PHILADELPHIA — Got a tattoo? You might be emulating Angelina or Shaq, but likely none of you would be inked at all if not for sailors.
That’s the premise behind a new exhibit tracing the history of tattoos in American culture: The prevalence of tattooing today stems directly from the ongoing custom started by merchant and naval seamen in the 18th century.
“It’s an unbroken tradition, which is something that’s not widely recognized,” said Craig Bruns, curator of the exhibit “Skin &Bones: Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor,” opening Friday at the Independence Seaport Museum, www.phillyseaport.org.
“If you have a tattoo, you really have a sailor to thank.”
The exhibit does note that body art is an ancient custom practiced — as first noted by Charles Darwin — by cultures worldwide. However, tattooing became a part of American life because of the seafarers who brought home the practice after learning tattooing from their British counterparts, Bruns said.
Early American seamen typically were tattooed aboard ships with needles used for sail sewing — and “ink” of gunpowder mixed with urine. “Sailors of that period, knowing there was a real (health) risk to get a tattoo, still went ahead with it,” Bruns said. “So it gives you an idea of how important it was to them.”
The invention of the electric tattooing machine in 1891 made the practice safer and faster, allowing many former sailors to open commercial tattoo parlors, perfect their craft and build their reputations. Included in the exhibit is work of the late Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins, whose buxom babes, patriotic themes and other old-school designs are reproduced on a licensed clothing line and a brand of rum bearing his name.
But to sailors, tattooing goes way beyond adornment or mere fashion. For them, tattoos pledge devotion to their shipmates, recount their adventures, proclaim loyalty to the seafaring life, ward against danger and give thanks for safe travels.
Bruns said the well-known logo for Macy’s is based on founder Rowland Macy’s red star tattoo from his seafaring days. As the story goes, Macy was almost lost at sea until a star appeared in the fog and steered him to land.
The exhibit includes a re-creation of an old-school tattoo parlor and a computer-generated tattoo artist who, through a video projection setup, appears to ink visitors’ forearms as he describes the meaning of the imagery.
“My hope is that the exhibit will honor the history of tattooing and dispel some of the misunderstandings people have about the tattooing community, which has been so marginalized,” Bruns said. “It’s also a call for getting more of these materials documented before they’re lost forever.”
The show runs through Jan. 3.
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