How rare were tattoos before 1930?

[antiquesam]

My paternal great grandfather was born in 1857 and joined the Royal Navy in 1876. His description on his record say he had tattoos on his legs, wrists and chest. I don't know if the description of his appearance was on enrolling or later.

[LizzieW]

When I was a child in the 1940s/50s, the only people who had tattoos were sailors and people who'd been in prison.

Perhaps I should change that to the only people I'd heard of who had tattoos were sailors and prisoners, but then again as a young child I didn't meet any sailors or prisoners. 

[youngtug]

My grandfather, along with many other soldiers had a tattoo of Edith Cavell when they heard the news of her death in WW1. It was the first of several tattoo's, it being somewhat addictive.

[Cell]

Hi,
My Irish grandfather was army (born 1907) he joined up in the second half of the 1920's ( and spent the rest of his working career in the army, through second ww and peace keeping in Asia) He retired sometime in the 1960's, early 70s ( spent his twilight army years (working,not prisoner! ) in The Glasshouse,  and then finally army stores), by this time he was in Colchester ( moved the family over in the late 50s)

He was absolutely covered in tattoos, both arms . I know he had them in the 1940's during the war (mum can rembember them when she was a tiny girl in the 40s) I don't know what era he got them, but assumed he had them quite early on in his career, late 1920s or sometime in the 1930s
Found this  interesting article about a ww1 tattooist on my google travels http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-28359624
Kind regards

[Billyblue]

If you can get hold of a book written 1998, called "Convict Love Tokens : the Leaden Hearts the Convicts Left Behind" by Michelle Field & others, it has a chapter on the tattoos that early convicts in Australia (who were mostly of British origin) had.   The review I'm looking at quotes a reference from our local library, so presumably Dewey, of:  ANF 737.30941.CON.  And an ISBN of:
1 86254 434 4

Dawn M