HISTORY of TATTOO - Part One

HISTORY OF TATTOO - Part One

Tattooing as an art form has over the years been claimed by many countries tribal and ethnic groups. In many cases it is the same scenario of what came first - the chicken or the egg. We will probably never really know who were the first people to mark their skins.

We do know, and indeed there is much evidence, of this ancient and totally unique practice has been carried out since the beginning of time and body decoration is nothing new.

From scarification to body painting, piercing to the less permanent wearing of jewellery. Hair styles, even make-up, to the emergence in recent years of cosmetic surgery. People have always striven to change one’s appearance, and for millions of people throughout time, tattooing has been one of the most popular forms of permanent body art.

One country that probably has done more than almost any other, in securing tattooing’s place in history are the Islands of Great Britain. And as an Island race of people it is not surprising that Britain has such a tradition in this art form.

From royalty and the famous - to the common person, they have all stood shoulder to shoulder in enduring the pain, and the pleasure of becoming tattooed. In England there is a saying that horse riding is the sport of kings, and if that’s the case it is only fair in saying that tattooing is the art of the people.

Even the famed English naturalist Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), who not only upset religious groups and scientists throughout the civilised world with his thoughts on evolution, which appeared in his books the origin of species (1859) and the decent of man (1871).

His theories that man descended from lower animal forms caused great controversy, he also spoke of tattooing. Darwin’s scientific knowledge was gained when he served as a naturalist on the HMS Beagle in its surveys of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans during the years 1831 to 1836.

The Beagle did indeed land and explore many Islands in the Pacific regions and it was on the Beagles voyages that prompted Darwin to write about tattooing in his journal after meeting many natives with tattoo marks. He stated that there is no nation on earth that did not know of this phenomenon.

Charles Darwin went on to have a very varied and distinguished career and many papers were published of his life’s work. As for the upset he caused by his theories, it soon died down as he was honoured by many scientific societies throughout the world.

Darwin’s life ended on the 19th of April 1882 and possibly the greatest honour that could be bestowed on someone of his importance was that he was buried in Westminster Abbey on April the 26th of the same year.

For tattooing to be mentioned in such distinguished company made many people re-look at the art, many finding that they were standing at the dawn of a new era in indelible history.

But where did all begin for Britain, we know from documented evidence that the Board of the British Council of Churches in Calcutte, Northumberland, England, banned body markings. Claiming it to be a pagan practice, in 787 AD.
Little is really known of what type of markings were made prior to this. We know that Roman emperor Caesar wrote that all Briton’s stain their skins with woad and Herod of Antioch was truly amazed to find that Briton’s wear animals “incised” into their bodies.

We also know that the Pict’s of Scotland also painted their bodies in blue woad and in some cases some believe that they were also tattooed. Later it was thought that many of the Anglo-Saxon kings of England were tattooed, but much of this was conjecture as the first true fact of royalty being tattooed was King Harold II (1022-1066).

It was at the famous battle of Hastings where his tattoos were recorded for prosperity. Romantically the plight of Harold Godwinson of Wessex, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England and his sad demise has somewhat had the overtones of a romantic fable.

Rightly he died defending his country heroically, falling to a blow from the sword of a Norman knight and not the popular belief that he was killed by an arrow through the eye.

As for the tattooing it is also thought that Harold’s sister Edith picked out his mutilated body on the battle field by depicting the words Edith and England that were pricked (tattooed) on his chest.

King Harold’s remains were buried on the battle field and a memorial stone marks this, in the grounds of Battle Abbey. Later the King was reburied in Waltham Abbey. The confusion surrounding Harold’s death arises from the Bayeux tapestry which shows a soldier pulling an arrow from his eye and another warrior dying at the blade of a sword.

William of Poitiers who recorded the battle, noted that Harold was stripped of all regalia and could not be identified by his face, only by his body markings. Also it must be said that the battle of Hastings should have been called the battle of Senlac Ridge as this is where Harold fell on the 14th day of October 1066, eleven miles from the town of Hastings.

The next Englishman to establish tattoo links was Sir Martin Frobisher (1535-1595) who in 1576 set out on three unsuccessful voyages to find a north west passage to China.

