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INKEDblog takes you beneath the skin of today's tattoo culture. Our mission is to celebrate tattooing as a modern art form which incorporates art, fashion, style, and pop culture. While paying homage and respect to the past, we look to present a contemporary take on the present and future of skin art.
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Monday Feb 06, 2006
Back in the Day
What did the cool kids do in 1902? Get tattooed. A copy of the New York Tribune from Sunday, October 29, 1902 protests the tattooing of elementary school age children though apparently the children themselves were thrilled.
Charles Wagner, a young tattooer in New York, wanted to practice his tattooing skills on someone before trying to tattoo sailors. The neighborhood kids happily obliged. Unfortunately, some mistakes were made: a Jewish child had a large cross inked on his chest to the strong objection of his parents, and another child received the inscription “To the Beloved Mother Gone to Rest”. His mother, however, was very much alive and not thrilled with the permanent mark. To read the whole story click here
| Comments
As a former 6th grade teacher I cannot help but remember the small crop of my students who had a friend of a friend whose uncle was tattooing them a couple of years ago (under the radar of state laws, of course) and how even through the course of a school year how their attitudes changed towrad the art on their bodies. Especially the ones who opted to get their flavour of the week's name inked (though the uncle was gracious enough to perform some shoddy cover-up work, too...). From time to time I still lose a little sleep thinking about these marred pre-teens and their 'art gone wrong'. The experienced tattooist in the article from 1902 illustrates the most fundemental point of tattooing and children - they are too young to make an informed decision about it and in more often than not it doesn't actually sink in for them that it's there for life. On the upswing, nothing beats a great, well-thought out and well-inked piece of artwork on an adult who loves it and sports it with conviction.
Posted by: LNVL at February 6, 2006 4:39 PM
they used to rub cocaine into the skin before inking? any idea why? that's an interesting little tidbit, imo.
Posted by: mist. at February 6, 2006 8:52 PM
Cocaine really does have a useful purpose. Used correctly, it is an almost perfect topical pain killer. It was used for years until the Puritans that try to rule our lives decided it was a bad idea. Most over the counter medicines were a combination of alcohol and cocaine or opiate-based tincures until around the thirty's.
I had fairly extensive facial surgery a while back and the doctor used cocaine as a numbing agent since general anesthesia was ruled out. I never felt a thing. Until, of cousre, the coke wore off! I hope this helps clarify the story.
Posted by: Jay at February 6, 2006 9:50 PM
currently, novocaine is used as an anaesthetic, which is basically "cocaine's younger cousin".
Posted by: mm at February 7, 2006 11:25 PM
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