Like body piercings, tattoos are created by the constant application of ink just under the subcutaneous layer of the skin with a needle. At first, many tribes, sailors, and other groups used to apply the ink by hand. This was a long, painful process and the marked people were usually of high status. The tattoos were often a sign of respect, rank, and social status. Since the tattoos are permanent, the owners were guaranteed respect for life.
The interest of tattooing for the general public spread throughout the world in fads. A sailor would bring over a fully tattooed indigenous person and interest would spread like wildfire. In London, a sailor brought over a tattooed Polynesian from the South Pacific, and many of the people of London began to acquire their own small tattoos in secret places. However, interest in tattooing waxed and waned due to its long, arduous process of applying every dot of ink by hand.
The electric tattoo machine is a relatively recent invention, created in 1891 by Samuel O'Reily, and has revolutionized tattoos into an art form. Tattooing can still be long and painful but now the many punctures in the skin are done automatically at thousands of punctures per minute and can allow for better detail and shading. Skin is the most unique canvas and a tattoo that is placed onto the skin is permanent, requiring extra consideration for the right tattoo, the right artist, and the right placement. That piece of art will follow throughout one's lifetime.
In New York City, Samuel O'Reily trained a partner named Charley Wagner, who continued teaching after O'Reily's death. For a brief while, Chatham Square flourished with tattoo artists while the rest of the world remained unimpressed with tattooing. For a long time tattooing was generally stigmatized and most people with tattoos were stereotyped to be scary, dangerous, or freaks. During the 1920s tattoos began to be recognized for where a person has been in their travels, as tattoo artists set up shops in Coney Island. An outbreak of hepatitis, blood poisoning and other disease even worsened the prospects for tattooing in American culture.
Finally, a tattoo artist named Lyle Tuttle changed America's perception of tattooing by introducing celebrities to the art form. He tattooed them, mostly women, and used the media to change their stereotypes about the types of people who got tattoos. Together with the heightened awareness of the importance of sterilization and the improvement of training, tattoo popularity began to surge in the last few decades.
