Throughout history, people have got tattooed for a huge range of reasons, whether religious devotion, artistic expression, or to demonstrate cultural belonging – or cultural difference. Dr Matt Lodder talks to Charlotte Hodgman about 5,000 years of tattooing history, exploring everything from the punishment tattoos of ancient China to the pilgrim tattoos adopted by Victorian aristocrats, including a future king.
Michelle Dee, Miss Phillipines 2023, wore a dress as a tribute to the last and oldest living Kalinga (Indigenous Filipinos) tattoo artist, Apo Whang Od and her work
The Forty Thieves gang, Buffalo Bill, designs chosen by sailors, convicts, lovers: Shahidha Bari looks at the history of tattoos with Matt Lodder, Zoe Alker and Tanya Buxton from the opening of the first commercial parlour in London’s West End in 1889 to the most popular images now and their use to enhance wellbeing.
Zoe Alker has studied over 75,000 tattoos seen on convicts between 1790-1925. She teaches in the criminology department at the University of Liverpool.
Matt Lodder is a Senior Lecturer in Art History and Theory, and Director of American Studies at the University of Essex. His research primarily concerns the application of art-historical methods to history of Western tattooing from the 17th century to the present day.
Tanya Buxton is a tattoo artist based in Cheltenham, specialising in medical tattoos.
Do you have any tattoos? ⚓️ I have a bunch, so I was very excited to come across these 19th century tattoo flash books in the Winterthur Library – and they’re digitized! You can see them here 📚