49 Fun Facts About Tattoo History

Which ancient human remains, discovered in 1991, are known for bearing the oldest preserved tattoos?

Ötzi the Iceman, a natural mummy from around 3370 to 3100 BCE, was found to have 61 tattoos, making him the oldest known tattooed human remains. These tattoos are believed to have had a therapeutic function.

The English word 'tattoo', from 'tatau', is believed to have come from which language family?

Polynesian tatau, in Samoan, Tahitian and Tongan, gave English its word; before the loanword arrived, the practice had been described in the West as painting, scarring or staining.

What is the traditional name for the distinctive style of Japanese tattooing?

Irezumi: the word literally means 'inserting ink'; its full-body designs of koi, dragons and folk heroes flourished in the Edo period, and traditional practitioners, called horishi, take names built around hori, 'to engrave'.

Who patented the first electric tattoo machine in 1891?

Samuel O'Reilly discovered that Edison's rotary duplicating device could be modified to push ink into skin, and patented a tube-and-needle ink reservoir.

In pharaonic Egypt, tattooing appears to have been practised almost exclusively on which group?

Women: nearly all tattooed mummies from pharaonic Egypt are female, including the priestess Amunet from Deir el-Bahari (c. 2000 BCE); the predynastic Gebelein Man is the one early male exception.

Which European explorer's expedition introduced the word "tattoo" into English after visiting Tahiti?

Captain James Cook: his Endeavour journal from Tahiti recorded that 'both sexes paint their Bodys, Tattow, as it is called in their Language', and his crew carried the word and the practice back to Britain.

In Māori culture, what are the traditional facial tattoos called?

Moko: tā moko, the Māori facial tattoo, was historically carved with uhi chisels rather than punctured, leaving grooved skin; its spiral patterns recorded the wearer's genealogy and rank.

In ancient Greece and Rome, what was the primary purpose of tattoos for many individuals?

Marking slaves and criminals: Greeks and Romans called such marks stigmata; they could spell out the crime, the master's name or the sentence, and a freed slave who bore them was barred from Roman citizenship.

Which northern British people's Latin name first appears in a panegyric of 297 AD?

Picts: Picti first appears in a panegyric of 297 AD and is usually explained as 'painted ones', from Latin pingere; whether the Picts were actually tattooed, and with what pigment, remains debated.

Caesar said Britons dyed themselves with 'vitrum', a Latin word that more usually means what?

Glass: vitrum is the everyday Latin word for glass; 'woad' is a secondary sense taken from Caesar's line that all Britons 'vitro inficiunt', stain themselves with vitrum, and the pigment they actually used remains uncertain.

In traditional Austronesian tattooing tools, what were the skin-piercing points made from?

Bone, thorns or shell: Austronesian tattooing used a hafted point of bone, thorn or shell tapped in with a wooden mallet; comb-type tattoo chisels found in Taiwan date to before 1500 BCE and resemble those used across Polynesia.

Under what nickname did William Dampier exhibit the tattooed Jeoly in 1690s London?

The Painted Prince: Dampier sold his share in Jeoly, a tattooed man from the island of Miangas, and he was shown as 'the Painted Prince' at a Fleet Street inn in 1691; he died of smallpox in Oxford in 1692.

By the early 19th century, what were the most common images tattooed on American seafarers?

Anchors and ships: protection certificates issued to American sailors after the Revolution recorded their tattoos as identification against Royal Navy impressment, and alongside initials and dates the commonest pictures were anchors and ships.

Which circus performer is recognized as the first known professional female tattoo artist in the US?

Maud Wagner: born Maud Stevens in Kansas in 1877, she worked as a circus aerialist and contortionist and learned tattooing from the heavily tattooed circus man she married, becoming America's first known professional female tattoo artist.

In which year did New York City ban tattooing after a hepatitis scare?

1961: New York City's health department outlawed tattooing in 1961, blaming a hepatitis outbreak; the ban stood until the city council legalized the trade again in 1997.

A 1652 Jesuit account of Petun and Neutral tattooing says the perforated skin was rubbed with what?

Powdered charcoal: the 1652 Jesuit Relation describes Petun and Neutral people pricking designs such as an animal figure into the skin and rubbing powdered charcoal into the perforations to make them indelible.

The earliest known figurative tattoos, from 3351-3017 BCE, were found on mummies from which civilization?

Egypt: the two Gebelein mummies in the British Museum, a man with a wild bull and a Barbary sheep and a woman with S-shaped motifs, were re-examined in 2018 and dated to 3351-3017 BCE.

