Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Nineteenth Century San Diego County Tattoos v. Early American Tattoo History

In Ira Dye’s article, “The Tattoos of Early American Seafarers, 1796-1818,” he laments the lack of additional documentation on tattoos. The California registers from 1892-1898 provide the exact large data group that Dye was looking for, when including the registers from all of the counties in the state, since tattoos were recorded, as well as occupation and age. He might have been pleased to see that his analysis of SPC-A and POW records holds up late into the 19th century. Both initials and anchors continue to hold their positions as the first and second most popular tattoos among tattooed San Diego County registered voters. And most of the tattoos were in black ink. Dye points out, it is difficult to know if men in non-marine occupations with tattoos are representative of a general population that were also tattooed or were likely former sailors, etc. There were men in San Diego in non-marine occupations with tattoos, e.g. the New York laborer with the most tattoos of the tattooed registered voters with five: a bracelet and a cross on his right hand, and an anchor, cross, and heart on his left. Of course, he could have previously been a sailor, as laborer is a general occupation. The majority of the tattooed voters were indeed listed as sailors, longshoremen, wharfingers, and sea captains.
Examples of tattooed men and their tattoos in the early voter registers: an English gardener with bracelets on both wrists and an English farmer with “designs tattooed on both forearms. A Swedish wharfinger carries his work home with him as illustrated by an anchor tattooed on each hand. And a fifty year old Finnish longshoreman, Augusto Anderson, with “A.A.A.S. 1842” in India ink on his right hand and a star on his left. A Finnish stenographer with “B.W.L.” in India ink on his left arm and a Norwegian sea captain living in Coronado, with an anchor on his right hand. A Russian painter with an anchor on his right hand and a bent finger. Patriotic tattoos continued to be popular. Too far removed from our country’s founding years to be related, immigration takes over as a means of explaining a naturalized citizen with an English flag tattoo and a Scotsman, James McInnes (a laborer) with thistles on his left wrist. Tattoos demonstrated new allegiances as well, as with the ruddy-complected Irish rancher (Lawrence Garrigan) with “American Sailor” tattooed on his arm and someone else with a U.S. coat of arms. Did Frank Woodruff, a 44 year old merchant from Ohio, living in Oceanside, benefit from the invention of the electric tattoo gun for his tattoo of a ballet girl on his left arm? The arms, including wrists, arms, and forearms, then hands continued to be the most common places for tattoos. However, the clerks may not have been asking the men registering to vote if the had tattoos elsewhere on their bodies.

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 133, No. 4, December 1989, p. 532-549