Author: Rob Marcus 'Titus the Ratcatcher'

Orders of the day, Volume 34, Issue 4, Aug/Sept 2002

A journey through the western history of tattooing, and through some of the most famous and colourful adventures in European seafaring.

Foreword

When I first joined Baggage I was at a complete loss where to start. As I am tattooed, Ray Brewster suggested I portray a sailor. More recently Gerbil asked me to provide some evidence to justify the open display of tattoos by those with Living History characters. Off I went with the hope of being able to enthral the public with tales of the rich exotic places my character may have travelled to, and in anticipation of turning up some authentic patterns to add to my own collection. This is the result.

The word ‘Tattoo’

Up until the late 18th century, the method of making permanent marks on the body by puncturing the skin was known understandably as ‘pricking’. It was not until Joseph Banks, the naturalist voyaging with Cook, who first recorded the name and customs of the Polynesian people who wore the marks, that the word ‘tautau’ was bastardised to the already existing English ‘tattoo’.

Earliest Evidence

Instruments possibly used for tattooing during the Upper Palaeolithic (38,000-10,000 BC) have been discovered at several sites in Europe. These consist of a disk made of clay and red ochre with bone needles that are inserted into holes in the top of the disk. The disk may have served as a reservoir and source of pigment, and the needles were used to pierce the skin. Clay and stone figures with engraved designs, which may represent tattoos, have been found with such instruments. Japanese clay figures which have faces painted or engraved to represent body marks have been recovered from tombs dated 5,000–2,000 BC.

In 1991 the 5,000-year-old body of a tattooed man was discovered on a mountain between Austria and Italy. The body had several marks: a cross on the inside of the left knee, six straight lines 15 centimetres long above the kidneys and numerous parallel lines on the ankles. The positions of the tattoos suggest that they were applied for therapeutic reasons.

According to a Chinese dynastic history compiled in 297 AD, Japanese men all decorated their faces and bodies with designs. Japanese body marking is always mentioned negatively in Chinese histories, the Chinese considering body marking a sign of barbarism and using it only as a punishment. By the 7th century the rulers of Japan had adopted much of the Chinese culture and attitudes and body marking fell into disfavour.

Tattoos and Religion

Tattooing has been discouraged or forbidden by most Christian churches throughout history. A passage in Leviticus reads, "Ye shall not make any cuttings on your flesh for the dead nor print any marks upon you" (19:28). This has been interpreted as biblical authority to support the church's position. Other historical records and biblical passages seem to indicate that religious marks were common among ancient Jews and some Christian sects. In the 4th century Constantine, the first Christian emperor of Rome, outlawed the facial marking of slaves and convicts because it disfigured that which was fashioned in God's image. In 787 Pope Hadrian prohibited marking any part of the body because it was associated with superstition and paganism.

The Church's prohibition of body marking meant it was little practised in Europe until sailors who had been tattooed in the South Pacific reintroduced it in the latter part of the eighteenth century.

Earliest records in Britain

Little is really known of what type of markings were made prior to the 787 Church ban. Julius Caesar wrote that all Britons stained their skins with woad, and Herod of Antioch was amazed to find that Britons wore animals incised into their bodies. We also know that the Picts of Scotland painted their bodies with blue woad and in some cases it is believed that they were also tattooed.

The earliest record of body markings among the monarchy was King Harold II (1022-1066), whose markings were recorded at the battle of Hastings in 1066. William of Poitiers noted that Harold was stripped of all regalia and could not be identified by his face. Harold’s sister Edith identified his mutilated body by the words ‘Edith’ and ‘England’ pricked on his chest.

Markings in the 16th Century

The only 16th century European known to have been marked was a sailor named Gonzalo Guerrero, one of 20 who survived a shipwreck off the coast of Jamaica in 1511. When Cortez and his conquistadors arrived on the coast of Mexico in 1519 they were horrified to discover that the natives not only worshipped devils in the form of statues and idols, but also had somehow managed to imprint indelible images of these idols on their skin. The Spaniards, who had never heard of body marking, considered it the work of Satan. Oviedo, who wrote the first complete account of the conquest of Mexico, tells us that “the natives imprinted on their bodies the images of their demons, held and perpetuated in black colour for as long as they live, by piercing the flesh and the skin, and fixing in it the cursed figure”. Cogulludo reported that warriors were marked to commemorate achievements in battle, so the bodies of old heroes were completely covered with hieroglyphics.

Martin Frobisher (1535-1595) in 1576 set out on three unsuccessful voyages to find a North West passage to China. He was unsuccessful, but did find a certain amount of fame when he brought back to England an Eskimo woman from one of his trips who had markings on her chin and forehead.

