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Kelly Robinson
Police Constable
Username: Kelly
Post Number: 6
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:17 pm: | 
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I'm doing research for an article on tattooing in the Victorian era and wondered if anyone here might have some information on the subject. I know Eddowes had a tattoo, so maybe someone's looked into it...? Anything would be helpful because I'm just getting started. Thanks. |
Michael Raney
Inspector
Username: Mikey559
Post Number: 230
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:27 pm: |
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Kelly,
I just happen to be getting a tattoo today. I will talk to my tat guy and see if knows anything. He has books showing some very old types of tattoos. He showed me some 18th century tattoos that sailors got from the South Pacific Islands. It was fascinating.
Mikey |
R.J. Palmer
Inspector
Username: Rjpalmer
Post Number: 357
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:38 pm: |
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You might look into a Whitechapel suspect named Alfred Gray who was arrested in Tunis in January, 1889., who had a number of tattoos that raised suspicions. One tattoo was of a naked lady; the other arm had initials and names, one being "Mary" and the other "Polly." Gray evidently lived in Whitechapel at one time with an Italian woman. In Tunis, he was interviewed several times, photographed, and eventually given three months for vagrancy while the authorities checked out his antecedents. RP |
Michael Raney
Inspector
Username: Mikey559
Post Number: 231
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 2:48 pm: |
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Found this on the web:
During the nineteenth century tattooing flourished in England as nowhere else in Europe. This was due in a large part to the tradition of tattooing in the British Navy, which began with the first voyage of Captain Cook in 1769. During the decades which followed many British seamen returned home bearing souvenirs of their travels in the form of exotic tattoos. Sailors learned the art, and by the middle of the 18th century most British ports had at least one professional tattoo artist in residence.
Tattooing gained royal sanction in l862 when the Prince of Wales visited the Holy Land and had the Jerusalem Cross tattooed on his arm. In later life, as King Edward VII, he acquired a number of additional tattoos. When his sons, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of York (later King George V) visited Japan in 1882, Edward VII instructed their tutor to take them to the studio of celebrated master Hori Chiyo, who tattooed dragons on their arms. On the way home the two Dukes visited Jerusalem and were tattooed by the same artist who had tattooed their father 20 years before.
Following the example of the dukes, many wealthy Britons and naval officers acquired tattoos from Japanese masters. By 1890 tattooing had become so popular among British aristocrats that an American writer complained: "society men in England were the victims of circumstance when the Prince of Wales had his body tattooed. Like a flock of sheep driven by their master they had to follow suit."
The first British professional known to us by name was D.W. Purdy, who established a shop in North London around 1870. The only existing record of Purdy's work is a booklet published toward the end of his career. It bears the practical title Tattooing: how to tattoo, what to use, etc. (1896-Medical tracts-London). Purdy apparently drew all his designs freehand without using stencils.
Mikey
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2278
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 4:20 pm: |
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Just to add : I think I'm right in saying that one of the main reasons for tattooing among sailors was identification - if they were washed up somewhere the tattoo might help folks find out who they were. I believe the ear-ring was to pay for the funeral.
Robert |
carl Burrows
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 3:21 am: |
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Hi Kelly,
As the owner of a few tattoos myself
you might want to try here-
http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/the_journey_starts.htm
This site gives a good insight into the origins,history and geography of designs. |
Adam Wood
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 1:15 pm: |
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My Great Grandfather Benjamin Wood was 18 in 1888 and lived in Bethnal Green.
According to his army papers he had several tattoos, mostly of well known female music hall performers.
Adam |
Kelly Robinson
Police Constable
Username: Kelly
Post Number: 7
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 8:43 am: |
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Wow. Thanks, everyone! I'm going to do one large article on the history and a small sub-article on Alfred Gray now, thanks to all your help. If anyone turns up anything else, please let me know, and I'll do the same. By the way, Michael and Carl, what are YOUR tattoos of? |
Monty
Chief Inspector
Username: Monty
Post Number: 965
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 9:38 am: |
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Hey,
How odd....just had my third tat today!
Monty
Our little group has always been and always will until the end...
