This is an excerpt of an article that was posted on April 20, 2011 by srabun@uoregon.edu via University of Oregon's Historic Oregon Newspaper online. All rights and research recognition goes to original author.
From the sailors of yesteryear to the hipsters of today, there have always been Oregonians who are inclined to “get inked.” The Oregon-centric IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia has gone so far as to declare this the place where “the tattoo ink never runs dry”–and even a brief stroll around Stumptown would probably convince any visitor that tattooing has never enjoyed greater popularity in the Beaver State than it does today. That impression is most likely correct, but Historic Oregon Newspapers confirms that our interest in tattoos goes back much further.
The earliest story about tattoo art in a digitized Oregon newspaper is ‘An Admirer of Washington in Trouble,’ from the Jacksonville Oregon Sentinel of December 10, 1870. The story tells how a notorious Portland criminal named Shultz could most easily be identified by “the effigy of [George] Washington on horseback, tattooed upon his breast, in India ink… Doubtless Shultz now regrets this indiscretion into which he was lead in his youth.” Here we have probably the first Oregonian ever to rue an impulsive tattoo decision–a sentiment to which many contemporary Oregonians still can relate!
A couple decades later, an influential sermon by Reverend Thomas DeWitt Talmage was reprinted in the Capital Journal on November 13, 1893. The text of this oration provides good evidence that tattooed Americans were already becoming a familiar sight by this time. For Talmage preached: “You have seen a sailor roll up his sleeve and show you his arm tattooed with the figure of a favorite ship… You have seen a soldier roll up his sleeve and show you his arm tattooed with the picture of a fortress where he was garrisoned… You have seen many a hand tattooed with the face of a loved one either before or after marriage… Now, God says that he has tattooed us upon his hands.”
By the turn of the 20th century, the Portland Oregonian is reporting on “the tattooing craze which has overspread all England.” The issue of January 7th, 1900 recounts that the fad began among aristocratic young men serving in the Boer War, but now “[it] is growing and spreading among civilians.” The article specifically alludes to one tattooed guardsman “who bears a title known the world over.” This seems to be a coy way for the editors to demonstrate that the trend indeed has reached the highest levels of society, but without going so far as to name names of the
participating rich and powerful.
Tattooing was, after all, still regarded by most readers as exotic and fairly scandalous business. Another Oregonian piece from later in the same year puts forth the then-novel notion that tattoos, at their best, might rise to the level of fine art.
All we know now is that Portland, OR is amongst the world leading tattoo venues in the world. Come to PDX and get tattooed! The time is now!
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