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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: Chris Anderson on Thursday 07 December 17 23:12 GMT (UK)
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Turns out my ancestor (person in my profile pic actually) had a criminal past and records say he had tattoos on his forearms and hands.
Is this rare for 1929?
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They go back to before Christ. I suggest you Google ‘History of Tattoos’ you will find plenty of information.
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My grandfather was born in the 1880s and had a couple of red & blue tattoos on his arm. One was of an anchor and the other was a heart with an arrow through it and the word "mother". As many other men of his generation seemed to have them, I always assumed they were done during WWI. As he wasn't a sailor, I made another assumption that the anchor meant his heart was anchored at home.
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My ancestor's brother's WW1 record mentions a tattoo. In his teens he was briefly at Coldbath Fields prison in the 1870s.
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Through the decades/centuries the demographic seems to have changed but they have always been fairly common in some populations, and for different and varying reasons. They're fairly mainstream these days for example. Common for sailors and criminals in the 30s probably when your chap got his. I read that centuries ago they were done so it would be known what tribe a person belonged to in the afterlife. The Maori in NZ have traditional tribal tattoos.
A lot of tatts on criminals had meaning (and still do) - you may be able to work out the meaning of those your man had if you have photos or descriptions of them.
Just a few thoughts and examples .... I'm sure some googling will supply you with loads of detailed information.
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Thanks guys, google is ok but on here you get a more personal account sometimes
He was in WW1, then had a life of crime. His forebears were sailors but he himself was not.
So I guess the tats could be any combination of those. I'll probably never know.
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I'm transcribing Royal Navy records including the period of WWI and I would say that the majority of the men, some who enlisted as boys, all had tattoos. When I was a child in the 1940s/50s, the only people who had tattoos were sailors and people who'd been in prison.
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I'm transcribing Royal Navy records including the period of WWI and I would say that the majority of the men, some who enlisted as boys, all had tattoos. When I was a child in the 1940s/50s, the only people who had tattoos were sailors and people who'd been in prison.
I've already described that my grandfather had a red and blue anchor tattoo, I think I might revise why he had it because he worked loading and unloading ships.
He and his brothers were born in Wisbech, Norfolk and travelled north to the larger port of Hull in Yorkshire, for the seasonal dock work. When his brothers returned home, he stayed behind because he'd met my grandmother. She was a domestic servant but was also a tamborine girl in the Sally Army. He must have been star struck because he also joined the band and played the big drum. They married in 1911, which is the same year he joined the Northumbrian Territorial Army, known as the RAMC, Royal Army Medical Corps.
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I remember that my mother's elder brothers both had tattoos which I think were done during or just before they served in WW1 (RWF)
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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.
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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. ;D
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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.
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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
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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