In 1595 the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana led four ships west from Peru in search of the legendary land of Ophir, where he believed he would find King Solomon's mines. After a month he blundered onto some islands, which he at first mistook for Ophir, but which were populated by ornately marked savages who knew nothing of the mines. Mendana called the islands Las Marquesas, which were not rediscovered until 1774, when Captain James Cook stopped for four days to take on food and water.

John Smith (1579-1631) recorded how he became a settler in Virginia, USA and how he was captured by Indians. Just as he was about to be put to death he was saved by a 13 year old girl called Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhattan, the Over-King of the North American Indians at the time. Smith was adopted by the tribe, and later told of how the Indians of Virginia had legs, arms and faces decorated with black spots.

The 17th Century

Numerous brief references to body marking are found in writings of 17th century Jesuit missionaries scattered throughout eastern Canada. They reported that body marking was practised by almost all the native tribes they encountered. The French explorer Gabriel Sagard-Thêodat's 1615 account of the Hurons stated: “..but that which I find a most strange and conspicuous folly, is that in order to be considered courageous and feared by their enemies, (the Hurons) …engrave or decorate their bodies by making many punctures somewhat as we would engrave a copper plate… they rub a black colour or powder into the cuts in order that the engraved figures will remain for life and never be effaced, in much the same manner as the marks which one sees on the arms of pilgrims returning from Jerusalem”.

The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman (1603-1659) first sighted New Zealand in 1642. The natives, who were “painted black to the knee”, quickly surrounded the anchored ships, seemed far too fierce, and indeed four men were killed when a boat dispatched to land was rammed by the Maoris. This shocked Tasman so much that he decided not to try to land the Dutch flag on the island, which he named Murderers Bay. The word Maori was 17th century Dutch slang for murderer.

In 1653 the Jesuit missionary Francois Bressani reported: “In order to paint permanent marks on themselves they … pierce the skin and trace images of animals or monsters … which they engrave on their faces, their necks, their chests, or other parts of their bodies. Then, while the punctures which form the designs are fresh and bleeding, they rub in charcoal or some other black colour which mixes with the blood and penetrates the wound… This custom is so widespread that I believe that in many of these native tribes it would be impossible to find a single individual who is not marked in this way.”

The 18th Century and the South Seas

William Dampier (1652-1715) was a noted buccaneer and great navigator, sailing round the world three times. He was the first Englishman to set foot on what was to become Australia. It was on one of his journeys to the South Seas that Dampier came across the Scottish Explorer Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned on an uninhibited island – this encounter was the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

After raiding the coast of South America for over 12 years, Dampier returned to England in 1691, bringing with him a Polynesian slave, Giolo, who was marked from head to toe. He was displayed at many fairs, and Dampier had two full-length portraits engraved and published as illustrations for an elegantly printed pamphlet, which introduced him as Giolo, the Famous Painted Prince. Dampier had told Giolo that he would be handsomely paid for his public appearances and would afterward be allowed to return to the Philippines. However, the journey to England had been arduous and Giolo, who was in poor health when he arrived, soon died of smallpox. This was a great disappointment for Dampier, who had hoped he would live long enough to make him rich.

The Samoan Islands were first seen by Europeans in 1722 when three Dutch ships commanded by Jacob Roggewein Manua arrived there. A member of Roggewein's expedition described the natives: “They are friendly in their speech and courteous in their behaviour, with no apparent trace of wildness or savagery. They do not paint themselves, as do the natives of some other islands, but on the lower part of the body, they wear artfully woven silk tights or knee breeches. They are altogether the most charming and polite natives we have seen in all of the South Seas”. The Dutch ships lay at anchor off the islands for several days, but did not get close enough to realise that the natives were not wearing silk breeches, but tattooing on their legs.

The second European expedition that visited Samoa was led by the French navigator de Bougainville, who stopped briefly in 1768. He was careful not to get too close, but he admired the skill with which the Samoans navigated their canoes. He reported that they were ill-mannered compared to the Tahitians, and thought it curious that their thighs to below the knees were painted a deep blue. In 1787 the French expedition of Jean Francoise de la Perouse was the first to set foot on Samoa. La Perouse got a closer look at the natives and reported that the men had their thighs painted or tattooed in such a way that one would think them clothed, although they are almost naked.

James Cook and Joseph Banks - 1769

The Royal Society funded Cook’s 1768 expedition in the Endeavour. Cook was given two missions; the first was to sail to Tahiti, from which he was to observe the transit of Venus when it passed between the earth and the sun. The second and more important mission was to discover, if possible, a fabled Southern Continent, which could provide new sources of colonial wealth. He was ordered to bring back detailed descriptions of the plants, animals, minerals, and other natural resources in any lands he might visit. Joseph Banks accompanied the voyage as naturalist. In April 1769 Tahiti was reached; in his journals Banks described the designs and the application of the ‘tautau’ marks the natives wore on their skin.

