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Tattoo History - Old School Tattoos
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05 Aug '03 -
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Inderdaad, goed geraden. Het is dinsdag, dus wederom tijd voor Dreadloki & Haida's Dinsdag Tatoeage-dag! Laten
we maar snel van start gaan, want u heeft nog een hoop leeswerk voor de
boeg. Of niet. Ja und heute, meine Herrschaften, ist das Subjekt: "Alte
Schule Tätowierung"!!!! Oftewel, Oldschool Tattoos.
History
(editor's note(Hah, heb ik altijd al willen
typen!): Om nu niet te verzanden in een discussie waarbij geroepen
wordt wie nu de tatoeage als eerste naar het Westen heeft gehaald,
hebben Haida en ik besloten om dit onderstaande verhaal eruit te
lichten en ons voor de rest te richten op de stijl en de kunstenaars
uit het begin van de 19e eeuw. Alhoewel Captain Cook volgens de
overlevering de allereerste was, wordt er in andere documenten
gesproken over ene William Dampier, die een getatoeëerde
prins introduceerde in 1691. Een andere interessante passage uit
ditzelfde document :
Contrary to popular belief it was not Cook who
reintroduced the word tattoo (from the Polynesian word tattow) back
into the English language, as a means of marking the skin. (The word
tattoo has been with us in the English language since 1644, denoting
the beat of a drum and a military term).
Genoeg stof tot nadenken dus. U kunt het nalezen in de onderstaande links.
Tattooing has been linked with the seafaring lives
of the world's navies for centuries. This tradition began in the
1700's, when Captain Cook discovered the tattooed natives of the South
Pacific. Cook's sailors were looking for the perfect souvenirs of their
journey into foreign lands, and tattooing was the most exotic. One of
the great seaman-tattooists of all times was George Burchett-Davis,
who, in 1888, at the age of 16 years, shipped out on the H.M.S.
Victory. For the next three years this ship and the world were his
home. In his memoirs, published in 1958, he recalled many of the trials
and tribulations of the Royal Navy before the turn of the century:
The great majority of British warships were very old and many were not
seaworthy. The conditions for the men were grim. The biggest single
fault was overcrowding. Of course, the crew slept in hammocks and
comfortable though these may be, we had to hang them so closely
together there was hardly any room to breathe. There was severe
punishment for offenses. Men were put in irons and sentenced to a diet
of bread and water almost every day aboard many ships.... With us
however, justice, though rough, was fair.
I had received a nominal training ashore at Portsmouth. But it was left
to the old salts to make me into a sailor. This they did in the
time-honored way with threats which they usually carried out. Some were
upright men whom I grew to respect, others were brutes. One soon
learned how to keep out of the way of the tough fellows and how to make
friends who were strong enough to side with you, when the need arose.
In short, it was a training in life as well as seamanship. Early in
1889 the Victory set sail for the Far East stations: Singapore, Hong
Kong, and the Chinese treaty
ports. is George
Burchett-Davis' memories of Kobe, Japan.
Over this scene the sun set in a wonderful glory. I
did not have to wait long to see some of Japan's art up close. I
realized what had inspired the tattoos I had admired. As I looked out
to the islands and there delicate silhouettes I was, in my boyish way,
moved for perhaps the first time in my life by pure beauty and I also
felt a kind of sadness which I did not understand. Now, I think, it
simply meant that I realized that there are some things in life which
will always keep on the other side of the shop-window. In my case, I
would never be able to achieve anything so lovely as the view from the
H.M.S. Victory over Kobe with my own hand.
In those couple of paragraphs, Burchett captured the
repulsion and attraction of life at sea. When the ships were made of
wood, these men were made of iron. The Royal Navy went on to rule the
seas for many more decades with only slight irritation from the French,
United States and German Navies. Today it is still one of the great sea
powers of the world. The United States Government issued a circular in
1909 connected with recruiting which stated, "Indecent or obscene
tattooing is cause for rejection, the applicant should be given an
opportunity to alter the design, in which event he may, if otherwise
qualified, be accepted."
