WEBVTT - Tattoos: Not Just For Dirtbags Anymore 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to you Stuff you should Know from House Stuff 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:12.480 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:15.319 Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryan, and Jerry Rowland. 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:17.880 So it's Stuff you should know the first and last 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.720 name edition. That's right and Chuck. Uh. You know people 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:24.840 up hanging out with us on the podcast, but little 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:26.760 did you know some of you guys you can hang 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:29.400 out with us outside of the podcast too. We have 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.440 a great Facebook page Facebook dot com, slash stuff you 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.640 should know. We have a nice little Twitter feed going. 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:37.960 You do a great job there. The handle is at 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.600 s y s K podcast uh. 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Oh 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:43.720 and speaking of our our website, stuff you show dot com. 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:47.640 If you like the idea of tattoos, specifically, if you 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:51.000 like the idea of really bad tattoos, man um, we 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:54.920 put together a gallery of thirty seven I think bad tattoos. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.720 So if you search thirty seven really terrible tattoos are 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.680 should come up in Google first, where you can go 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:02.960 on our site and search tattoos. I think at the 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.040 very least, it will make you feel better about what 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:07.160 you think. It's a bad tattoo. Yeah, man, there are 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.440 some bad tattoos out there, so it's a pretty cool, 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.080 little funny gallery. Yeah, man, it's this whole tattoo thing. 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.720 They're bad ones, there are beautiful ones, they're weird ones. 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.720 It's the whole culture is just so interesting. I think, 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.239 like we we should do another gallery of like I 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.720 don't know, like, have you seen these photo realistic ones? Now, 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.960 we'll put together another gallery. Man, some of that stuff 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.760 is just unbelievable. Yeah, there's some great ones. Um. So yeah, 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.000 but bad tattoos are pretty hilarious. It's always nice to 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:41.120 laugh at someone else's expense. Yeah. So, um, the photo 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:47.160 realistic tattoo, that's a fairly recent event. Yeah. But tattoos themselves, 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:51.440 they're pretty old. Yeah, Like I was happy to go 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.440 back to the nineteenth century. You're like, no, no, we 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.000 need to go back way further than that. Well, they 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.080 have some evidence that's it's it gets super interesting in 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:06.360 the nineteenth century. But um, the oldest physical body, the Iceman, Yeah, 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:13.280 let's see, has tattoos. Um they are rock Yeah. He 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.080 had a tramp stamp. Um. Now, he had a black 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.080 cross on the inside of his left knee and six 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.520 straight lines on his lower back and then parallel lines 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.840 on his ankles, legs, and wrists. And they think because 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.240 they found joint disease under the tattoos that they thought 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:29.799 it was supposed to relieve pain. It wasn't necessarily like artistic. 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:32.760 So was it a cross like a crucifix or a 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.920 plus sign because he lived a few thousand years before Christ, 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:37.840 probably a plus line. It wouldn't have been like a 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:39.920 Christian thing. Maybe he was way ahead of his time. 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.600 He was a seer. Yeah, well yeah, and a pretty 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:49.800 good hunter too. Yeah. Um, the earliest tattoo that is, uh, 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.640 they were just sort of abstract patterns for many years, 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.000 and we're talking about the Ice Age, you know. Yeah, 0:03:55.000 --> 0:04:00.520 they were like um Jackson Pollock back then exactly. But 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.160 there was one um of an actual thing, the god 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:06.720 best b e s the Egyptian god of revelry, and 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.720 they found have found that on Nubian mummies, females dating 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.560 back to four So it's like the direct predecessor of 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.560 people who get Coco Pelli tattooed on them. What is 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.920 that he's like a bringer of good times. Yeah, he's 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.640 got a common thing south He's yeah, the dude the flute. 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.240 You've seen him a million times. Really, Yeah, he's like 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:32.360 a southwestern uh Indian motif I'd probably recommence it, huh yeah. Um. 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:36.120 And then of course the Greeks and the Romans, they 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:37.800 were kind of ahead of the game on everything, and 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.719 they used to tattoo criminals and slaves. Yeah. I saw that, 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.000 so like FuG for fugitive on their forehead, so in 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.120 case they ran away, they would be forever known. Yeah. 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.560 Tattooing used to be um a punishment in some cultures, 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.560 like the Greeks and the Romans. Um. Some Native American 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.080 tribes tattooed slaves too, Yeah. Yeah, And I mean the 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.719 whole premises is like, well, it's basically like branding cat. Yeah. 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:03.960 If you're a runaway slaving, you encounter somebody who's also 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.680 a slave owner, and they see that your faces tattooed, 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:09.159 but you're out walking by yourself, they may grab you 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.599 and take you back. Yeah. And of course that played out, 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.160 uh with Jews in the Holocaust and World War Two. Yeah, 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.520 and I saw that it's sort of a trend now 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:22.560 for modern Jewish people to get that as a tribute. Yeah, 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.320 it's in their family. Yeah, that was really interesting. Or 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.279 um gaze today get pink triangles, which was a symbol 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.840 for homosexuals that was tattooed onto them and by the 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.600 Nazis and World War two? Is that where that came from? 