Check out some astounding vintage tattoos in this collection of history’s coolest photographs of people displaying their ink. We know for a fact that humans have been tattooing themselves for at least 5,200 years (the discovery of Iceman Otzi and his 61 tattoos from 3250 BC proved as much). Since then, body art has been used to […]
Check out some astounding vintage tattoos in this collection of history’s coolest photographs of people displaying their ink.
Charlie Wagner in New York studio, 1940s.
Work by Jessie Knight, Britain’s first female tattoo artist, circa 1939.
Japan, 1870.
Poster of woman wearing nun’s habit revealing a tattoo of Che Guevara, 1965.
Private Burchall and L/Corp. Griffith displaying their tattoos in 1944.
Tattoo at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Baltimore, 1935
Japanese man, 1890.
Mrs. M. Stevens Wagner, 1907.
German stowaway at Ellis Island, 1911.
1955.
A model in the 1970s.
Butterfly leg tattoo by Jessie Knight, circa 1939.
Betty Broadbent, 1930s.
Irma Senta, 1920s.
Vintage pirate and veterans designs.
Because kimonos were usually reserved for royalty and the elite, Japanese lower classes rebelled with large body tattoos, circa 1940s.
August, 1973.
Al Schiefley and Les Skuse give woman “sweet” and “sour” tattoos in 1940s England.
Doris Sherrel getting her social security number tattooed by Jack Julian, 1942.
Bird tattoo by Jessie Knight. Virginia, circa 1939.
A woman gets a permanent beauty mark tattoo in Copenhagen, 1956.
Janet “Rusty” Skuse, who held the Guinness World Record of Britain’s most tattooed woman for more than 20 years.
Edith Burchet. London, 1920.
Date unknown.
Les Skuse at work on champion tattoo lady Pam Nash in 1960.
Wallona Aritta, date unknown.
Vintage mermaid tattoo design.
Tattooed sailor in 1908.
Emma de Burgh’s Last Supper tattoo, 1897.
Cally d’Astra, 1860.
Tattoo of a naked woman riding a bird in 1928.
Tattoo artist Stella Grassman in the 1930s.
Back tattoo of man’s face, 1936.
Japanese man in the 1870s.
Horse and jockey tattoo, 1930s.
Young man with tattoos, date unknown.
Unidentified woman, 1897.
Betty Broadbent, date unspecified.
Butterfly garter belt tattoo, 1930s.
Tattooed lady on the midway during the World’s Fair, circa 1939 – 1940.
Bob Wicks’ flash sheet number 36, circa 1930.
India, 1880s.
Tattooed lady with sailor during the World’s Fair, 1939-1940.
Snake tattoo, 1928.
Eagle and shield, circa 1875–1905, by Samuel O’Reilly.
Tattooist and goldsmith “Nerses the Goldsmith” tattooing a pilgrim, probably an Armenian woman, at his store underneath the Armenian Patriarchate, in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem. Circa 1900-1911.
Alaskan indigenous Tlingit woman named Kaw-Claa wearing her potlatch dancing costume, Alaska, 1906.
Māori woman, Mrs. Rabone, in 1870. Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand.
Thom de Vita and client in his studio at 326 E. 4th Street in New York, 1976.
Ed Smith’s self-portrait showing Rock of Ages back piece, circa 1920.
Nora Hildebrandt, circa 1880.
We know for a fact that humans have been tattooing themselves for at least 5,200 years (the discovery of Iceman Otzi and his 61 tattoos from 3250 BC proved as much).
Since then, body art has been used to denote faith, class, fashion, patriotism, and everything in between. The styles have changed with the decades — as have the procedural methods, thank God — but the most important thing about getting inked has remained constant: It looks really cool.
Above, you’ll find 51 photos of vintage tattoos that help represent the world’s most personal art form.
