Tattooing in Ancient Egypt

Long have the artwork and hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt inspired and influenced modern tattooing but the reality of tattooing in the ancient culture is little known. Contrary to popular belief, the Ancient Egyptians were not known for tattooing images of heiroglyphics and depictions of their many gods on their bodies as they did in such infinite detail on everything from the simplest objects of their everyday life to the walls of their burial chambers and their layered sarcophagi.


Geometric tattoos on lower abdomen of Amunet

 Tattooing was practiced in Ancient Egypt but was an exclusively female practice. It was previously believed that this tattooing was the mark of prostitutes and for some time, excavator would assume that mummies found with tattoos were of little importance. This theory was shattered upon the discovery of the mummified body of Amunet a high priestess of the goddess Hathor uncovered in1891 a burial at Deir el-Bahari who, due to her tattoos (series of abstrac geometric patterns comprised of lines and dots) was originally dismissed as a high ranking concubine.


Further research into other female mummies with similar markings and the placement of the tattoos suggest that tattooing was in fact performed as a kind of ritual, creating a permanent amulet for women to aid in pregnancy and birth. Tattoos created with a dark pigment, probably soot, were generally placed around the abdomen, tops of the thighs and the breasts, the pattern tattooed over the abdomen would expand with the abdomen during pregnancy much like the bead nets used in the mummification rituals which were used to "keep everything in". Images of Bes, the household protector of women in labor were found at the tops of women's thighs, suggesting that he would protect the child in the womb and safeguard its birth.


Ancient Egypt has captured the imaginations of generations and its associated images; hieroglyphs, the Eye of Horus, ankhs, pyramids, pharaohs and the Egyptian Gods have been a recurring theme in tattoos for many years. The richness of the culture, mythology and symbolism associated with Ancient Egypt lends so much to tattooing and to art in general, providing more than enough material to tattoo an entire torso.


Anubis - the jackal headed god of the underworld, cemeteries and embalming.

Ra - the falcon headed god of the sun.

Ankh - "the key of life", hieroglyph meaning eternal life.

The Eye of Horus - symbol for Horus the falcon sky god, of protection, royal power and good health.

Scarab beetle - symbol of the power of the sun, resurrection and the after-life.

Ouroboros - Infinity and the cyclic and eternal nature of life, creation out of destruction.

Sphinx - benevolent guard of temples witha human head and the body of a lion, generally depicted with a male head, very occasionally with a female head, depicting the goddess Isis or the reigning queen.

Source: Smithsonian, Vanishing Tattoo, National Geographic, Google Images.

The Tattooed People

In the mid-1800's and well into the 1900's the popularity of tattooing went hand in hand with the public affinity for circuses and the "freak shows" that went with them. It began in the early 1800's with Jean Baptiste Cabri, a French deserter, discovered by Russian explorer George H. von Langsdorff in the Marquesas Islands where he had been tattooed and eventually taken a native wife. After less than a decade exhibiting his tattoos throughout Europe, Cabri quickly slipped from the public eye and died poor and in relative anonymity.

If Cabri opened the door for tattooed show people, John Rutherford wedged that door open, rolled out the carpet and waved the welcome banner. The fanciful stories that he told of the origins of his tattoos, of a shipwreck in New Zealand and subsequent capture by Maori natives, forcible tattooing, assimilation to native society and escape to return to civilisation were retold, borrowed and mimicked by tattooed people for many years to come. 

Horace Ridler had London tattooist George Burchett tattoo his entire body, he had his teeth filed to points, his ears stretched and an ivory tusk inserted though another hole in his nose. Under the moniker The Great Omi he became one of the most famous and remembered "freaks" of the circus era, the end of his career coming at the perfect time, when tattooing became more prevalent in main stream society and more and more circuses did away with the sideshows which no longer provided the shock value of previous years.

In a time of censorship and modesty, the idea of paying to see a woman's skin on display meant that the popularity of the tattooed lady proved to be much more lucrative and productive than that of the tattooed men.


Nora Hildebrandt debuted at Bunnell's Museum in 1882, it was her father Martin Hildebrandt, hailed as America's first professional tattoo artist, who covered the canvas of his daughter's skin in tattoos. Borrowing the concept from her male predecessors, Nora told a fantastical tale of the origin of her tattoos, saying that she and her father were captured by American Indians where Sitting Bull forced her father to tattoo her daily for an entire year while she was tied to a tree. In the later years of her career, Nora did away with the farce and instead enthralled her audience with the details of her fathers work while displaying it for all to see.

Only weeks after Nora Hildebrandt's debut, Irene Woodward, La Belle Irene presented her elaborately tattooed self to New York and her fame almost immediately eclipsed that of Hildebrandt. Her artwork is credited to Samuel O'Reilly and Charlie Wagner, using a variation of Nora Hildebrandt's story, Irene's fame grew so much that upon marrying her, husband George took her surname. Despite much debate on the matter, it is Irene Woodward who is remembered as "The Original Tattooed Lady".

