Tattoos
Sir Martin Frobisher (1535–1595) on May 31, 1577 set out on his second voyage from Harwich, England with 3 ships and about 120 men to find a north west passage to China and the promise of gold ore.mode stile.
Frobisher took prisoner a native Inuit man and a woman with a child, upon his return to England the woman having tattoos on her chin and forehead was a great attraction at the court of Elizabeth I. All three died within a month.
In 1691 William Dampier brought to London a native of the western part
of New Guinea (now part of Indonesia) who had a tattooed body and became
known as the "Painted Prince".Between 1766 and 1779, Captain James Cook
made three voyages to the South Pacific, the last trip ending with
Cook's death in Hawaii in February 1779. When Cook and his men returned
home to Europe from their voyages to Polynesia, they told tales of the
'tattooed savages' they had seen. The word "tattoo" itself comes from
the Tahitian tatau, and was introduced into the English language by
Cook's expedition.Cook's Science Officer and Expedition Botanist, Sir
Joseph Banks, returned to England with a tattoo. Banks was a highly
regarded member of the English aristocracy and had acquired his position
with Cook by putting up what was at the time the princely sum of some
ten thousand pounds in the expedition. In turn, Cook brought back with
him a tattooed Raiatean man, Omai, whom he presented to King George and
the English Court. Many of Cook's men, ordinary seamen and sailors, came
back with tattoos, a tradition that would soon become associated with
men of the sea in the public's mind and the press of the day. In the
process sailors and seamen re-introduced the practice of tattooing in
Europe and it spread rapidly to seaports around the globe.Sir Martin Frobisher (1535–1595) on May 31, 1577 set out on his second voyage from Harwich, England with 3 ships and about 120 men to find a north west passage to China and the promise of gold ore.mode stile.
Frobisher took prisoner a native Inuit man and a woman with a child, upon his return to England the woman having tattoos on her chin and forehead was a great attraction at the court of Elizabeth I. All three died within a month.
It was in Tahiti aboard the Endeavour, in July 1769, that Cook first noted his observations about the indigenous body modification and is the first recorded use of the word tattoo. In the Ship's Log Cook recorded this entry: "Both sexes paint their Bodys, Tattow, as it is called in their Language. This is done by inlaying the Colour of Black under their skins, in such a manner as to be indelible."Cook went on to write, "This method of Tattowing I shall now describe...As this is a painful operation, especially the Tattowing of their Buttocks, it is performed but once in their Lifetimes."The British Royal Court must have been fascinated with Omai's tattoos, because the future King George V had himself inked with the 'Cross of Jerusalem' when he traveled to the Middle East in 1892. During a visit to Japan he also received a dragon on the forearm from the needles of Hori Chiyo, an acclaimed tattoo master. George's sons, the Dukes of Clarence and York were also tattooed in Japan while serving in the British Admiralty, solidifying what would become a family tradition.Taking their sartorial lead from the British Court, where Edward VII followed George V's lead in getting tattooed; King Frederick IX of Denmark, the King of Romania, Kaiser Wilhelm II, King Alexander of Yugoslavia and even Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, all sported tattoos, many of them elaborate and ornate renditions of the Royal Coat of Arms or the Royal Family Crest. King Alfonso XIII of modern Spain also had a tattoo.
No comments:
Post a Comment