an expression of beliefs on a universal scale, there are few cultures that can rival the stories told by the Polynesians. By the time Europeans reached them, some half a million native people were living among the corals and volcanoes of the islands – and they were continuing a long held tradition.
(Image: via Wikipedia)
Traditional belief held that invisible forces guided all that happened in the universe. Some were with charged with overseeing broad issues from fishing to war, with other, more personal forces watched over people and families. Those people – along with everything else in the world – were conduits for mana. The energy could be guided and gained through proper living, through rituals and through tattoos, and it could be lost through evil actions.
(Image: Gottfried Lindauer)
Tattoo artists were similar to priests in that they could pass mana along to those they tattooed; some were more powerful than others, and getting tattooed was a ritual that included songs and the telling of stories. Similarly to the beliefs of the Ainu, the profession of tattooing was often passed down through families, and Maori tattoos are perhaps the most well-known example of Polynesian tattooing.
(Image: Arthur James Iles)
So perhaps not surprisingly, a series of particular beliefs and rituals surrounds the traditional, distinctive facial tattoos of the Maori. It was believed that, while the tattoos were healing, any cooked food that touched them would take away the spiritual properties with which they were imbued. Artists held a similar belief about cooked meat that caused them not to touch it – their hands were the vehicles used to transfer energy called tapu, and touching cooked meat with those hands was taboo.
(Image: via Wikipedia)
The word ‘tattoo’ as we know it today come from the Samoan art of ta tau, and every line and shape of the Samoan patterns had a very specific meaning. Full-body tattoos were typically applied in a structure specially built for the process, and could take several months to complete.
8. Olive Oatman and Mohave Tattooing
In the 1850s, Olive Oatman was transformed from a young European settler to a tattooed ‘white Indian’, and her story has been told and retold to the point where it’s become enshrined somewhere between history and legend.
(Image: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
The basics are simple but tragic: traveling west with her family, she saw everyone else in her group killed during a massacre by the Yavapai Indians. After a year in slavery, she was traded to the Mohaves and raised as a part of the tribe…. until she was sold back to white settlers in exchange for horses.
(Image: Powelson)
Aside from that, pretty much nothing has actually been confirmed about her story. It seems to vary with each telling, even from the beginning – occasionally she was an infant when she was first taken by the Yavapai; sometimes her mother was still pregnant when she was killed. In some versions she wanted to leave her Mohave family; in others she didn’t. Even her fate is up for debate – some say she lived happily ever after, while others hold that she died destitute in an institution.
(Image: Tattoopinners)
Part of the reason for the endurance of her story is claimed to be her tattoo, blue markings inked onto her face by the Mohave she lived with. It’s claimed that she was the first white, tattooed woman in the United States, and the tattoo set her apart for the rest of her life. There’s no way to hide a facial tattoo, though, and once returned to her European brethren, she spoke often and told her story in her writing.
(Images: University of Nebraska Press; Arizona Historical Society)
But still, it was a convoluted story that told the best and the worst of her childhood and her captors. At one point, she would claim the tattoo had been applied to indicate that she was a slave, but evidence in the form of the same tattoo on others suggests that wasn’t the case at all. Traditional beliefs indicate that the tattoos were a way of ensuring a place in the afterlife, and also as a purely cosmetic, decorative body modification.
7. Ötzi the Iceman
The immaculately preserved body of Ötzi the Iceman has provided an unprecedented look at a 5,300-year-old person. We’ve known for a while that he’s covered in tattoos, but it’s only as of January 2015 that researchers had completely mapped and documented all of them.
(Image: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology)
Ötzi was first discovered in 1991, by tourists in the Swiss Alps. When he was first examined, 49 separate tattoos were discovered, and as studies went on, that number slowly rose. Now that Ötzi has been photographed under various lighting conditions, researchers are confident that they’ve confirmed the final number – 61.
