The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-11-19
TATTOO WORK
DECREASING
BIueiackets DoNot
Now Consider
1t a Fad.
BOXER REIChlING
MUCE! TATTOOED
Younger Men Won't Stay in the
Navy and So Don't Want
Disagreement.

When Sailor Reichling, of the cruiser
New York, appeared, stripped to the
waist and ready to fight another man
from the war ship, on the Orpheum
stage last Saturday evening, the audi
ence saw a wonderfully tattooed man
Arms, breast and back were covered
with monster snakes, tattooed deeply
into the skin.
HE is finely marked" observed a
| man who had not been to sea, but
he'll have tremendous job on his
hands when he attempts to erase that
tattooing." The speaker was right. 1t
will be hard job, but it can be done
by an application of milk and the jab-
bing of a toothpick to open the flesh
and permit the milk to enter, as it will
then absorb the ink.
/ But tattooing is not in vogue with
the man OF warsman to any great ex-
tent nowadays. The younger sailors
are fighting shy of the pretty designs
and brilliant colors shown them by
the little brown man-for experts in
the Empire of Japan do most of the
tattooing work.
Very few tattooed men today are
pleased with the tattoo marks they
carry. One grows weary at anything
.of that kind that constantly stays by
one. And sometimes the tattooers put
designs on drunken men that the latter
regret all their lives. A sailor who
had a best girl by the name of
Jane woke up one morning to find
son his hand brilliant red sign indi-
eating that his intended was molly"
and not a 'tJane." No one ever heard
what became of the tattooer. There
are also men who are now in the
American Navy and who are American
citizens, who carry in their skins brill
liantly tattooed coats of arms of Ger
many, Austria, Italy, and other coun-
tries, in which they were born and
spent the earlier portions of their lives.
"a story is told in the navy of a young
recruit who had a design representing
schooner of beer" tattooed on his
back. The young fellow later reform
ed and, later, becoming a clergyman,
took church in a small seaside town.
No amount of persuasion would induce
him to go in bathing in public, and to
this day he carries the Sign of the
beer as a memento of his early life
at sea.
But the best tattooing yarn was spun
by an officer He said that while on a
cruise they had young ensign whose
chief ambition seemed to be to talk
long enough and loud enough at the
mess table to give all to understand
that he was me" A couple of days he
startled all the officers with remarks
concerning tattooing.
tattooed. l think it is an abominable
practice. 1t is a barbarous, silly and
disgusting practice" he said, "and
there ought to be regulation to stop
it. Any man on the ship, whether an
officer or not. should be severely pun
ished and dismissed the service for al
lowing himself to be tattoed"
OF course this was pretty tall go
ing for the youngster but of course
he was not aware that most of the old
er officers seated at that table had
been tattooed. The executive officer of
the vessel cast a sickly smile of pity
at the boy. 1t happened that on that
vessel there was shower bath fixed
on the main deck aft, and In this the
officers were in the habit of cooling
themselves as soon as they turned out
in the morning. On the morning fol-
lowing the ensign's lecture on tattooing
the boy was officer of the deck. One
of the older officers stepped out under
the bath with only trunks on, and
there the talkative ensign saw sight
that froze the marrow in his bones.
There stood his superior officer, en-
joying luxuriant bath, and standing
out all over him could be seen some of
the finest work of the tattooer of form
er times. Around each of the officers
legs were large snakes in brilliant
colors. On his breast was fine por-
trait of a woman, and on almost every
other portion of his body were fine
specimen's of the tattooer's art. The
! arr;or nearly tainted and the state
ment is generally believed in the Navy
that the boy did not open his mouth
again, except to answer a superior
question, until he had risen to the rank
of lieutenant
| But the boy who goes into the Navy
today seldom has any idea OF Spending
all his life in that trade, and so firmly
refuses the services OF the man of
needles and colors.