Show Us Your Tattoo, Or Is It Private?

I have based this article mainly on the British Tattoo Museum because that's the one that's familiar to me, but there some other outstanding tattoo museums which are a must if you are in the right city!

***British Tattoo Museum***

The British Tattoo History Museum can be found at Cowley Road, Oxford. This came as something of a surprise to me because I know the oxford area well but I never knew this place existed.

The museum moved here in 1983 but the collection was begun by the founder, Lionel Titchener, in 1975. He started of displaying curiosities which he had bought from a junk shop in Oxford in his tattoo studio.

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In the late 1970's Lionel acquired a box of brass tattoo machines from another tattoo artist who had decided to retire. He also bought a very large coloured design sheet which was signed and dated by C.B Davis 1904.

Later, some Samoan bone tattoo tools were added to the collection as a gift from the now late Su'a Paulo Sulu a'pe and some Japanese hand tools which were donated by Hiroyoshi 111.

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Thanks to a lot of thorough research by Lionel Titchener, the museum has been growing ever since. It has a whole series of exhibits which trace the history of tattooing from early mankind and the religious significance of tattooing right through to modern day developments in the art

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The anthropological exhibition also traces the historical links between tattoo symbols and images from many different countries and cultures across the world.

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***History Of Tattooing As Told In The Exhibition.***

Many different countries have claimed to be the first to use tattooing to mark their and the art goes back many thousands of years. Some quote Aborigines as the originators and some cite Samoans but there is really no way of telling who was first.

People have always liked to decorate their bodies and different ways of doing this seem to be in vogue at different times. There is scarification, piercing, body painting, wearing jewellery , fashions in make-up and in modern time cosmetic surgery to enhance, or change the body. In this respect these are all the same thing.

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Great Britain has a strong tradition in the field of tattooing. From royalty to commoner, many different types of people line up to go through the pain of actually getting a tattoo.

The famous Charles Darwin described tattooing when he first came across it as a naturalist aboard HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. The beagle landed at many harbours on small Pacific Islands and Darwin noted that there didn't seem to be anywhere that the natives didn't know about tattooing.

In 787AD the Board of The British Council of Churches in Northumberland declared that 'body marking' was a pagan practise and they banned it. There is no information available on exactly what kind of markings so incensed the church that they were banned but it is known that the Ancient Britons stained themselves blue with woad.

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King Harold 1, of Battle of Hastings fame is said to have been killed by an arrow which went through his eye but this is just a fable and he was killed by a Norman swordsman. His sister Edith identified his mutilated body by the words 'Edith' and 'England' which were tattooed across his chest.

In 1586 an adventurer named Sir Martin Frobisher brought an Eskimo woman with chin and forehead tattoos back with him.

In the sixteenth century John Smith recorded how he was captured by Indians in Virginia, USA and how their bodies were covered with black dots in the form of tattoo marks.

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In 1681, William Dampier came back from Australia and the South Seas with a man he called Prince Giolo who was tattooed from head to foot on every part of his body. This was considered to be something of circus 'freak' kind of show at the time. The man claimed that one of his wives did the tattoo work for him.

There are literally hundreds more historical references to tattooed natives in far off places including Australia, Polynesia and New Zealand.

The British Tattoo Museum will give a good overview of this fascinating subject and anyone who is interested in tattooing as an art would find if especially interesting.

***Other Famous Tattoo Museums***

Japan:

Perhaps the most bizarre of these is the Japanese Human Skin Collection in Tokyo. A Japanese doctor named Fukushi started a study of moles on human skin and this brought him into contact with tattooed skins. He discovered the pigment movement in moles was much easier to track on tattooed skin. He started a study of tattoos in the dead and living and his collection comprised actual skin samples.

Unfortunately most samples were lost during the 1945 war but some does remain. In March 1946 American magazine 'Life' featured Fukushi and his work. Tokyo University still holds what is left of this collection but it is not on view to public, although special permission to view can sometimes be had.

Wellington, New Zealand:

Anyone who is interested in Ta Moko, Maori tattooing should certainly visit this place. There are thousands of images on display here but the exhibition is focussed on Maori and Polynesian tattoo styles. There is lots of material here that explores the cultural and historical meanings of these tattoos and the methods used to make them.

You can even witness a live exhibition of Maori tattooing . Personally I have never been brave enough to get a tattoo but I found this place fascinating. It was kind of exotic but also a bit gruesome in a way. I could almost sense the pain some of proud owners of over all body tattoos must have gone through.

***Other Tattoo Museums***

Other museums exist in Baltimore, San Franciso and Amsterdam as well as other places in the world. Anyone who is a real fan can get a list of these museums from the internet.

***My Opinion***

Before I visited the British Tattoo Museum in Oxford I really had little interest in tattooing as an art. I though it was just something that people did to try and look 'cool' and fashionable and I have to admit that I considered it to be something of a fad which would come and go like all trends.

However, what I have learned has shown me that this is an enduring form of body art, not just something that's around for now. That reference earlier in this article about the church banning body decoration in 787 BC really underlines the fact that tattooing has always been a part of British culture.

If you are interested in tattooing as an art form, or you are one of those brave enough to have it done, it is well worth going to this museum. It will really open your eyes and that huge wall poster of all those intricate tattoos is amazing. There is lots of scope for design ideas if you fancy designing your own tattoo.

I could just picture some of them on myself but I certainly wouldn't have the nerve. I do have a small one in a place I don't wish to describe but that's as far as I go.