The tattoos, which were made up of a series of lines in various formations, were categorized into 19 separate groups. But the complete mapping of his tattoos hasn’t shed any light on what they might have meant or why they were applied.
(Image: Thilo Parg)
The most common theory was that the tattoos were a sort of acupuncture – most of them correspond with different points commonly used in Eastern acupuncture. Ötzi was also suffering from a degenerative disease that was evident especially in his joints and lower spine, all areas where tattoos were clustered. But there were also tattoos in places that didn’t show signs of disease, like his chest.
(Image: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology)
While it’s possible that he may have been afflicted with other conditions that we just can’t know about at this point, it does at least create the possibility that some of his tattoos had another meaning. Most featured a series of horizontal lines, but Ötzi also had a couple of crosses, too, perhaps with different interpretations. His tattoos weren’t applied by poking the skin, either; instead, the ancient method involved slicing the skin open and filling the wound with colour.
6. The Hildebrandts and American Tattooing
Martin Hildebrandt is credited as being the first American commercial tattoo artist with a permanent shop in which to practice. The earliest records of his work as a tattooist in New York City date back to 1859, and throughout the Civil War, he was busy tattooing soldiers who would later take to the battlefield and occasionally be identified by the marks he had put on their bodies.
(Image: via Needles and Sins)
After the war, he set up shop on the corner of James and Oak in Lower Manhattan. Scant accounts of his life and work suggest that he operated there for at least the next decade, during which time he married Mary Hildebrandt and had a son, Frank.
Beyond that, details of his life are scarce. Hildebrandt was arrested in 1885 and charged with disorderly conduct. Around that time his son claimed that he was mentally ill, and Hildebrandt was committed to the New York City Asylum for the Insane. He died there in 1890, a resident in a terrible system for the treatment of mental illness either real or alleged.
(Image: via The Human Marvels)
As a final footnote to his story, a woman named Nora Hildebrandt, who had been tattooed by him, was known across the country as America’s first professional “tattooed lady”. And fittingly, her story is just as cryptic as his. While she had long claimed to be his daughter, who he used to practice on when clients were few and far between, Martin Hildebrandt had only ever had a son. He’s known to have worked on museum exhibits and circus performers, so the 356 tattoos reported to be on her body may well have been his. But her claims to how she got her tattoos seem somewhat far-fetched.
(Image: The Plaza Gallery, LA; well-known ‘tattooed lady’ Maud Stevens)
Nora asserted that she had been kidnapped by a group of Native Americans, tied to a tree, and forced to undergo the procedure day after day. And as for her fate, we’re not sure about that, either – after a stint of touring with Barnum & Bailey around the same time that Martin Hildebrandt was languishing in an asylum, other tattooed ladies gained and overtook her popularity.
5. Inuit Tattoos
Ancient figurines found near the Arctic circle show that tattooing there dates back at least 3,500 years, and for much of that history, it was mainly practiced among women.
(Image: Das Weib im Leben der Völker)
Tattooists were among the oldest and most respected of the female members of the community. It’s thought their experience with other forms of needlework made them more adept at creating the painful and delicate facial tattoos worn by many women in the group.
The motion used was similar to sewing; a needle was passed beneath the skin rather than simply piercing it; after the skin had been broken, a slender stick would be passed though the same hole. The stick would usually be covered with soot to create the coloured patterns. In other places, it was the needle itself that provided the pigment, which was comprised of soot, graphite and even urine. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t unheard of for recently-applied tattoos to become infected and painful, sometimes to the point where infection would spread and a person may die.
(Image: via Wikimedia Commons)
Tattooing has been practiced among the Inuit for a variety of reasons. Some such body modifications commemorate a first kill, called kakileq. Other tattoos are applied for funerals, while tattoos applied around the mouth were intended to ward off drowning. Chin stripes, common for women, were thought to act as a sort of protective talisman – and to show their status and maturity. Women often also had their thighs tattooed, so that as they gave birth, it was the first thing their child saw.