Betty Broadbent was the first person to be inducted in to the Tattoo Hall of Fame in 1981. Her pin-up body was inked with over 350 intricate designs by the greatest artists of the day; Charlie Wagner, Joe Van Hart, Tony Rhineager and Red Gibbons. While many people were unable to handle the demands and rigours of life in the circus, Broadbent embraced it spending 40 years in and around the circus and sideshows. She toured through Australia, New Zealand and America, appearing as an attraction at the New York World's Fair in 1939.

Circus performers; contortionist Maud Wagner and wood carver Gus Wagner were one of the most famous tattooed/tattooist couples. They met at the St Louis Worlds Fair, it was Gus who tattooed Maud and taught her the art. They spent much of their lives in the circuses, their daughter Lovetta Wagner was never tattooed but followed in their footsteps becoming a celebrated tattoo artist even tattooing Don Ed Hardy in 1993.

At the hight of their popularity, rival circuses would compete to secure the services of the person with the most intricate and elaborate tattoos and stories. Tattoo artists of the day would often spend the warmer months touring with the circuses earning much more than they did upon returning to their homes and shops for winter. For over 70 years, every major circus having at least one tattooed person as a part of their exhibition.

The sad truth for many of these people was that fame is a fickle a fleeting mistress and many of them passed out of the public eye and were forgotten, their fates unknown and the dates of their deaths unknown. Their deaths proved to be as unremarkable as their lives had been a cruel and ironic reflection of the fickle nature of fame.


To suggest that these tattooed people were anything but pioneers of the art would be a lie. It is thanks to them and their exposure of tattooing over 70 years that society began to appreciate tattoos as an art rather than a part of the freak shows to which they had been first introduced.

Source: Vanishing Tattoo, The Human Marvels, Lydia & Friends, Vintage Venus, Google Images

Tattoos Through Time

5000 BC 
The earliest evidence of tattooing in Japan is found in the form of clay figurines that have faces painted or engraved to represent tattoo marks. The oldest figures of this kind have been recovered from tombs dated to 5,000 BC or older. It is said that the Japanese Samurai would tattoo themselves so that they could be be recognised if their armour and clothing were looted.

3300 BC Ötzi the Iceman dies in the Austrian Alps, his mummified body is discovered in 1991 and has 57 tattoos and markings on his body mostly small lines and crosses believed to be therapudic to treat osteoarthritis.

Source: New Scientist

2800 BC Ancient Egyptians One of the most famous of those early mummies is that of Amunet, a priestess of the goddess Hathor, who was found at Thebes. This female mummy displayed several lines and dots tattooed about her body. The tattoo patterns and markings were still clearly visible on her flesh.


2000 BC Upper-class Egyptian women and priestesses are tattooed with a series of dots over the abdomen, thighs and breasts. Scientists hypothesize that these tattoos are a form of protection during pregnancy, since the abdominal markings would expand to cover the woman's belly as it grew.


1300 BC Mummies dating from roughly 1300 BC are tattooed with pictographs symbolizing Neith, a prominent female deity with a militaristic bent. These are the only tattoos that at this point seem to have a link with male bearers.

Source: Wapedia
Tattoos on right arm of the
Scythian Chieftain.

500-300 BC Scythian Chieftan and “Ice Maiden  uncovered in the Altai Mountains in Pazyryk in Siberian Russia. No instruments specifically designed for tattooing were found, but the Pazyryks had extremely fine needles with which they did miniature embroidery, and these were probably used for tattooing.

400 BC The earliest known tattoo with a picture of something specific, rather than an abstract pattern, represents the god Bes. Bes is the lascivious god of revelry and he served as the patron god of dancing girls and musicians. Bes's image appears as a tattoo on the thighs of dancers and musicians in many Egyptian paintings, and Bes tattoos have been found on female Nubian mummies.

297 AD 
The first written record of Japanese tattooing was discovered when a Chinese dynastic history was compiled. According to the text, Japanese "men young and old, all tattoo their faces and decorate their bodies with designs." Japanese tattooing is also mentioned in other Chinese histories, but almost always in a negative context. The Chinese considered tattooing to be a sign of barbarism and used it only as punishment.

306 Constantine bans tattoos when tattoos were felt to "disfigure that made in God's image"

500 Pilgrim tattoos (a cross with the date of the pilgrimage) get religious sanction

720 Body art goes out of fashion in Japan when officials begin using tattoos to mark and punish criminals normally with a cross on the inner forearm or a straight line on the outside of the forearm or upper arm. The punishment was reserved for those who had committed serious crimes and were in turn ostracized by their families and communities. These outcast men were often discriminated against and so banded together, eventually forming organised crime groups known as the Yakuza. The members, wives and mistresses of these organisations are often tattooed with beautiful and intricate bodysuits (irezumi) which are rarely displayed for anyone other than other members.

Shoko Tendo author of Yakuza Moon

There is still some prejudice against tattooing in Japan because of their association with organised crime. Some establishments will still not admit people who bear tattoos of any kind.

