Marking Time: American Convict Tattoos in a Global Context, 1900-1940

• In Event: Historical Perspectives on American Incarceration, from the Early Republic to the Late Twentieth Century

Abstract

While tattoos are undoubtedly a recognizable element of both historical and present-day American convict life, the underlying sentiments symbolized though inmate body modification are not unique to this country. Common symbols – daggers, hearts, naked women, etc. – have been commonly imprinted on prisoner bodies throughout the world for over a century. This paper will discuss the idea of a global inmate iconography, looking into recent historical research on prison tattooing within non-American prison settings. Drawing on state records from three major American prisons, in California, Louisiana, and New Mexico, as well as historical accounts of convict tattooing in France, Italy, Indochina, and Egypt, this paper discusses how convicts throughout the world maintained and transported their cultures into and out of penal environments through tattoos over the first four decades of the twentieth century. It concludes that prisoners of the time seemed to have often crossed national boundaries, slowly spreading a common set of tattooed icons. This notion provides scholars with a new way in which to study the shared international historical inmate experience.

Author

• Alexander Tepperman, University of Florida