In some remote areas, tattoos were something of a road map through the body, thought to guide spirits into, through, and out of a body. Such practices were highly ceremonial, a permanent application of principles, signs and symbols that were deeply enshrined in ritual.
4. The Siberian Ice Maiden
Some of the most beautiful of ancient tattoo art discovered to date was found on the 2,500-year-old mummy called the Siberian Princess or Ukok Princess.
(Image: via the Siberian Times)
Whether or not she was actually a princess isn’t known, but her burial alongside two warriors – also heavily tattooed – and six horses, entombed as her guides to the spirit world, suggest that she was someone of great importance. If not a princess, she was likely a healer, a story-teller, or of a similar status.
(Image: via the Siberian Times)
The Ukok Princess was around 25-years-old when she died. In 2014, an MRI confirmed that she had succumbed to breast cancer. The experts that examined her believe she had suffered from the disease for around five years, and suggested that her use of cannabis to relieve her symptoms may have led to her elevated status as someone who could supposedly commune with the spirits through drug use. Signs of fractured bones suggest that falling off her horse weakened her, confining her to a bed for the final months of her life.
(Image: via the Siberian Times)
Artists have also reconstructed her extensive, exquisite tattoos, which look more like the work of today than the body modifications of thousands of years ago. In her Pazyryks culture, tattoos were often passed down through the family, with the belief that, in the afterlife, it would be easier to identify one’s ancient ancestors by their similar body art.
(Image: via the Siberian Times)
This ice maiden was decorated with animals – specifically incredible mythological creatures. Her left shoulder was done with an antlered deer and griffon. Her mummified corpse also revealed a half-panther, half-sheep creature. The man buried alongside her shared the same half-deer, half-griffon, covering the entire right side of his body. Based on what they’ve observed from these remains, along with several other similarly tattooed mummies from the same region, the application of the tattoos seemed to always start with the left shoulder. The older a person was, the more tattooed they became, allowing researchers to trace the typical spread of the Pazyryks tattoos.
(Image: via the Siberian Times)
The Ukok Princess’ removal from her burial mound to a research institute hasn’t been without controversy. For those that believe, her removal was nothing short of sacrilege. Everything from forest fires and earthquakes to an increase in suicides have been blamed on her removal; now, though, she’ll be returning home.
3. Ancient Egypt
For many years, the scientific community has been debating whether or not tattooing was a common practice in ancient Egypt. Even though a number of figurines and statues have been found, decorated with what some claim are tattoos, others simply say that the decorations are representations of clothing. Until Amunet, that is.
(Image: The Telegraph Video via YouTube)
A priestess of Hathor, Amunet lived around 4160 BC. Her body was decorated with what have been interpreted as fertility symbols, including circles across her stomach and lines along her thighs. They’re similar markings to those found on statues left in tombs, including a set of three statues called the Brides of Death. The connection between Amunet’s tattoos and those on the statues seems to support the idea that the markings on various figurines are, indeed, tattoos, implying that the process was far more widespread than originally thought.
(Image: The Telegraph Video via YouTube)
Recently, a group of mummies were thoroughly scanned and examined by researchers from the British Museum in preparation for an exhibit that includes not only mummies of those from higher social echelons, but of everyday people. It’s easy to look at mummies as objects rather than individuals, and the goal of the exhibit was to restore the humanity to bodies that had been so carefully preserved. They found some suffered from heart disease, others had plaque buildup in their legs, and others showed signs of chronic toothache.
One even had an incredibly personal tattoo. The woman, who was about 30-years-old when she died, was part of a Christian community that lived along the Nile in about 700 AD. On the inside of her right thigh was a tattoo that spelled out the Greek word for ‘Michael’ – Mixaha. The symbol was often used in the Bible to represent the Archangel Michael, and it’s suspected that the tattoo had been applied as a protective talisman.