Source: Let's Japan

787 Pope Hadrian bans tattooing banned tattooing (since it was associated with heathen practices) but there was an exemption for religious tattoos since they would “bring spiritual rewards.” 

922 Islamic scholar Ahmad Ibn Fadlan travels to Volga Bulgaria and comes across the Rus and makes some of the earliest recorded observations of the Vikings. "They are described as having bodies tall as (date) palm-trees, with blond hair and ruddy skin. They are tattooed from "fingernails to neck" with dark blue or dark green "tree patterns" and other "figures" and that all men are armed with an axe and a long knife."


1022-1066  King Harold II was the first recorded royal to have had tattoos, it is recorded that Harold's sister Edith could only pick out his mutilated body after the Battle of Hastings from the words 'Edith' and 'England' tattooed over his heart.

1576 Tattooed Inuit presented at Queen Elizabeth’s court.

1691 The English explorer William Dampier brought a tattooed South Pacific islander, Prince Giolo to London. He was known as the Painted Prince, because his whole body, except for his hands and face, was tattooed. He became the first in a long line to be displayed to the public at fairs, markets, and circuses.

Prince Giolo (The Painted Prince)

1700 Obeying the letter of the law, middle-class Japanese adorn themselves in full-body tattoos when a law is passed that only royals can wear ornate clothing.

1769 Captain James Cooks exploration of the South Pacific had his crew, looking for the perfect exotic memento to take home with them, tattoos seemed like the perfect option. He also popularizes the vocabulary we still use today: The Polynesian word tatau (meaning "to strike") gives rise to the Western term "tattoo."

1846 Martin Hildebrandt opens the first U.S. tattoo parlor in New York City, servicing clientele that includes soldiers from both sides of the Civil War. His daughter, Nora, rises to fame in the 1890s when she tours with the Barnum and Bailey Circus as the Tattooed Lady.

1891 Samuel O'Reilly invents the electric tattoo machine, which is inspired by Thomas Edison's autographic printing pen. He had been using the hand method of tattooing before, but it was tediously slow. The demand for more elaborate tattoos led O'Reilly to seek a faster method. Modern tattoo machines are still largely based on O'Reilly's design.

1955 Robert Mitchum makes the tattoo cool again in the movie Night of the Hunter, playing a sociopathic traveling preacher with "love" and "hate" inked on his knuckles. Popular modern variants include "rock/roll" and "love/math."

Robert Mitchum's tattoos in Night of the Hunter

1911 Norman ‘Sailor Jerry’ Collins was without doubt one of, if not the most famed tattooists to have ever lived. And is one of the fathers of American tattooing and was mentor to Don Ed Hardy and Mike Malone. Sailor Jerry learned his craft while travelling the country jumping between freight trains and hand tattooing drifters and the like. He was taught to use the electric tattoo machine by a man called, Tatts Thomas. While enlisted with the Navy, he sailed through the ports of Asia he began a life long fixation with Asian art and imagery. Sailor Jerry settled in Oahu, Hawaii where for the next forty years he practised his infamous style of humorous bold and colourful imagery on the passing military men. 

Sailor Jerry images: The Selvege Yard

1920 Photographs emerge of prisoners with highly elaborate tattoos in Russia, the popularity of these rose among the Thieves (vory v zakone) during the Soviet era such that there was an subculture associated with them. You could tell a fellow prisoners entire life story from his tattoos. Interest in Russian prison tattoos peaked again with the release of Alix Lambert's 2007 documentary The Mark of Cain.

1961 An outbreak of Hepatitis B which is linked to tattoo parlors in New York City causes tattooing to lose popularity again. As a result,  tattoo shops are outlawed in New York City until 1997.


1965 saw a resurgance in the popularity of tattooing with the anti-war, hippie, civil rights, gay and feminist movements. These groups leaned away from the traditional tattoo flash and toward more gentle images which dominated the mainstream tattoo market with designs like yin and yang symbols, flowers, astrological signs, and dolphins.

2005 The TV show Miami Ink airs for the first time, featuring the work of Ami James, Chris Garver, Darren Brass, Chris Nunez, Kat Von D and Yoji Harada and brings tattooing to the forefront of popular culture. This helps tattoos to become more popular in the West than at any time in recorded history, with more than 39 million North Americans sporting at least one.

  
2006: Scientists at Harvard University develop an erasable tattoo ink. Though it won't wash off in the shower, the ink's structure makes it easier for lasers to remove tattoos. Erasable tattoo ink gains popularity among those who stencil their sweetheart's name on their bicep, as the design is less regrettable after a breakup.


2009: Belgian teen, Kimberley Vlaminck, 18, claimed that she asked for only three stars to be tattooed near her left eye as a present "my father wanted to pay because in our family everyone has a tattoo," she said. As her father ate an ice cream outside, Miss Vlaminck claimed that she fell asleep before waking up to find her face covered in the "nightmare" tattoos. 56 stars to be exact. She later retracted the statement saying that she had lied and said that she fell asleep after her father's angry reaction.