In the Victorian era, tattooing gained a surprising popularity among which social class in Europe?

Aristocracy and royalty: despite the link with sailors and criminals, tattooing became a fad among Europe's upper classes in the late 19th century, with society tattooists such as Sutherland Macdonald working from London's Jermyn Street.

Which Edison invention of 1876 became the basis of the first powered tattoo machine?

The electric pen: Edison patented the battery-driven stencil-making pen in 1876; in 1891 New York tattooer Samuel O'Reilly realised its reciprocating needle could drive ink into skin and patented a tube-and-needle version.

The ancient Greek verb for tattooing, stizein, meant what?

To prick or sting: Greek stizein meant to prick or puncture, and its noun stigma named the resulting mark; because such marks branded slaves and criminals, 'stigma' came to mean a lasting mark of disgrace.

In which decade did Q-switched lasers become the standard for tattoo removal?

1990s: continuous-wave and short-pulsed lasers had been tried on tattoos since the late 1960s, but Q-switched ruby, alexandrite and Nd:YAG devices became commercially available in the early 1990s and quickly became the standard.

Which Pacific island culture is known for geometric tattooing covering the whole body?

Marquesan work is recognisable by trademark motifs such as geckos, centipedes, tiki figures and the Marquesan cross.

Which US state was the last to legalize tattooing, in 2006?

Oklahoma: after a ban dating to the 1960s, Oklahoma became the last US state to legalize tattooing when Governor Brad Henry signed the law in May 2006; South Carolina had legalized it in 2004.

In what year did the Endeavour reach Tahiti, where its log first recorded the word 'tattow'?

1769: Endeavour anchored in Tahiti's Matavai Bay on 13 April 1769 to observe the transit of Venus in June; Cook's journal that July described the islanders' 'tattow', done 'by inlaying the Colour of Black under their skins'.

Which Roman emperor banned tattooing the faces of condemned convicts in 316 AD?

Constantine I: in 316 AD the first Christian emperor banned tattooing the faces of convicts sent to the mines or the arena, declaring the face made in the image of God; marks were to go on hands or calves instead.

What is the traditional male tattoo of the Samoan Islands, applied with hand-tapped serrated combs, called?

The pe'a runs from waist to knees in heavy symmetrical black lines, arrows and dots, struck in with serrated bone combs and a mallet.

Which type of tattoo device, patented in 1891 by Thomas Riley, was built around a modified doorbell?

Single coil: Riley's London patent of December 1891, a doorbell electromagnet housed in a brass box, was the first single-coil electromagnetic tattoo machine, granted just twenty days after O'Reilly's rotary design.

Amunet, one of the best-known tattooed mummies found at Deir el-Bahari, was a priestess of which goddess?

Hathor: Amunet, a priestess of the goddess Hathor in Dynasty XI (c. 2000 BCE), bore tattoos on her arms, thighs and abdomen; two tattooed Hathoric dancers were found at the same Deir el-Bahari site.

Which early American tattoo artist met his circus-aerialist wife at the 1904 World's Fair?

Gus Wagner: a sailor who learned hand-poked tattooing in the Pacific, Wagner billed himself 'the most artistically marked up man in America' and met aerialist Maud Stevens at the 1904 St. Louis fair; she later became a tattooist.

Which ancient people, known for elaborate tattoos, were excavated from the Pazyryk burials in Siberia?

Scythians: the Pazyryk kurgans in the Altai (5th-3rd century BCE) belong to the Scythian world; a frozen chieftain bears fish, griffins and a line of dots along the spine, and the tattooed 'Princess of Ukok' comes from the same region.

Which Yokohama master tattooed the future George V and Tsar Nicholas II?

Hori Chiyo: the celebrated Yokohama tattooist inked a dragon on Prince George, the future George V, during his 1881 naval visit, and another on the Russian Tsarevich Nicholas, later Nicholas II, in 1891.

Which singer's 1970 wrist bracelet by Lyle Tuttle helped spark a tattoo revival?

Janis Joplin: San Francisco tattooist Lyle Tuttle inked a bracelet on Joplin's wrist and a small heart on her breast in 1970, and the publicity helped launch the decade's tattoo revival among women.

Herodotus wrote that tattoos were ‘a sign of breeding’ among which people?

Thracian tattoos of spirals and animal figures on the arms, legs and chest were marks of pride and artistry rather than punishment.