In the 1940s this obscure ruling caused one of the biggest booms the
tattoo trade had known in years. From far and wide, eligible young men
were flocking to their favorite needlers with demands for lingerie,
skirts, brassieres, fans, bubbles, flowers, butterflies, almost
anything that would cover up a bare spot.
"Why?" exclaimed
, who was reckoned
the Dean of American Tattooing and who practiced his art on New York's
famed Bowery, "it's been just like old-home week around here since
Pearl Harbor."
"Can you imagine," he added "how a store clerk would feel in a town
where everybody's clothes wore out at the same time? That's how I've
been feeling. For going on 50 years, I've been turning out tattooed
ladies, most of them naked, and now all I do is cover them up."
An interesting sidelight to this new enforcement of naval regulation
was in the early
1940s. was
up in New York's Magistrate's Court on a charge of violating the
Sanitary Code. Wagner told the judge he was doing "essential war work,"
tattooing clothes on naked women. He explained that lots of fellows who
had unabashed nudes needled into their skin now want to get into the
Navy, which says that first they must get their girls dressed up. The
Magistrate let Charlie off with a $10.00 fine and a warning to clean up
his tattoo parlor on Chatham Square - Charlie went back to "essential
war work."
During the age of sail, the commerce and defense of
a nation depended upon the great square-rigged warships and the men who
sailed them. Below are but a few of the popular tattoos of a seaman's
life.
HOLD, on the knuckles of one hand and FAST, on the other. Said to help the seaman hold on to the riggings better.
A
PIG, on the top of one foot and a ROOSTER, on the other. Said to
protect the seaman from drowning, because both of these barnyard
animals cannot swim so they would get the seaman quickly to shore.
An ANCHOR showed the seaman had sailed the Atlantic Ocean.
A FULL-RIGGED SHIP showed the seaman had sailed around Cape Horn.
A DRAGON showed the seaman had served on a China station.
A SHELLBACK TURTLE denotes a seaman who has crossed the equator.
A GOLDEN DRAGON denotes a seaman who has crossed the international date line.
PORT & STARBOARD ship lights were tattooed on the left(port) and right (starboard) side of the body.
ROPE tattooed around the wrist meant the seaman was a deckhand.
Links
Sailor history
William Dampier
Sailor Jerry Collins
Sailor George Fosdick
Charlie Wagner 1
Charlie Wagner 2
Franklin Paul Rogers
Bert Grimm
http://www.baxterbooks.com/parrot_by_Bert_Grimm.jpg
http://www.funcitytattoo.com/flash/grimm1.jpg
http://www.catbones.com/nostalgia/tatpg3.html
http://www.catbones.com/nostalgia/tatpg4.html http://www.catbones.com/nostalgia/tatpg5.html
Don Ed Hardy
Flash-art
History
Gallery
Percy Waters 1
Percy Waters 2
Rasmus Nielsen Blacksmith
Rasmus Nielsen Blacksmith2
Carol (Smokey) Nightingale
Mildred Hull 1
Mildred Hull 2
Betty Broadbent
Col. William L. Todd
Amund Dietzel
Buzzin Guns
Tattoed Skin (tip!) I
am
sure
are of human skin, as Steve suggests, and he dates the skin
circa: 1860.
Urban Folklore
Some Flash
http://www.pconline.com/~tomdolan/tattoo/set3.htm
http://www.pconline.com/~tomdolan/tattoo/set4.htm
http://www.pconline.com/~tomdolan/tattoo/tattoo-order.htm
http://www.mastertattoo.com/flash/index.html
(enorme aanrader!)
www.westcoasttattoo.com/images/antiqueamerican1930_6.jpg
Galleries
http://www.jadedragontattoo.com/history/archive/test.htm (aanrader!!)
http://www.lifetimetattoo.com/display.php?name=rob&page=2
http://www.skinandink.com/The_Picture_Story/the_picture_story.html (tattooed fetus, niet voor de tere zieltjes)
Militair gezeur
Militair gezeur 2
P.S. Bent u zelf in het bezit van een plakplaatje formidabele tatoeage en wilt u dit volgaarne etaleren? Klik dan op de "Krashuid Collectie" aan den rechterzijde.
Tattoolog!
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