History of tattoo's by Kate parkinson. Candidate number 9204.

This is Mrs M. Stevens Wagner in 1907. She was one of the earliest tattooed ladies that performed in a circus as a freakshow. If we think about how even now in modern times women with a lot of tattoo's are still occasionally looked down on and stereotyped, this woman would have gone through a horrible time being labelled as a freak show and being looked at as abnormal just because of expressing herself through body art.

Tattooing was practised for many centuries, many different cultures, especially in Asia and the whole idea spread throughout the world. Japanesse people traditionally had facial tattoo's. 

Tattooing spread through the Polynesians, and some tribal groups in places such as Africa, Borneo, Cambodia, Europe, Japan, the Mentawai Islands, New Zealand, North America and South America, the Philippines and Taiwan. 

In the ancient world pre- Christian Germanic, Celtic, and other central and northern European tribes were often heavily tattooed. The Picts were supposedly tattooed or scarified with elaborate dark blue woad and possibly copper designs. Ahmad Fadlan described his encounter with a Scandinavian Tribe saying they are tattooed from 'fingernail to neck' with dark blue 'tree patterns' and other figures. During the gradual process of Christianization in Europe, tattoos were often considered remaining elements of paganism and generally legally prohibited.

As many tattoos were stimulated by Polynesian and Japanese examples, amateur tattoo artists were in great demand in port cities all over the world, especially by European and American sailors. The first documented professional tattoo artist in the USA was Martin Hildebrandt, a German immigrant who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in 1846. Between 1861 and 1865, he tattooed soldiers on both sides in the American Civil War. The first documented professional tattooist in Britain was established in Liverpool in the 1870s. Tattooing was an expensive and painful process, and by the 1870s had become a mark of wealth for the crowned heads of Europe.