Why did 17th-century Holy Land travellers such as William Lithgow get a Jerusalem cross tattooed?

To commemorate the pilgrimage: Lithgow, a Scottish traveller, had the Jerusalem cross pricked on his arm in 1612 as a souvenir of reaching the Holy Land, a custom pilgrims continued for centuries with Coptic tattooists in Jerusalem.

The 61 tattoos on the Copper Age mummy found in the Alps in 1991 mostly take what form?

Groups of simple black lines: Ötzi's 61 tattoos are sets of parallel lines and two crosses, made by rubbing charcoal into cuts; many sit over his lumbar spine, knees and ankles where the bones show wear, suggesting pain treatment.

In which year did Japan's Meiji government outlaw decorative tattooing?

1872: the Meiji government banned decorative tattooing as a barbaric custom that might embarrass Japan before Westerners, driving irezumi underground until the American occupation authorities legalized it again in 1948.

Which tattooed Raiatean man was brought to England in the 1770s and presented to King George?

Omai: the young Raiatean sailed to England in 1774 aboard HMS Adventure on Cook's second voyage, was presented to George III, sat for Joshua Reynolds and returned home with Cook in 1777.

According to Julius Caesar, the Britons painted themselves with 'vitrum', giving their skin what colour?

Dark blue: Caesar wrote that the vitrum 'produces a blue colour' and made the Britons 'more frightful in appearance in battle'; elevated copper found on the bog body Lindow Man hints at a copper-based pigment.

Which British monarch had a Jerusalem Cross tattooed on his arm during an 1862 visit to the Holy Land?

Albert, the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII, had a Jerusalem Cross tattooed on his arm during a visit to the Holy Land in 1862.

Where did Martin Hildebrandt, the first documented professional US tattooer, learn the craft?

In the US Navy: Hildebrandt, a German immigrant, enlisted in 1846 and learned tattooing aboard the frigate USS United States; he tattooed soldiers on both sides during the Civil War and later ran a shop in New York City.

From which people did the Greeks adopt the tattooing of slaves and prisoners of war?

Persians: Herodotus wrote that the Persians tattooed slaves and prisoners of war, and the Greeks adopted the practice for the same penal purpose, passing it on in turn to Rome.

Which Q-switched laser, emitting at 694 nm, is strongly absorbed by green and dark tattoo pigments?

Ruby: the Q-switched ruby laser emits at 694 nm, a wavelength strongly absorbed by black, blue and green pigments; the 755 nm alexandrite works similarly but is less absorbed by melanin, so it causes fewer pigment changes.

What is the traditional Hawaiian word for tattooing?

Kakau: Hawaiian kākau (kākau uhi) is the local form of the Polynesian tatau; designs were tapped in with bone combs, and Hawaiians sometimes tattooed their tongues in mourning for a chief.

Herodotus says Histiaeus hid a secret message for Aristagoras on what?

A slave's shaved scalp: Herodotus (5.35) says Histiaeus tattooed a message urging revolt on a trusted slave's shaved head, waited for the hair to regrow and sent him to Aristagoras, who shaved it to read the order.

Which traditional Japanese tattooing technique is done by hand rather than with an electric machine?

Tebori: 'hand carving' pushes clusters of needles, bound with silk thread to a bamboo or wooden handle, into the skin by hand; traditional horishi favour Nara sumi ink, which turns a characteristic blue-green under the skin.

According to Aeschines, some enslaved men in ancient Greece bore a tattooed inscription reading what?

Stop me, I'm a runaway: the Athenian orator Aeschines describes runaway slaves marked with this tattooed inscription; Greeks called such penal marks stigmata and placed them on the forehead so they could not be hidden.

Which aristocratic botanist on the Endeavour voyage returned to England with a tattoo of his own?

Joseph Banks: the wealthy young naturalist had paid some ten thousand pounds to bring his own party aboard Endeavour; he described Tahitian tattooing in detail in his journal and came home with a tattoo of his own.

Which Indigenous people of the Arctic are known for traditional facial tattoos called kakiniit?

Inuit: kakiniit are the traditional Inuit tattoos, with the facial marks specifically called tunniit; they were historically made by and for women, drawing soot-soaked sinew under the skin with a needle.

The military 'tattoo', a drum signal, takes its name from which language?

Dutch: the military 'tattoo' comes from the 17th-century Dutch 'doe den tap toe', 'turn the tap off', the drum call telling innkeepers to stop serving so soldiers returned to barracks; it is unrelated to Polynesian tatau.