Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

15 Introduction
a heavily tattooed Tahitian prince named Omai who was exhibited
as an object of great curiosity to members of the British upper
class.
Omai was one of the first of a series of tattooed people on display
in western aristocratic circles at the end of the eighteenth
century. The first tattooed European to be publicly exhibited was
Jean Baptist Cabri, a French sailor who had jumped ship in the
Marquesas in 1795 and was, according to his account, adopted by
a tribe and tattooed on the face and body as a mark of honor
(Tattoo Historian. No.7, 1985: 4; Ebensten, 1953: 16). A few years
later an Englishman named John Rutherford returned from a voyage
to New Zealand. He told of being captured by the Maoris, forcibly
tattooed, and compelled to marry a chieftain's daughter. After
five years Rutherford escaped and returned to London where, in
the early nineteenth century. he became the object of great public
interest (Burchett and Leighton. 1958: 23-25). By the 1850s a
number of heavily tattooed Europeans were making a liVing by exhibiting
themselves to the public and to meetings of prestigious
medical associations. Their often fanciful stories-printed in the
popular media-as well as contact with irezumi-after Japan was
opened to western merchants and travelers-initiated a lively tattoo
fad in Europe by the late nineteenth century.
For the most part. the European middle-class was not affected
by the "tattoo rage" as it was dubbed by the press. The most avid
tattoo consumers were sailors, craftsmen. the military. and members
of the aristocracy. The most popular designs were South Sea
and nautical images, identification marks (especially military and
craft guild insignia). religious tattoos, marks of political allegiance,
and love vows. It was the tattooing of the nobility, who
commonly were tattooed in the course of travels in the orient. that
drew the most public attention. Led by the London World. newspapers
of the day carried lurid accounts of aristocrats' tattoo experiences.
Among the famous tattooed personages were Czar
Nicholas II of Russia, King George of Greece. King Oscar of Sweden.
Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. and most of the male members
of the British royal family (Ebensten, 1953: 16-20; Parry, 1971
[19331: 98; Richie. 1973; Oettermann, 1985: 12).