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.919 But now it's embraced Yes, interesting, Um, But yeah, the 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:44.599 Nazis gave tattooing a bad name in like world round, 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.359 but it had a real direct impact on the decline 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.240 of tattoos in America for a while because of that. Well, 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:56.719 let's go back a little further. Like I said, nineteenth century. Um, 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.480 the tattooing, we talked about it in the Maori episode. 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.679 We talked about tattooing because they were pretty closely related 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:11.120 to the progenitors of tattoos, tribes from um Uh Polynesia, 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:15.080 that's right. And the word tattoo is comes from a 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:19.120 Polynesian word to tao, which basically means to strike. And 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.440 they think it's on a monopeia. And a guy who 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:25.560 sailed with Captain Cook through Polynesia, a botanist named Joseph Banks, 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:29.400 was the one who introduced the word tattoo to the West. Yeah, 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:31.360 and previous to that, they had, you know, when they 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:35.360 were exploring explorers were exploring the South Pacific in Latin America, 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.120 they saw tattoos, but they had known the moors and 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.000 the more tattoos head tattoos. So they weren't like super 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.520 knocked out by seeing tattoos, they were like, oh my god, 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.000 what are they doing. Nor did they adopt it because 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.039 they didn't. They didn't care about assimilating. They were just 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.760 kind of conquering. Yeah, not like, hey, that's neat, maybe 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.920 we should try it. And but the the idea that sailors, 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.120 the ones who visited Polynesia were sailors, they were the 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.120 first ones to adopt tattoos themselves. And that's where the 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.159 idea of sailors and tattoos going hand in hand came from, 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.279 like back to the very beginning. Yeah, they were the 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:15.240 original Westerners to get tattoos. Um, and sailors haven't always 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.320 been part of the mainstream very frequently. They're like basically 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:23.160 mercenaries at sea or back then they were as well. Um, 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.720 they were criminals on the run. They were kind of 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:31.960 fringe dwellers, not entirely, but more than the average joe. Uh. 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.880 And so since sailors got tattoos, and also they were 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:40.400 copying those tattoos from primitive people's tattoos almost out of 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.120 the gate when introduced to the West, became associated with 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:53.360 the marginalized um dirt bags eventually circus folk and yeah, um, 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:57.960 there was one named the Great Constantine, Prince Constantine, and 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:01.720 he was he basically it and spent a significant amount 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.640 of money getting his whole body tattooed, eyelids, penis, the 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.800 whole shebang, um, and ended up making a thousand dollars 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.320 a week in the eighteen seventies with with P. T. 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.320 Barnum Circus, which is twenty grand a week in two 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:19.160 twelve dollars just from being tattooed. But he was still 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.480 a circus side show performer. So there was this long 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:26.800 standing association of tattoos with fringe dwellers in the West 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.000 that lasted until like the seventies or eighties. Yeah, and 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.320 the idea that it was associated with the criminal element. 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:37.120 And even like if you the worst of a criminal 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.320 you had, the more tattoos you had, basically, well, yeah, 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.199 you know that that whole like phrenology thing, like you 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:45.760 you could supposedly look at a person or measure your 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.400 physical attributes to tell what your moral character was. The 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.560 people thought like tattoos were just an outward sign of that. Yeah, 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:55.680 like the more tattoos you had, the warriors you were, 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.680 which is kind of like people still think that, Like 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.239 if you see a biker dude with the more tattoos 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.400 he has, the more of an outlaw he is. Yeah, 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.200 I mean, it's never been more accepted than it is today, 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:10.520 and it's still with certain people, you know, kind of unseemly. Yeah, 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.439 and placement also counts too, Like if you have something 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.280 that stops at your wrist, you're you're basically saying like, 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.240 I'm still trying to be a part of normal society 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:21.880 because I can wear long shirt sleeves and no one 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.280 see my tattoos. If you have a face tattoo, you 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.000 basically said like I don't care about being a member 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.880 of society, yeah, you know, yeah, or or you know, 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:38.680 having a job at spread at least you know. But 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.040 those said nextel, is that even still around? I think 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.080 it is no idea how that popped into my head. Yeah, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:44.880 I think it is. Okay, I think I've seen a 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:49.559 billboard here there's some serious