NBAF 2010 TATOOING MYTHS & LEGENDS


just getting an introduction to ink, there are some people and some myths that are just so outstanding or bizarre, they just need to be shared…


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TAT-FACT Back in 1991 a five thousand year old tattooed man ‘Ötzi the Ice Man’ made the headlines all over the world, when his frozen body was discovered on a mountain between Italy and Austria. It’s the best preserved corpse of that period ever to be found, with his skin bearing 57 tattoos, a cross on the inside of his left knee, six straight lines 15 centimeters long above his kidneys and loads of parallel lines on his ankles. The positioning of the tattoo marks suggests that they were probably applied for therapeutic reasons… so it’s true, you’re never too old to get inked up!


TAT-MYTH? The Everlasting Donut – According to Wil Mauro, “It started out with one tattooist wanting the everlasting donut from The Simpsons tattooed on him and from that, the dude that tattooed him also wanted one, and he wanted it done by the guy who was first tattooed with the everlasting donut, so now it’s turned into a viral tattoo, with the ruling that you can only get an everlasting donut tattooed on yourself by someone who already has one! I’m heading to Las Vegas later this year to get mine done!”


TAT-FACT Norwich Body Art Festival 2010


hether you’re a tattooing pro, a body art boffin, or


The word tattoo is said to have two major derivations from the Polynesian word ‘ta’, which means striking something and the Tahitian word ‘tatau’ which means ‘to mark something’.


TAT-LEGEND Lucky Diamond Rich is a face you’ll never forget and the most tattooed person in the world, holding the Guinness World Record since 2006 for being over 100 percent tattooed… so that means covering his body and then repeatedly recovering it - and we mean all of it - including his mouth, ears and the inside of his (gents may want to stop reading now) foreskin. Our cover star, Xed Le Head is even one of the artists whose work appears on the ever-changing skin of Lucky Rich.


TAT-FACT Way back when, British explorers returned home with tattooed Polynesians to exhibit at fairs, in lecture halls and also in dime museums to demonstrate the height of European civilization compared to the ‘primitive natives’. After Captain Cook returned from his voyage to Polynesia, tattooing became a tradition in the British navy. By the middle of the 18th century most British ports had at least one professional tattoo artist in residence.


TAT-MYTH? Our lovely compere for the weekend, Lenore has heard that “It is said that tattooists will give you a free tattoo, anything you want, if you can have a line tattooed from the top of your toe across the underside of your foot to your heel without flinching or stopping.”


TAT-FACT In 1862, the Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII, received his first tattoo, which was a Jerusalem cross on his arm. This started a tattoo fad among the aristocracy when he was tattooed before ascending to the throne. In 1882 the Japanese master tattooist, Hori Chiyo, tattooed his sons, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of York.


TAT-LEGEND Stoney St. Claire was a circus performer and tattoo artist born in West Virginia back in 1912. As a young wipper-snapper, Stoney was crippled by rheumatic fever and confined to a wheelchair. As resident in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Stoney incessantly drew scenes from the circus, like animals, performers, circus wagons. Little Stoney was inspired by an uncle he had in the circus and he was determined to follow in his footsteps, despite the few prospects a crippled boy had in that business. However, a German woman named Gretchen took him under her wing and taught him the secrets of her act... sword swallowing. With three square meals a day and $75 a week, Stoney was in heaven. Then one day when the circus was in Norfolk, VA - not our Norfolk! - some of his circus colleagues took him to a tattoo parlour. Stoney refused to get a tattoo, but when he saw the tattoo artist at work, he was convinced he could do the same thing and better at that. Over the next several days Stoney befriended the artist and watched him work. When the circus left town, the artist gave him some tattooing equipment and he set up shop behind the elephant barn.


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