Tattooed Ladies

From 1880 to the end of the 1930's it was common to see tattooed ladies as an attraction in a travelling side show as it was incredibly taboo and so thus very exciting. Usually seen on a small stage telling fictional stories about themselves explaining how and why they were tattooed. Scantily clad to show off their artwork in the days where women could be arrested for showing off a knee *gasp!*. They were also often tattoo artists themselves.









Even though their acts maybe have been dramatised to make it more entertaining I still feel that they were pioneers, in the long run helping normalise body art on women, traveling all over the world for crowds of people to see and then also having tattoo artists there too for people who were so thrilled by the sight of these ladies they could get their own ink done too. By the 40's people weren't shocked enough by seeing tattoos for it to be as big enough money maker.