Highlights Archives
Tattoos in Wisconsin History
Humans have marked their bodies with eye-catching tattoos for centuries. Signifying everything from social status and religious beliefs to declarations of love, personal adornment and more, tattoos have had a rich cultural history in civilizations around the world for more than 5,000 years, including here in Wisconsin. In the fur trade, tattoos were commonly used as body art and language by both the Indians and the voyageurs. You can learn about the history and meaning of tattoos in Wisconsin's fur trade era at the Wisconsin Historical Museum on Tuesday, July 17, at 12:15 p.m. when Isaac Walters presents Marks of his Profession: Tattoos in the Fur Trade.
Modern fascination and use of tattoos in Europe and North America began to take hold in the 1700s when European explorers began encountering native peoples in the south and central Pacific. Although ancient people in Europe had practiced some form of tattooing, the practice had mostly disappeared in Europe long before the mid-1700s. But soon native practitioners found an eager clientele among European traders and explorers. Technological advances in machinery, design and color led to the invention of the first electronic tattoo machine by New Yorker Samuel O'Reilly in 1891, making the traditional handwork a thing of the past. By the 1920s, hundreds of people with full-body tattoos were working for circuses and sideshows across America, including Wisconsin native Anna Mae Gibbons, one of the most well-known tattooed ladies of her generation. Read her story in the Hesseltine award-winning article A Life of Her Own Choosing: Anna Gibbons' Fifty Years as Tattooed Lady from the Wisconsin Magazine of History.
While tattoos are often associated with American fringe cultures, sailors, bikers and war veterans, tattoos actually have deep roots in human history, a history and culture revealed through these indelible marks on the skin.
:: Posted July 13, 2007
|