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Michael Raney
Inspector
Username: Mikey559
Post Number: 237
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 3:49 pm: |
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Monty,
Something else we have in common, and you aren't even talking to me!!!
Kelly,
I didn't get to get my new tat last night (Got too late before he got to me), but I did go through his books. Very common tats in the late 19th century were seafaring type things, boats, anchors and signal type flags that identified the ship or duties of the person with the tat. As for my newest tat, it is a rainbow circle surrounding my daughters name, birth year, death year and a rose. I have the drawing that it was done by and I will try to scan and post it.
Mikey |
Natalie Severn
Chief Inspector
Username: Severn
Post Number: 599
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 3:55 pm: |
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Sounds beautiful Mikey.Didnt realise you had a daughter.I have too.
Natalie |
Michael Raney
Inspector
Username: Mikey559
Post Number: 238
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 4:13 pm: |
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Nats,
Yes, I was actually married to a woman once. We had a beautiful daughter. She died on July the 4th 2002 from liver failure at the age of 14. All the guys in my family have or are getting a memorial tattoo of their own design on the upper left shoulder.
Mikey |
Natalie Severn
Chief Inspector
Username: Severn
Post Number: 602
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 4:46 pm: |
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That is the saddest post Mikey.What a lovely way to remember her.
I hope you dont mind me posting a poem about a tattoo.Its by a young American whose lover died of an illness I am familiar with:
The bartenders Tattoo
The arms around me need a flower
exactly like your rose tattoo.
I talk about it,eighty bucks an hour,
on days I try to be cured of you:
chemically peeling,burning,sanding
layers of cells as deep as it goes.
You were a walking artists canvass.
You were a map with a compass rose.
You were the man who covered me
with roses fading red and pink
over my chest like tapestry
tattooed in disappearing ink
every time I let you in
the worst tattoos are under the skin.
Mikey I know its not about the loss of a child which is so very tragic but it is about loss and
the way memory of loss is internalised.I hope you like it and that it may help you.
Love Normaxxx[Natalie] |
Michael Raney
Inspector
Username: Mikey559
Post Number: 241
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 5:51 pm: |
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Nats,
Thanks, I appreciated it.
Mikey |
Natalie Severn
Chief Inspector
Username: Severn
Post Number: 605
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 3:21 am: |
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I am glad you appreciated it Mikey.It has helped me in the past.
Take Care and I hope the Tattoo brings comfort.
With All Good Wishes Nats |
carl burrows
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 4:18 pm: |
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Hi Kelly,
I have a dragon across my bicep and a chinese star on one arm, an ethnic type Mantra(for good luck) on my other forearm, a small scorpion on my leg,and an angel with my daughters name underneath on my shoulder,I might get another dragon on my chest soon.
god luck
carl |
Monty
Chief Inspector
Username: Monty
Post Number: 974
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 05, 2004 - 11:44 am: |
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Mikey,
As someone who has never had to endure such pain (although I nearly had to last summer) I cannot empathise with you...nor would I insult your intelligence by trying to.
As a Father to both a Son and Daughter I sympathise totally.
A fitting memorial Mikey.
Monty
Our little group has always been and always will until the end...
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Michael Raney
Inspector
Username: Mikey559
Post Number: 243
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 05, 2004 - 11:59 am: |
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Monty,
Thanks so much. Kind word mean so much.
Mikey |
Kelly Robinson
Inspector
Username: Kelly
Post Number: 160
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - 12:30 pm: |
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I had to revive this thread after reading a particular bit in Jonathan Goodman's Bloody Versicles: The Rhymes of Crime. For those of you who might not be familiar with the Tichborne case of 1871,a man claiming to be the missing heir to the Tichborne family fortune was found guilty of perjury. One of the factors that contributed to his conviction was the fact that he had tattoos that the real Roger Tichborne did not have, and which seemed crude for a man of his standing. The popular rhyme circulated after the trial is as follows:
About those marks upon him
They've made a great todo.
They say that he's tattooed upon
His hoop de dooden do!
This is now officially my favorite euphemism!
-K
"The past isn't over. It isn't even past."
William Faulkner
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