Tattoos a barrier?

[RetiredCanuck]

Facial/neck tattoos and piercings were not really in vogue during my reenactment years.
Just wondering if anyone has any personal experience regarding someone wishing to join a group but they have visible piercings or tattoos that would be considered anachronistic?

 

[PrivateBrooke]

I have both my left nostril as well as my septum pierced. I swap the normal nostril hoop for a clear plug, you can barely see it and have to actually LOOK closely at my nose to do so. The septum simply gets flipped up inside my nose, and yes it's about as uncomfortable as it sounds for the first ten minutes or so, but then I get used to it and forget about it entirely. Earrings just come out until I get back home.

I have a few more planned, including my ears getting re-pierced, since I let them close up a few years ago. I just plan any new ones for the winter so it's healed by the time events start up again. Although I originally got my nostril pierced too late and it wasn't healed enough to remove during the beginning of the season, luckily my group didn't mind me leaving it in for a few events.

 

[52ndFandS]

Facial/neck tattoos and piercings were not really in vogue during my reenactment years.
Just wondering if anyone has any personal experience regarding someone wishing to join a group but they have visible piercings or tattoos that would be considered anachronistic?

I'm an artist. I have tattoos on my hands. I've found that cover up makeup makes them disappear. I need it too as I'm a hand-talker.

As for facal tattoos I can only think of instance off hand where it's mentioned. I haven't heard of piercing at all in the US, or CS for that matter. The farthest back I get fet on that in the US goes to the 20s.

Martin Hildebrand was the biggest name in tattoo then; the first professional. Worked in Biston, and New York. Story says he was in the Union army, slipping through lines to tattoo at night. Chances are he was more like a sutler.

 

[Michael C. Hardy]

Becky Sawyer at Fort Fisher State Historic Site has been working on documenting Federal sailors with tattoos. You might want to reach out to her.

 

[Ed Zeppelin]

I'm an artist. I have tattoos on my hands. I've found that cover up makeup makes them disappear. I need it too as I'm a hand-talker.

As for facal tattoos I can only think of instance off hand where it's mentioned. I haven't heard of piercing at all in the US, or CS for that matter. The farthest back I get fet on that in the US goes to the 20s.

Martin Hildebrand was the biggest name in tattoo then; the first professional. Worked in Biston, and New York. Story says he was in the Union army, slipping through lines to tattoo at night. Chances are he was more like a sutler.

Then I must know a lot of hand-talkers. It seems like
every day someone is telling me to talk to the hand.



Sent from my Commodore 64 running Windows 95

 

[Caddo Militia]

Facial/neck tattoos and piercings were not really in vogue during my reenactment years.
Just wondering if anyone has any personal experience regarding someone wishing to join a group but they have visible piercings or tattoos that would be considered anachronistic?

In his memoirs, Gen. Edward Porter Alexander recalled seeing the body of a Union soldier on May 14, 1864, after the Battle of Spotsylvania: "The poor fellow had already been stripped by some one who wanted his clothes & his body was notable for beautiful tattooing all over arms & chest, principally in patriotic patterns of eagles, flags, &c."

 

[52ndFandS]

In his memoirs, Gen. Edward Porter Alexander recalled seeing the body of a Union soldier on May 14, 1864, after the Battle of Spotsylvania: "The poor fellow had already been stripped by some one who wanted his clothes & his body was notable for beautiful tattooing all over arms & chest, principally in patriotic patterns of eagles, flags, &c."

It's past the scope of the thread, but in the 18th century, especially in the UK, tattooing was done by an imported artist named Hori (Japanese honorific for 'one who engraves') Chyro. He was very expensive so only the upper class was tattooed. So where it was considered low class in the US, or for sailors, over all, people across the pond who qwre rich had them. Winston Churchill's mother was one.

 

[52ndFandS]

Then I must know a lot of hand-talkers. It seems like
every day someone is telling me to talk to the hand.



Sent from my Commodore 64 running Windows 95

I have 'pay me' on the inside of my right hand. Hand talking...

 

[PrivateBrooke]

I actually just got a tattoo on my arm. It's small and won't show if I don't roll my sleeve up too far. I also have a helix(ear cartilage) piercing that's new and won't be coming out even once healed (it's not really super noticeable and kind of out of the way).