2. The Last Kalinga Tattoo Artist
For more than seven decades, Whang-Od has made the daily trip to and from her rice fields, walking thousands of steps down a mountainside and miles along treacherous riverside paths – carrying a basket of rice on the way back. The last of the Kalinga tattoo artists, she’s the final practitioner of an art form that’s centuries old.
(Image: Christopher Newsom)
She learned the art from her father and, had fate played out differently, she might have passed it on to her own children. But the man who was once destined to be her husband was killed in a logging accident, and she never married. Instead, she devoted her life to her art and now, that art is almost gone.
(Image: Distill2013 via YouTube)
Kalinga tattoo artists decorate the men of their people with marks distinguishing their skill as headhunters and in combat. There are still a handful of tattooed men, although their ranks are falling. Those who still wear the intricate patterns of dots, dashes and symbols are those who earned the right during World War Two, fighting Japanese forces and often taking the heads of those they killed. At one time, village and family shrines held the heads of dead enemy soldiers, often minus the jawbones – which were used for the handles of gangsa gongs.
(Image: Christopher Newsom)
Headhunting no longer persists in the area, though blood feuds still exist. Today, guns have become the weapon of choice, and hand-to-hand combat is rare. With only one man receiving his tattoos since the end of World War Two, there’s little need to continue the practice. At one time, headhunting had allowed the Kalinga to remain relatively free from those who sought to conquer them.
Headhunting was used to settle disputes with foreigners, outsiders, and between tribes. Raids were once organized for the sole purpose of collecting heads, an act that was thought to appease the spirits that protected the village. Some remember a time when raids were commonplace, and claim life was better when they were taking heads as trophies, placing them in shrines to please the spirits who walked among them.
(Image: Distill2013 via YouTube)
Those who receive tattoos highlighting their bravery in battle and the number of kills they’ve made believe that the patterns on their skin will also distinguish them in the afterlife, just as their actions set them apart in the eyes of spirits that watch the living.
1. 19th Century Prison Tattoos
Throughout history, experts and academics have long debated what it takes for a person to turn to a life of crime. In the 19th century, Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso developed his theories about the criminal man, suggesting that some people that weren’t as advanced as others, and were thus predestined for a life of crime.
(Image: via TattooHistorian.com)
He claimed that a series of physical traits – like a primitive or savage countenance – could be used to identify criminals, or those who were likely to become them. He also stated that tattoos were a clear indication of criminal behaviour. After studying and recording the tattoos of 7,114 people, Lombroso came to the conclusion that getting a tattoo was the stuff of sailors and soldiers, criminals or prostitutes.
Clearly – to him, at least – the process of application proved such people had an unnatural resistance to pain and in some cases a violent nature. Lombroso believed that those decorated with tattoos were something of an evolutionary throwback to an era when such body mods were accepted for religious or spiritual reasons.
(Image: via TattooHistorian.com)
But he also suggested those with tattoos were simply vain or wished to identify themselves as a part of a criminal gang. In the case of prostitutes, Lombroso suggested that their often-erotic tattoos served a distinctive purpose too.
More impartial studies of the day reveal a wide variety within the tattoos of the 19th century criminal element. Tattooing was slowly becoming more mainstream, after all, and many people exhibited a combination of tattoos inked on the outside and on the inside – with some pretty amazing themes.
(Image: via TattooHistorian.com)
While there were certainly memorial, erotica and naval tattoos, there was also a surprising amount of alcohol-related ones, too. Designs of men holding drinks and – intriguingly – circus-themed tattoos, from jugglers on a tattooed tightrope to acrobats and weight-lifters, were all representative of the period. Of course, non-criminals were getting tattoos as much as the criminal element, and while there’s still a degree of stigma attached to those that have tattoos – especially visible ones – but Lombroso’s theories have at least fallen out of favour. Times and themes might change, but body art seems as though it’s here to stay, in one form or another.
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