Pictures of Tattoos

[wsurugby10]

I know there has been some talk on here about tattoos and how long they've been around as well as their significance in the war. Are there any pictures of tattoos on soldiers that we know of? I would assume if they do exist they would probably be Navy. Thanks for your time and hopefully you guys will answer the call like you always do and provide me with some information.

Dan Ketterman

[Justin Runyon]

Re: Pictures of Tattoos

Mark Jaeger can post a bit more on this, he wrote a great article some time ago for CWH, it's certainly worth picking up.

It's difficult to find actual photgraphs of 1860's tattooing do to the relative rarity of photos where the subject is in some form of nakedness. What is readily available is primary source material describing tattoos in our period. Of particular note are police records, fugitive ads, and descriptive rolls from a soldiers initial enlistment...all of these often contain tattoo descriptions as a form of identification.

There are some photographs of tattooed individulas from the 1870's - 1890's and we can reasonably assume that they are strikingly similar to those just a decade or two earlier. Additionally there is the occasional piece of preserved skin or tattoo flash that shows up in a museum from our time period. If I have the chance to get to a scanner, I will scan in some CDV's and a couple of pieces of flash that I have in books. In the meantime, check out the masonic material culture thread as I am about to post a piece of mid-19th Century tattoo flash there.

[Bushrod Carter]

Re: Pictures of Tattoos

No pictures, but I found this reference on a Masonic Tatoo page. (Yes, I'm thinking of something special to celebrate me making it to 40!)


"The first Masonic funeral service in California in 1849 was for the body of an unknown Freemason who was found drowned in the bay. A Mark Master's silver mark was found on the body. Tattooed on his left arm were the emblems of the E[ntered] A[pprentice]; on his right arm the emblems of a F[ellow] C[raft]; on his left breast the lights of Freemasonry and over his heart a pot of incense. On other parts of his body were a beehive, sword and heart, all-seeing eye, hourglass, sun, moon, stars, comet, 3 steps, weeping virgin and Father Time with his scythe."



I'm proud of being a Freemason, but dang!

[markj]

Re: Pictures of Tattoos

No pictures, but I found this reference on a Masonic Tatoo page. (Yes, I'm thinking of something special to celebrate me making it to 40!)


"The first Masonic funeral service in California in 1849 was for the body of an unknown Freemason who was found drowned in the bay. A Mark Master's silver mark was found on the body. Tattooed on his left arm were the emblems of the E[ntered] A[pprentice]; on his right arm the emblems of a F[ellow] C[raft]; on his left breast the lights of Freemasonry and over his heart a pot of incense. On other parts of his body were a beehive, sword and heart, all-seeing eye, hourglass, sun, moon, stars, comet, 3 steps, weeping virgin and Father Time with his scythe."

I'm proud of being a Freemason, but dang!

Indeed. Yes, I included this quote in my CWH articles on tattooing. It's actually drawn from a much lengthier period news account, which indicates the alleged victim was even more heavily tattooed than stated above.

As for photographs, the earliest I recall seeing is a c.1860 image of a former Indian captive (a female), Olive Oatman. The lower portion of her face is prominently marked.

http://www.dreadloki.com/pivot/pivot/entry.php?uid=standard-816&action=show

The earliest male photographs appear to post-date 1865 (i.e., 1870's and 1880's), although there are likely Civil War era images in existence.

Here is a fairly good online bibliography, which might assist anyone interested in 19th Century (and earlier) tattooing:

http://individual.utoronto.ca/antonygh/INKED/bibliography.htm

Although pre-1880's photographs of tattoos seem to be scarce, the available written record indicates artistic motifs were very much like those still seen today (names, dates, initials, sailing vessels, romantic symbols, females, animals, patriotic symbols, religious imagery, etc.) or adopted from popular themes of the age (e.g., weeping willows mourning the loss of a loved one). Colors were very limited: I haven't been able to definitively establish that any colors were used other than black, red, or blue.

Accordingly, if you want a reasonably good idea of what a Civil War era tattoo looked like, probably the best sources are the identified images of Nora Hildebrandt, daughter (or possibly even wife?), of Martin Hildebrandt. Martin Hildebrandt was a German immigrant who reportedly began practicing the tattooing craft as early as the 1840's and, after many years of intinerancy (including, according to his account, applying his craft to soldiers of both sides during the ACW), established a permanent "atelier" in Lower Manhattan, NY sometime just before, or after, the end of the war (accounts vary but he was definitely in business in 1876, when he was interviewed by a reporter for the New York Times). Biographical details on both Nora and Martin are hard to come by, so they still largely remain question marks. To my knowledge, nobody even knows Martin's precise life dates (my best guess is c.1820-1890).

The bottom line is that many of the motifs applied by Martin on his daughter during the 1870's were ones he had used for decades (including, of course, the 1860's).

