Tattoos: The Untold History of a Modern Art, published this week, documents the history of tattooing in Europe and America over the last 300 years. Uniquely, it covers tattooing as a professional art form, as distinct from its indigenous origins and its amateur practice by sailors, bikers, and prisoners.
As author Matt Lodder writes, his book is also a revisionist history: “I want, here, to reset the scaffolding for a history of Western tattooing as a professional and commercial practice.” Martin Hildebrandt, who opened a tattoo parlour in New York in 1858, is “widely considered to be the first professional tattooer in the Western world”, though Lodder demonstrates that tattooing was a commercial occupation in England as far back as 1719. He also challenges the concept of the ‘tattoo renaissance’, a term coined by the media in 1970.
Tattoo (Tatoueurs, Tatoues) is another key work of tattoo history. Body Decoration (Geschmückte Haut, by Karl Gröning) and The World of Tattoo (De wereld van tatoeage) illustrate tribal tattooing from around the world. The History of Tattooing, published ninety-nine years ago, was the first book on the subject. Andrea Juno and V. Vale’s Modern Primitives, discussed at length in Lodder’s book, is an influential guide to contemporary body modification.
As author Matt Lodder writes, his book is also a revisionist history: “I want, here, to reset the scaffolding for a history of Western tattooing as a professional and commercial practice.” Martin Hildebrandt, who opened a tattoo parlour in New York in 1858, is “widely considered to be the first professional tattooer in the Western world”, though Lodder demonstrates that tattooing was a commercial occupation in England as far back as 1719. He also challenges the concept of the ‘tattoo renaissance’, a term coined by the media in 1970.
Tattoo (Tatoueurs, Tatoues) is another key work of tattoo history. Body Decoration (Geschmückte Haut, by Karl Gröning) and The World of Tattoo (De wereld van tatoeage) illustrate tribal tattooing from around the world. The History of Tattooing, published ninety-nine years ago, was the first book on the subject. Andrea Juno and V. Vale’s Modern Primitives, discussed at length in Lodder’s book, is an influential guide to contemporary body modification.
