Contrary to the Western beliefs of the 20th century, women have been getting tattooed for thousands of years.
The oldest examples are actually a couple of Ancient Egyptian mummies adorned with tattoos . The two mummies, one male and one female, are dated back to between 3351 to 3017 BCE, making them the oldest tattoos ever found on a female body.
In ancient Egyptian tattooing, there is also the example of placing tattoos on the bellies of women as a means of safeguarding women during pregnancy and birth.
Tribal tattooing has also been present in Native civilizations for centuries.
The designs for these sacred tattoos would be chosen based on the family history of the woman and were a sign of high status and attractiveness of the individual.
In Pacific cultures, while the tattooist would be traditionally male, it was widely believed that the gods intended the recipients of tattoos to be solely women.
In the Judeo-Christian Western cultures, as said, there was a lot slower progress for the women to start getting tattoos.
In most records, we can see its start during the early 19th century.
Even though in that era women’s bodies needed to be hidden, wealthy socialites, for example, got tattoos as a form of rebellion.
The tattoos were discreet and decorative, sometimes even hidden from husbands and families.
Those women who chose to ignore hiding the tattoos were, however, completely expelled and marginalized from modern society and viewed as freaks.
Fun trivia – Winston Churchill’s mother Lady Randolph Churchill is said to have had a snake tattoo on her wrist (easily covered by a wineglass or sleeve).
By the turn of the 20th century, roughly three-fourths of fashionable New York City ladies had gotten similarly trendy tattoos, including butterflies, flowers and dragons, according to the New York World.
This continued for the better half of the 20th century, but the situations changes in the late 60s and 70s.
At that point tattoo subcultures began to develop and for women specifically, tattoos were much less taboo and were starting to become more of a tool of self expression.
As Cristian Petru Panaite, curator of an exhibit on the 300-year history of tattooing, open now at the New-York Historical Society, puts it,
Tattoos were an early way that women took control of their bodies.
