The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1895-09-05
G1y )E 4 ING.
some INTERESTING Facts Regarding tho
Tendency OF Certain CIasses La
the Emplcysncnt of This
pccuf'ar art.


The French scientific Journal,
Archives d'Anthropologic Criminclle,
prints a curious and interesting study
OF tattooing ia It's relation to criminals
and other outcasts. vagabonds, and the
insane The article Is made up partly
OF extracts from a recently published
German work on the subject and part
ly from the studies OF anthropOlogists
IN various countries, especially in
Italy, France and Germany. Some
persons have thought that the habit Of
submitting to the tattooing process,
not unusual among criminals and rare
@Inong persons of regular and reputable
life, was evidence Of the close relation
If the criminal Co the primitive savage,
ia fact, an effect of atnvism. There
have beois many attempts also to tracc.
"a relation between the subjects doe
picted in tattoo upon the bodies az.
criminals and others and their mental
and moral characteristics. Tie com.
illusions Of the article arc not favorable
TO those theories.
Although an examination oferilninals
in many prisons seems to indicate a
decided taste for tattooing among
them, the belief Of the compiler of the
article is that Tie fact that d man Is
tnttoood cannot be taken as indicating
anything as TO the category to which
he belongs 1t Is believed that the
frequency of tattooing among any class
Of men determined by external rather
than internal causes. anthlopolog-
zeal analogy is found III the tattoocd |
designs, though the subjects Of tattoo
ing upon the persons OF prisoners agree
with the views and customs Of persons |
belonging to their social grade. Tat
tooed persons do not have marked
criminal characteristics, and ordinarily |
they are not dangerous or insensible to /
good. Zines without color made In |
prison by the prisoner upon himself |
aecuI to indicate morbid psychic ex- |
element. Col0red tattooing Is valti-
able nidin reconstructing the past of d |
prisoner and for the Identification of !
criminals, though not 50 good for the
latter purpose AS althroponctrics.
The facts ard figures that preeede |
these conclusions are of the most curl
Gus sort. Tattooing seems to be com
mon among the lowest class Of women I
Of loose lives enc student Of the sub
ject examined eight hundred OF these
woIneu, and found that ten per cent {
of thcrn were tattooed Names and 7
Initials Of lovers were common marks.
After o capital az followed the name. 7
to signify that the affection was
eternal. Hearts pierced witha dagger
were common. as, indeed, they are up-
on tattoocd men. The breast and fore
arm are favorite places for tattooinr I
with both women and men. There IS /
4 conjecture that women Of weak willI
and vagabond habits submit to tattoo
ing ofteper than others, and its prey
alence among women of loose lives is
ascribed TO their association with Grim
mails
1t has been found that considerable
Of the insane poor are tat
tooed. They exhibit curious variety
Of subjects, allegorical. eTratic, re-
ligions and conventional, but the stu
dents of the subject have not bccnl
able to discover that the hallucina-
tons of the mad have any relation
to the tattoo marks that they bear
Favorite subjects are a wonlan's head
and bust, soldiers, clasped hands.
which is probahlya masonic sign; stars,
comets, q boot with spur, Christ cr-uci-
lied an altar with candles, the sun,
animals and mathematical figures.
The article does not refer to the nc
cepted belief that tattooing is COM
naoner among sailors than among men
IN other occupations, though some sta
tistics of the former occupations of
tnttoocd criminals show n large proper
ton of sailors, There is no special
reference TO The deliberately tattooed
men and women that exhibit them
selves In dinc museums on this side of
The water, or to the fact that men have
been found tattooed almost from head
20 foot with masonic emblerns. There
y no Preferences, either, to the fact that
The enforced idlcncss of some prisoners
ana cg sailors on long voyages probably
leads them to resort TO tattooing as d
aicaps OF killing time.
/