In July 1769, after the transit of Venus had been observed, the Endeavour set sail on her second mission, and on 7th October the unexplored east coast of New Zealand was reached. Cook went ashore with a party of men, a century after Abel Tasman’s expedition. Four of the Islanders ran at them with long clubs, but after Cook’s party killed one of the attackers the others retreated. Cook landed the next day, but more trouble flared and three more Maoris were killed. Cook decided to turn north, and for the next six months he charted the coast and discovered that New Zealand was two islands and not part of a larger land mass.

Joseph Banks was busy writing in his journals, noting the tattoos of the people, and he described the facial marks that seemed to have a channelled look. He also noted a broad spiral on the buttocks was quite common and that the women seemed to mark their lips black. Banks was most impressed with the ‘moko’ and how it gave the Maori a more frightening appearance. Although he thought the markings were ugly, he admired their elegance. During this time, Sydney Parkinson did many drawings of the natives with tattoos, and made diagrams of the instruments that were used for tattooing. Parkinson went into more detail of the tattooing than Banks' account, for had some tattoos himself and thus had a first hand knowledge of the art. Today Sydney Parkinson’s drawings can be seen at the British Museum.

William Bligh and the Mutiny on the Bounty

William Bligh (1754-1817) was Sailing Master on Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific in 1771, and on this trip he discovered the breadfruit. He also sailed on Cook’s third and final voyage to the South Seas in 1776, when Cook recorded his last mention of tattooing. He was amazed when he landed on the Sandwich Island (Hawaii) that the inhabitants were a handsome race with the men being variously tattooed. Cook died at their hands in 1779.

In 1787 Bligh was given the command of a merchant ship Bounty, with orders to sail from England to Tahiti to collect 1,000 breadfruit plants and take them to the British West Indies. The Bounty underwent great modifications and a large greenhouse was installed for the breadfruit plants. When the Bounty finally reached Tahiti the natives were extremely friendly, but they had arrived too late to collect the breadfruit saplings and would have to spend six months before the next harvest. Bligh gave his men unlimited shore leave; supplies were left to rot, nails and metal goods rusted as the men spent more time with the native women, living a carefree life. During this time Bligh detailed in his log the tattooing of many of the crew.

After 27 weeks 1,015 plants were collected and the Bounty set sail for the Indies. Following the famous mutiny in April 1789 Bligh and 18 men were put into a boat with provisions and set adrift. Only one man was lost in the 41 days it took the boat to reach the Dutch island of Timor, and it is still regarded today as one of the greatest feats of navigation in British naval history. Upon Bligh’s return to England he was court martialled for the loss of his ship but was honourably acquitted. At the court martial Bligh read from his log and described the mutineers (whom he called pirates). He gave the men’s height, ages, colour of eyes and all the tattoo marks they had acquired on Tahiti. Of the 25 who mutinied 21 were tattooed, each one carefully recorded by Bligh in his records.

The earliest known British professional tattooist was D Purdy, who established a shop in North London around 1870.

Conclusion

Gabriel Sagard-Thêodat's mention of “the marks which one sees on the arms of pilgrims returning from Jerusalem” suggest that the Middle Ages practice of marking the arm with a cross or the name of Christ may still have been practised, so it is possible that these markings were known in certain religious circles. However, based on the public astonishment produced by the likes of Giolo and the way that tattooing took off in Britain in the early 19th century, I believe that ‘pricking’ was not a practice known to the common man.

Though there is no evidence that tattoos were definitely not worn, the depth of religious feeling at the time of our period and the amazement that was shown at tattoos when they became popular would infer very strongly that they were not known in Europe during at least the first two thirds of the seventeenth century.

It is clear that tattooing did not become popular in Britain until after the return of Bligh’s voyage to Tahiti. Explorers or merchants returning from the Americas during the 17th century may have seen tattooed natives, but there is no evidence that any European was tattooed in this land save Gonzalo Guerrero a hundred years earlier.

From now on I will be reluctantly covering up my own body art whilst in front of the public. If anyone has any evidence to the contrary, please get in contact with me so that I may in future “get them out for the crowd”.

Acknowledgements

With special thanks to:

• Paul Sayce and Lionel Titchener of the British Tattoo Museum (www.tattoo.co.uk);
• Lyle Tuttle of the San Francisco Tattoo Museum (www.tattoo.com);
• Matt Zandee for taking the time to visit the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam;
• and of course to Ray Brewster and Gerbil.