Frobisher did find a certain amount of fame when he bought back to England an Eskimo women from one of his trips, who had chin and forehead tattoos. Frobisher went on to even greater achievements, when in 1586 he sailed as Vice-Admiral, in an expedition with Drake to the West Indies.

Two years later, Frobisher was given charge of a ship that helped defeat the Armada, and so distinguishing himself that he was knighted upon his own ship. Frobisher was later to die in battle from a fatal wound he received on the 14th of January 1595.

Meanwhile with the banning of tattooing by the church, it became an activity that almost died out. Going underground until the golden age of the pirate and explorers. So many tales and fables were being told of marked people in far off places, by seaman fascinating the people who were eager to listen.

In the journal of British settler, John Smith (1579-1631). He recorded of how he became a settler in Virginia, USA and of how he was captured by Indians and just as he was about to be put to death he was saved by a thirteen year old girl called Pocahontas.

Not only was Smith saved he was subsequently adopted by the tribe, and in his writings he told of how the Indian of Virginia, had legs, arms and their face’s decorated with black spots, presumably being tattoo marks. The name Pocahontas was thought to have been a romantic legend for many years, but she was a real person.

She was also a princess sometimes known as Matoaka the daughter of Powhattan the over King of the North American Indians at the time. Later she did marry a white man and he was John Rolfe. Pocahontas came with Rolfe to England in 1616 but died in less then a year of her arrival.

Not much is in evidence of tattooing in Britain in the forthcoming years and we had to wait until 1691 when the tales of William Dampier (1652-1715) became reality.

Historically Dampier was the first Englishman to set foot in Australia. Although he was not a great explorer and did not find anything that the Dutch had not found before him, he was somewhat of a colourful character and a noted buccaneer and great navigator. It was on one of his journeys to the South Seas where Dampier came across Scottish Explorer Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned on an uninhibited Island. This event was to later prompt Daniel Defoe’s famous book “Robinson Crusoe”.

William Dampier was born in Somerset, England and at an early age he wanted to see the world. At 18 he became a ships apprentice and did just that. Travelling the world three times, and after many adventures, Dampier returned to England on the 16th of September 1691, bringing with him the tattooed prince Giolo. Who soon became an instant attraction and crowds would come for miles around to see him, as Giolo was tattooed from head to toe.

It was said that one of his five wives did his tattoos, on his Island home of Meangis in the Philippines. He appeared at many carnivals throughout England, and Dampier was extremely happy with his new tattoo wonder. But alas it was not to last as Giolo became ill and died of smallpox in Oxford, England three months after arriving in Britain, 77 years before Cook set sail on his voyage of discovery.

And it’s that year we move onto, it was King George III of England, who on the recommendation of the Royal Society. Gave his blessings to an expedition to Tahiti to observe and record the transit of the planet Venus, which was due to pass between the earth and the sun on June the 3rd 1769. The Island of Tahiti in the South Pacific was chosen. For it was believed to be the best place the transit could be observed.

The royal society had the person who they wanted to lead the expedition and he was Alexander Dalrymple the renowned geographer and astronomer. But due to his lack of seafaring knowledge the Lords of the Admiralty would not consider him for the post, preferring instead to give the command to a 40 year old James Cook making him a lieutenant in the process.

The ship chosen for the voyage was formerly the Earl of Pembroke, a 368 ton vessel, which was a heavy but small ship. After a refit and a name change she became the Endeavour, and when she set sail from Plymouth, England, on the 19th of august 1768.

She had 94 men on board and provisions for 18 months. As it was decided by the admiralty that Cook would combine the observation of Venus with the voyage of discovery to the unknown Islands of the South Seas. And on the 11th of April 1769, KingGeorgeIsland (later known as Tahiti) was sighted.

Two days later Cook and a crew party stepped ashore for the first time. Little did Cook or the Admiralty back home in England know, that when they commissioned the voyage, they would unknowingly rekindle the art and passion of pricking (formerly the name for tattooing), and restarting the tradition of sailors the world over.

Contrary to popular belief it was not Cook who reintroduced the word tattoo (from the Polynesian word tattow) back into the English language, as a means of marking the skin. (The word tattoo has been with us in the English language since 1644, denoting the beat of a drum and a military term).

It was Joseph Banks (later Sir Joseph) who first recorded the name and customs of the people who wore the marks, and it was his observations that secured tattooing’s place back into British history. Through his journals Banks described the designs, the application and he also went into detail on how he was truly mystified why the people of Tahiti put themselves through so much pain. He also found that the body makings were performed on the natives between the ages 14 and 18.