buzz marketing. Yeah, all right, um, 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:54.080 But there's this weird little anomaly in history where in 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:56.960 the night during the Victorian Age the late nineteenth early 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.439 twentieth century um into the Edwardian Age, if you want 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:04.840 to get technical, there was a trend among the upper class. Yeah, 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.120 this is really remarkable to me that like, even while 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:12.880 the people who had tattoos were the lowliest of the 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.880 low as far as Western society went, not even just 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:20.760 you know, working class people like the criminals, fringe jewelers, 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.320 circus freaks, prostitutes were the ones with with tattoos, all 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.679 of a sudden, Uh, the elite of the West, and 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:32.800 we're talking like royalty in some some cases adopted tattoos 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.080 as a status symbol. Yeah, and for a pretty interesting reason, 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:41.800 um quality. Well yeah, once Japan, Japan was kind of 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.480 closed for business for a couple of hundred years, so 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.840 most of the Western world, and they turned around the 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.400 open sign in eighteen fifty three, and it turns out 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:55.439 they had some remarkable tattoo artists in Japan, and so 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:57.240 the quality went up, and then they weren't you know, 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.360 like the street tattoos that you would see. And so 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.680 the the elite of Europe would go to Japan, sometimes 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.920 even royalty to get tattooed by these masters. What's that 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:14.480 one guy's name, Uh, Yoshisuki horrid Toyo. Very nice, Yeah, 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:18.000 they said, um, there was one quote from a guy 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:22.360 named Van Dinter. Did he write a book? I think 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.000 he did. I think this article we're talking about an 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:32.000 article by um Agnazaka Marzak. Yeah, um, she's quoting, uh 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:36.320 like sociologist and anthropologists. Yeah, and thanks for this article too, 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:38.960 because that helped us piece together the history for sure. 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:44.080 But um, yeah, visiting Japan without being tattooed by say 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:49.920 it Oh Yoshiasuki horrid toyo was like visiting Rome and 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.360 not seeing the pope. So it was a big deal. Yeah, 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.200 and it was weird in that fashion trends tended to 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.760 go from the top down and this came from the 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.959 bottom up. Was different. But it was like you if 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:08.079 you were an elite Western European um and you had 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.319 a tattoo like it, Like you said, it was just 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.160 stood in start contrast to the to the work some 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.960 of the like criminals were getting homeboys with the criminal 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:19.920 in the street all of a sudden, right yeah uh. 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:21.960 And I mean just the average person looking at the 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:23.480 two side by side could be like, well, this is 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:27.360 obviously a much more elaborate, much more detailed, much more 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:32.240 expensive tattoo. So the tattoo among the Victorian elite. Um 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.600 it's it was expensive because number one, you had to 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.040 travel to Japan to get it, let alone the cost 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.440 of the tattoo. Uh. And then secondly it was very 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.440 time consuming. Again you had to travel to Japan, but 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:46.520 you had to sit there for a very long time. 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:50.240 Because this is prior to the advent of um a 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:55.480 tattoo guns, motorized tattoo machines. Um. So somebody used a 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:58.680 needle and just kind of stabbed it in and out, 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.920 maybe a couple of times a second. Yeah, for many, many, 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.920 many seconds, for many days, I would imagine, right, So 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:09.040 the average worker couldn't afford the time to sit there 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:11.079 and get a tattoo. They couldn't afford the expense, but 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.240 they also couldn't afford the time. So if you had 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.760 a very elaborate Japanese tattoo that you went to Japan 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.720 to get it said, I'm a very wealthy man of leisure, 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.880 especially if it was dollar signs on your forehead, right, 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:27.560 you know, we're in your eyelids. Uh. But things reversed 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.359 in when the first machine was invented by Samuel O'Reilly, 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:34.719 which we'll get to in a minute. But um it 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:38.280 democratized tattoos. Yeah, basically, you know, poor people could now 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.560 get tattoos that look pretty good, and then the elite 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:42.679 were like, well, we don't want them any more than right. 