Here's a pic of Nora Hildebrandt, apparently taken early in her career (the date is likely wrong since she didn't make her grand debut in New York until early 1882):

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.showhistory.com/HildebrandtNora.tattoo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.showhistory.com/Hildebrandt.tattooed.html&h=583&w=360&sz=64&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=FRUnA0VEcB0HzM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=83&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Nora%2BHildebrandt%2522%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

A Google search should quickly reveal other ID'd images. The image quality isn't too good in many of these photos, but Nora seems to have sported something akin to a patriotic "colorbearer" tattoo on her upper left arm, which looks strikingly like illustrations commonly seen on period stationery and in periodicals. Based on what I've seen, I strongly opine in my articles that not a few individuals drew inspiration for their tattoos from illustrations they had seen in popular periodicals and artworks of the day. Needless to say, folks still do this in our modern age.

Very truly yours, &c.,

Mark Jaeger

[markj]

Re: Pictures of Tattoos

No pictures, but I found this reference on a Masonic Tatoo page. (Yes, I'm thinking of something special to celebrate me making it to 40!)


"The first Masonic funeral service in California in 1849 was for the body of an unknown Freemason who was found drowned in the bay. A Mark Master's silver mark was found on the body. Tattooed on his left arm were the emblems of the E[ntered] A[pprentice]; on his right arm the emblems of a F[ellow] C[raft]; on his left breast the lights of Freemasonry and over his heart a pot of incense. On other parts of his body were a beehive, sword and heart, all-seeing eye, hourglass, sun, moon, stars, comet, 3 steps, weeping virgin and Father Time with his scythe."

I'm proud of being a Freemason, but dang!

Indeed. Yes, I included this quote in my CWH articles on tattooing. It's actually drawn from a much lengthier period news account, which indicates the alleged victim was even more heavily tattooed than stated above.

As for photographs, the earliest I recall seeing is a c.1860 image of a former Indian captive (a female), Olive Oatman. The lower portion of her face is prominently marked.

http://www.dreadloki.com/pivot/pivot/entry.php?uid=standard-816&action=show

The earliest male photographs appear to post-date 1865 (i.e., 1870's and 1880's), although there are likely Civil War era images in existence.

Here is a fairly good online bibliography, which might assist anyone interested in 19th Century (and earlier) tattooing:

http://individual.utoronto.ca/antonygh/INKED/bibliography.htm

Although pre-1880's photographs of tattoos seem to be scarce, the available written indicates artistic motifs were very much like those still seen today (names, dates, initials, sailing vessels, romantic symbols, females, animals, patriotic symbols, religious imagery, etc.) or adopted from popular themes of the age (e.g., weeping willows mourning the loss of a loved one). Colors were very limited: I haven't been able to definitively establish that any colors were used other than black, red, or blue. I have been able to find sometimes quite detailed reports of how tattoos appeared in seemingly out-of-the-way places like coroner's reports, announcements of "found corpses," "runaway" ads for slaves and indentured servants, descriptions of criminals, and notices seeking the return of military deserters.

Accordingly, if you want a reasonably good visual idea of what a Civil War era tattoo looked like, probably the best sources are the identified images of Nora Hildebrandt, daughter (or possibly even wife?), of Martin Hildebrandt. Martin Hildebrandt was a German immigrant who reportedly began practicing the tattooing craft as early as the 1840's and, after many years of intinerancy (including, according to his account, applying his craft to soldiers of both sides during the ACW), established a permanent "atelier" in Lower Manhattan, NY sometime just before, or after, the end of the war (accounts vary but he was definitely in business in 1876, when he was interviewed by a reporter for the New York Times). Biographical details on both Nora and Martin are hard to come by, so they still largely remain question marks. To my knowledge, nobody even knows Martin's precise life dates (my best guess is c.1820-1890). The last NYT report I've been able to find mentioning Martin Hildebrandt dates to 1882. We're not even sure how he precisely spelled his last name (I've seen it listed at least three different ways).

The bottom line is that many of the motifs applied by Martin on his daughter during the 1870's were ones he had undoubtedly used for decades previous (including, of course, the 1860's).

Here's a pic of Nora Hildebrandt, apparently taken early in her career (the date is likely wrong since she didn't make her grand debut in New York until early 1882):

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.showhistory.com/HildebrandtNora.tattoo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.showhistory.com/Hildebrandt.tattooed.html&h=583&w=360&sz=64&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=FRUnA0VEcB0HzM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=83&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Nora%2BHildebrandt%2522%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

A Google search should quickly reveal other ID'd images. The image quality isn't too good in many of these photos, but Nora seems to have sported something akin to a patriotic "colorbearer" tattoo on her upper left arm, which looks strikingly like illustrations commonly seen on period stationery and in periodicals. Based on what I've seen, I strongly opine in my articles that not a few individuals drew inspiration for their tattoos from illustrations they had seen in popular periodicals and artworks of the day. Needless to say, folks still do this in our modern age.

Very truly yours, &c.,

Mark Jaeger

[florida11061]

Re: Pictures of Tattoos

Haven't commented on here in a while, but this thread caught my eye. I know of at least two non-Navy Civil War era examples. I was at Ft. Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas a few weeks back, I read an segement of one of the Federal guards' diaries from 65' in which he spoke of a fellow guard "pricking" a girl on his arm during the day. I also recall a post(that I think was on this forum) from a Federal soldiers' letter, that was about a Confederate artilleryman being killed after he surrendered because he had "Fort Pillow" tattooed on his arm. It's interesting that some men in the ranks were tattooing each other.

Calen L. Smith
6th Fla. Batt./Florida Home Guard
Seville, FL