Tattoo in 1906

[messers]

I have someone with a tattooed bracelet and anchor left with ship inside lifebuoy on his right wrist.

He comes from a banking family in Colchester and as far as I know was never in the navy.

How were tatoos in this era regarded?

Michelle

[cfww2]

Hi Michelle,

though most people think that the vogue for tattoos amongst the general population is a recent thing, from the 1870s through to WW1, there was another period when tattoos were seen as "trendy", especially amongst the upper classes.

That vogue began after people found out that the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) had had a tattoo done in the early 1860s. The idea that tattoos were only for sailors and society's lowest was dispelled, and men and women who wanted to be seen as "fashionable" followed the Prince's lead.

By the end of the C19th tattoo parlours had cropped up all over the place. However, the fashion came to an end during the War, and its "acceptance" in society had to wait another 80 years for a resurgance.

On a personal note I have to admit that I am unhappy with this recent resurgence....I always liked being different with my tats....but now every tom, dick and harriet seems to have them |biggrin|

CF

[fideliab]

I have someone with a tattooed bracelet and anchor left with ship inside lifebuoy on his right wrist.

He comes from a banking family in Colchester and as far as I know was never in the navy.

How were tatoos in this era regarded?

Michelle

Prostitutes were often tattooed with letters or initials on their arms at the time, perhaps the brand of a pimp. Tattoos were most common among sailors, soldiers, workers, miners, criminals, and prostitutes in the eighteenth century but become fashionable for the elite class at the end of the nineteenth century. Winston Churchill's mother had a tattoo of a snake on her wrist.|book|

[Ditch]

My Great Aunt had almost as many tattoo's as I have. Without checking, I'd say she must've been born around the turn of the 1900's too.

'Unfortunately', it must be said that she wasn't exactly ye regular aristocracy. In fact, hers was the last generation to have been born on the road.

She had a claim to fame though; As the first female to bring her genteel art to Portsmouth. Hers being the art of stripping to the waist and bare knuckle fighting members of the Royal Navy in the streets |nutkick|

Frankly, I wouldn't swap having known and loved that wonderful, crazy woman for having all the tattooed toffs back to Saxon times in my line up.

One of Polly's Girls. Fierce blood! ;)

[MythicalMarian]

She had a claim to fame though; As the first female to bring her genteel art to Portsmouth. Hers being the art of stripping to the waist and bare knuckle fighting members of the Royal Navy in the streets |nutkick|

Frankly, I wouldn't swap having known and loved that wonderful, crazy woman for having all the tattooed toffs back to Saxon times in my line up.

One of Polly's Girls. Fierce blood! ;)

What a character, Ditch! I'd welcome her aboard my tree anytime, and I'd have paid really good money to see her fight sailors. This is the kind of colourful ancestor we should all have in our trees :D