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.120 But I didn't see anywhere what the elite did with 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:48.200 their tattoos. If they just lived with them, or if 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:50.600 they tried to get them taken off, well, they probably 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:54.000 wore like more clothes. Yeah, they're already wearing a lot 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:58.160 of clothes. Were a lot of clothes. Um. Yeah, like 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:02.680 you said, the two gun was invented in eight nine one, 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.480 but even before that, in the United States, the first 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:09.800 professional tattoo shop had opened almost fifty years before. A 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.800 guy named Martin Hildebrandt opened a shop in eighteen forty 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:17.040 six in New York City where else, and most of 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:21.880 his clientele was military, especially sailors. And um, it was 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:26.240 here that this this association with the military, soldiers and 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:31.760 sailors getting tattoos developed and became popularized in America. Yeah, 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.240 it became. Um they call it the Golden Age of 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.040 tattooing between the end of w W one and the 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.600 end of w W two. And um, that's because it 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.320 was linked to patriotism, and uh, it was you know, 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.720 to see a soldier with a tattoo with the an 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.280 anchor and like the United States of America like the 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.240 flag or something. It was very cool. It wasn't looked 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.320 down upon at all at this point. Yeah. But there 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.560 was another article I read too by Audrey port Cella 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:00.560 that had a lot of this and stuff, but it 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:02.800 was more expansive and yeah, I think she was saying 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:07.560 like America loved its soldiers, and so anything associated with 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.480 soldiers America loved too. Like you couldn't poopoo it tattoos, right, 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:13.440 but you didn't even want to. It's like a lovable 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.400 mark of a soldier, and a soldier just beat Hitler. 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:21.160 It was winning the war, so you you would love 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:25.040 their tattoos too. It's why we tolerate parrots because sailors 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:26.720 walked around with them on the shoulder all the time. 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:33.160 Otherwise parrots. Yeah, I worked at a place at Exotic Birds. 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.800 Did you know that parents in the wild travel and flocks. Yeah, 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.000 I never thought about that because you only see them 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:42.440 like by themselves. Maybe they're sharing a cage with one 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.240 other parrot you seem in l a in Pasadena. Oh, 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:47.520 I've never seen that it's pretty cool. I was shooting 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:52.120 one time, in shooting parents, shooting a TV commercial as 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.240 a p A, and I saw a flock of parrots. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:57.880 I think they were parents. That'd be bizarre. It was 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.640 really weird because I just thought, get all that money 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.640 flying around, right, did you jump after him? I caught 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:09.480 like four of them. Um, they didn't survive. No, So 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.200 you said, the golden age of tattooing happened between World 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.520 War One and World War Two, And we already talked 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.520 about how Hitler of course screwed it up for everybody. Um, 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.480 and it declined after World War Two. But also during 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:23.840 that time that golden age, not only was it like 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:29.080 patriotic sailors and soldiers who were getting tattoos. Um, people 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.840 were having their kids tattooed in the thirties. I had 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.400 never heard this because of the Limburgh baby. Yeah, like 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.760 social Security number statute on their child. Yeah. And then 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.400 other people got there just like grown ups got their 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:45.680 so security number tattooed. Apparently because they placed a tremendous 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.000 amount of import on those things when they first came out. 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.400 But can't you think, like, after seeing it a few times, 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.840 you're gonna be like I didn't think I was going 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:56.160 to be able to memorize the string of numbers, but 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.600 it's in there, and now I have a tattoo too. 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.320 It's definitely weird. Were soldiers sometimes we get there, you know, name, 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:06.560 rank and date of birth or serial number. Sure? Yeah, um. 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.760 And then apparently in the mid fifties, the Secretary of 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:16.080 Defense said, you know the US my my experience an 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:20.320 attack from the Ruskies. So just to make sure that 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:22.520 everybody can get the medical care they need, maybe we 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.159 should all get our blood types tattooed on us. And 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:27.600 some people went out and did it. Is that why 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:29.800 you have a negative on the back of your neck? Yeah? 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.240 Pretty cool. It's a band reference. Actually, are we going 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.720 to talk about our tattoos at any point? No, I'll 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.200 talk about mine later. If you want to hear about mine, 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:40.320 I you have to do is go listen to that 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.960 judge John Hodgsman. That's true. I can't remember the episode 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.080 number though, Sorry John. All right, so let's move on 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.880 to the nineteen sixties. Things went downhill fast because outbreaks 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:56.960 of hepatitis and tattoo parlors were shut down. Like in 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.520 New York City, they were banned between nineteen sixty one 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.520 and nineteen on the seven and in Massachusetts they were illegal. 