Royals & Tattoos

Royal families have a surprising history of tattoos starting all the way back in the 16th century through today. Because royal events and public appearances have strict dress codes we don’t often get to see royals sporting ink but it’s not uncommon for them to have at least one tattoo. As tattoos get more mainstream it’s less shocking to see them on royals today but historically there was more of a stigma so it’s interesting how the view of tattoos changed amongst royals.

European royalty was introduced first hand to tattoos when Captain James Cook returned to England from an imperialistic “exploration” in the 18th century with 2 Tahitian native guides: Oami and Tupia. I wasn’t able to find if these so-called guides came willingly or what they did in Europe; as we know historical records can sometimes be misleading or half truths, especially written with a Eurocentric view. Nevertheless Oami and Tupia were European royalty’s first introduction to tattoos, each guide had traditional art on their body. Unfortunately there are no records of what the tattoos looked like but we can speculate from current images of traditional Tahitian tattoos. Unfortunately because of their tattoos Oami and Tupia became a source of (reportedly paid) entertainment in English pubs and events.

Above: Examples of Traditional Tahitian tattoos

Much like in America tattoo interest started to grow amongst the working class, with sailors primarily getting tattooed. It became tradition among them to get tattooed in exotic lands throughout their travels. They were meant as an expression of their adventurous nature sailing around the world. Tattoos quickly started to catch on with more working class people getting tattooed and eventually the craze spread all the way up to the royal upper class. The royals weren’t happy just mimicking adventure by getting tattoos; they wanted a taste of true adventure themselves. As a result many royals arranged trips with the only intention being to get tattooed around the world. Monarch’s had a unique opportunity to do this since they had the money and vessels to travel that most didn’t at this time.

One notable Monarch that travelled to get tattooed was King Edward VII who made a trip to Razzouk tattoo in Jerusalem to get a now famous tattoo by the family who tattooed people on their pilgrimage to the Holy land. King Edward got none other than the Jerusalem cross in 1862. Razzouk is still open and run by the family today, checkout my post: Oldest Tattoo Shop in the World to learn more about their legacy. 20 years later King Edward’s sons made the same trip to get tattoos of their own!

Another Monarch who took to getting tattooed was Grand Duke Alexis of Russia. Alexis had many tattoos and travelled the world to collect them from masters of the art. One that is often talked about is his tattoo running his whole right arm of a Japanese dragon. The Duke loved his adventures and tattoos so much he even became the most tattooed man in Europe by the 1800’s. Well into the 1900’s royals have continued getting tattooed. With the most memorable being Archduke Franz Fredinand who had a snake tattoo on his hip that he deemed lucky. We all know that he wasn’t so lucky despite his permanent good luck charm, the Archduke was assassinated in 1914. Some more honorable mentions, King Fredrick IX of Denmark was heavily tattooed, as well as King Alfonso XIII of Spain and his son who were both very into getting tattooed.

To this day royals and monarchs are still getting tattooed, though we don’t always see many there are plenty of tabloids highlighting tattoos that royals today are sporting. It’s not as surprising to see them today with the increased popularity of the tattoo industry but before researching I had no idea of the extensive history of monarchs with tattoos.

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Gatekeeper

Hi there! I'm Taylor, you may know me as Sterling Skull reception, or gatekeeper, or most recently Tater (thanks Chris). I love writing, creating and I love tattoos; so what better way to use my passions than to bring you a personal experience of our studio via a blog! Welcome, please stay a while!