Now with the transit of Venus having been observed, it was time for the Endeavour to set sail on possibly her greatest voyage. The date being the 13th of July 1769, and it was on this day that Cook told his crew of the secret orders of the Admiralty and that they were not to return home straight away.

So on the 7th of October the unexplored East Coast of New Zealand was reached. And two days later Cook went ashore with a party of men. A century before Dutch navigator Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603-1659), first sighted New Zealand. But Tasman’s expedition comprising of two ships the Heemskirk and the Zeehaen didn’t land of the newly found Island.

The natives who quickly surrounded the now anchored ships, seemed far to fierce, and indeed four men were killed when a boat from the Zeehaen dispatched to land on the Island, was rammed by the Maori’s. This shocked Tasman so much that he didn’t bother to try and land the Dutch flag on the Island, which he named MurderersBay.

This also at first proved a problem for Cook and his men when they landed on New Zealand as four of the Islanders ran at them with long clubs, which prompted one of the crew to fire a shot over their heads. But this did not stop them and after a second and third shot killed one of the attackers, it made the others retreat.

The next day a Tahitian chief called Tupia, who had travelled from his home with the ship, approached the Maori’s who could understand his speech and persuaded them that Cook and his men meant no harm. But more trouble flared and three more of the Maori’s were killed. So with this 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.

Also on this voyage were the men that in the days of no photography had the job of recording what had been seen via paintings and drawings. There were two artists on the trip, one being Alexander Buchan, the second Sydney Parkinson. Buchan was a landscape painter and his task was to paint the places which had been visited. But arguably Parkinson had the more important role in drawing wild life and specimens that were found.

Meanwhile Banks was busy writing in his journals, and he noted the tattoos of the people, and he wrote of 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 (facial tattoo) and how it gave the Maori a more frightening appearance, and although Banks thought the markings were ugly he admired the elegance of them.

Banks became so fascinated by what he had seen, and to go along with his scientific nature he found that he was to become the first Englishman to come into the ownership of a preserved Maori tattooed head on the 20th of January 1770. Hence starting the activity in the buying or trading of Mokoed heads from decapitated bodies. Banks picked the head from a batch of four that were brought to the ship Endeavour for the naturalist to inspect, and the head he chose was that of a young man of 14 to 15 years old. The other heads were not required.

During this time Sydney Parkinson did many drawings of the natives with tattoos, and he also made diagrams of the instruments that were used to tattoo the people. In his papers that were published in 1773 he went into great detail of the tattooing and probably more in depth than Banks' account, for Parkinson even had some tattoos put upon himself. So he did have a first hand knowledge of the art. Today Sydney Parkinson’s drawings can be seen at the British Museum London, England.

William Bligh (1754-1817) was Sailing Master on Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific sailing from Plymouth, England on July the 13th 1771, and on this trip Bligh did indeed make his name by discovering the Breadfruit, gaining the nickname Breadfruit Bligh.

It was also on this trip, that the commander of Cook’s second ship “Adventure.” Captain Tibias Furneaux, who on Cook’s orders, took back to England in 1774 the Polynesian Omai, who was placed into the care of the Earl of Sandwich, first Lord of the admiralty, and Joseph Banks who gave Omai lessons in the art of manners.

Soon Omai became the wonder of the age. He met royalty and many of England’s most fashionable citizens, he even became a frequent visitor to most of London’s theatres and was regarded as one of the capitals most exciting figures. It was also said that Omai was tattooed but not much is recorded of his body markings.

After much success Omai was to return home to the Island of Huaheine with Cook on the “Resolution” in 1776. William Bligh also sailed on Cook’s third and final voyage to the South Seas. It was on this ship in 1776, Cook recorded in his log, that he was amazed when he landed on the SandwichIsland (Lord Sandwich commissioned the expedition to the Island, later to be known as Hawaii).

The inhabitants were darker than the Tahitians but spoke in a similar language and were a handsome race with the men being variously tattooed. Now this was the last mention of tattooing in the official records of Cook. As it was on this trip (the third) on the 14th of February 1779, the brilliant career and life of James Cook ended, killed by the natives of Hawaii.