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.800 Tattoo parlors were illegal up until two thousand. Yeah, which 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:10.240 is hard to believe. And remember in skateboarding we said 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.359 like once skateboarding came around in ninety nine, it never 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.640 ever really went away and just pushed underground. The same 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.040 thing with tattoos, And every time it fell out of 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.639 the mainstream, getting a tattoo became even more of a 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.280 symbol of rejection of society, which you know, made it 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:30.240 even cooler. Um. And while it was forced underground and 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.439 and made illegal by those bands in the sixties, um, 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.680 it was taken up by again fringe groups like biker gangs, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.520 Chicano gangs. Remember the zoos Suit Riot. So it was 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:42.119 one of my favorite shows that we've done. It was 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:44.879 a great one. Um. There was like I don't remember 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:46.119 if we talked about it or not, but there was 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.480 a whole aspect of it where gang tattoos or tattoos 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.119 became associate with gangs. From the zoot Suit Riot, like 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:57.040 the press reported on these groups of Chicano boys who 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.560 all had Chicano style tattoos, which is beautiful stuff. By 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:03.359 the way did you look it up? It's like that 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:08.520 that lettering with the amazing flourishes. Yeah, mostly just black, right, 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:14.080 or like photo realistic um shaded black and white or 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.960 well just black like you said, images of like the 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.800 Virgin Mary or praying hands or it's awesome, or like 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:22.639 or a fallen gang member, Like it looks like a 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.679 photograph basically. Yeah, is that what photo realistic needs? Yeah? Okay, 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:32.160 but the that became associated gang tattoos, especially like Hispanic 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:37.920 gang tattoos um or Latino Yeah. Sorry, Uh, they became 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:41.720 associated from the zoot suit ryot. Yeah, that's pretty cool. 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:43.920 You should listen to that podcast. Uh was it just 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:47.159 called the How zoot Suits Work? No? I think it 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.560 was like did did zoo suits start a? Right? It 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:53.320 was one of those dumb ones where we asked the 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.360 obvious question that we're going to answer. It was really 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:57.840 good though. I think it was one of those where 0:19:57.840 --> 0:19:59.879 people are, like, zoot suits. You did a podcast on 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.439 sut too. It's turned out really just super interesting in 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:06.119 the history of l A, which has a lot of 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.200 black spots. Yeah, good point. Uh so in the nineteen 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.560 seventies things came around a bit um because of the 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.280 counterculture and uh civil rights movements and black power and 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.320 gay gay rights movements and women's lib and they're all 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.919 these causes now that people began to tattoo on their 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:28.280 bodies just to show uh unity and or just you 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.600 know the hippies of course, with mushrooms and marijuana leafs 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:36.240 and you know, keep on trucking our crumb stuff. You 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.600 have the trucking dude. Yeah, rainbows and flowers and all 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:44.240 sorts of things like that. So it became a little 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.240 more common, but it was still on the fringe. I think, 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:53.000 um through the eighties really, don't you think pretty much, 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.040 and then all of a sudden Americas just kind of 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:58.080 loose en up about it a little bit. It seems 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:00.520 like it. I think what happened, is it a cross 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.240 that threshold that all things that are part of the 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.080 counterculture cross, a co opting of it to where it's 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.560 no longer part of the fringe of enough people do 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:13.400 something that generational shift happens. Yeah, and and more than ever, 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.000 it's become part of the mainstream. Like there's going to 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:21.320 be an enormous amount of tattooed grandparents in like thirty 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:27.920 forty years. Like yeah, neck tattoos, like just plain old 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:32.479 grandparents with neck tattoos. Can't wait. Yeah, I can't either, right, 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:34.640 exactly want to live that long to see all that, 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:40.320 But um, yeah, that's it's become extraordinarily tolerated and more 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:42.800 and more and more ever since the eighties or nineties, 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.040 but up to today, it's just like, I can't imagine 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:47.960 there being more of a critical mass of people getting 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:49.960 tattoos in there are now, And as a matter of fact, 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.800 I've predict it will probably become past a in the 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:55.600 next couple of years because so many people are getting tattoos. 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:57.760 I think it's already getting a little pasta, don't you. 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:01.280 I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse of fisterism, 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:05.159 you know, yeah, I can see it. I do know. 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.600 One of the new trends um and I hadn't heard 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.639 of this either, are a UV sensitive inks, dude, So like, 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:13.440 you have a tattoo that you can't see unless you're 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:16.280 under a black light. At a rave, I saw a 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:21.800 very cool tattoo with that technique, and it was not 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:27.240 photo realistic, but an amazing illustration across the upper back 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:31.919 of a person of Yoda brandishing a lightsaber and the 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:36.080 lightsaber had the uv inc. Everything else is tattoo, but 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:40.680 the lightsaber glowed under black light. That's pretty it was amazing. Yeah, 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:43.080 you'll have to send me that. Yeah. Um, and then 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:47.960 another Uh. I don't know how new this is, but um, 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:54.080 breast cancer survivors that undergo massectomys sometimes will have reconstructive 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:58.840 surgery and have three D nipples tattooed on their newly 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:03.040 reconstructed breast. So it's like a combination of scarification and 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:07.320