The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-08
THEY DO TATTOOING
Some Interesting Facts REGARDING the
Tendency of Certain Claasss n
the EmployRent of Thu
Peculiar Art.

The French scientific Journal.
Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle,
prints a curious and interesting study
of tattooing in its relation to criminals
and other outcasts, vsgabonds, and the
insane. The article is made up partly
of extracts from q recently published
German work on the subject and part
~ 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
among persons of regular and reputable
life, was evidence of the close relation
of the criminal to the primitive savage.
in fact, an effect of atavism. There
have been many attempts also to trace
relation between the subjects de-
picted in tattoo upon the bodies Of
criminals and others and their mental
and moral characteristics. The con-
illusions of the article are not favorable
to those theories.
Although an examination of criminals
in many prisons seems to indicate q
decided taste for tattOoing among
them. the belief of the compiler Of the
article is that the fact that a man is
tattooed cannot be taken as indicating
anything as to the category to which
he belongs. It Is believed that the
frequency Of tattooing among any class
of men is determined by external rather
than internal causes. No anthropolog-
ical analogy is found in the tattooed
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. Lines without color made in
prison by the prisoner upon himself
seem to indicate morbid psychic ex-
element. Colored tattooing IS valu-
able aid in reconstructing the past of a
prisoner and for the Identification of
criminals, though not so good for the
latter purpose as anthropometrics.
The facts and figures that precede
Gus sort. Tattooing seems to be COM
mon among the lowest class Of women
of loose lives. One student of the sub
ject examined eight hundred of these
women, and found that ten per cent
of them were tattooed. Names and
initials Of lovers were common marks.
After capital Sc" followed the name,
70 no off
eternal. Hearts pierced with dagger
were common. as, indeed, they are up
on tattooed men. The breast and fore
arm are favorite places for tattooing
with both women and men. There is
a conjecture that women of weak will
and vagabond habits su bmit to tattoo
ing oftener than others, and its prev
alence among women of loose lives is
ascribed to their association with Grim.
inals.
1t has been found that a considera Bile
proportion of the insane poor are tat
tooed. They exhibit curious variety
of subjects, allegorical, erratic, re-
Ggious and conventional, but the stu
dents of the subject have not been
aDio 10 OlSCOVcI tlldG Inc nd1uclud-
tions of the mad have any relation
to the tattoo marks thatsthey bear.
.Favorite subjects are woman's head
and bust, soldiers, clasped hands,
which is probably masonic sign; stars,
comets, a boot with spur, Christ cruel
fed, an altar with candles, the sun.
animals and mathematical figures.
The article does not refer to the &C
cepted belief that tattooing is COM
moner among sailors than among men
in other occupations, though some sta
.istics of the former occupations of
tattooed criminals show large proper.
ton of sailors There is no special
reference to the deliberately tattooed
men and women that exhibit them
selves in dime museums On this side of
the water, or TO the fact that men have
been found tattooed almost from head
to foot with masonic emblems. There
is no reference, either, to the fact that
the enforced idleness of some prisoners
and of sailors on long voyages probably