120417-0004 - Getting a Tattoo

An English naval officer gets a tattoo from a Japanese tattoo artist. On the right is a display of samurai armor. In the West, Japanese tattoos were a stereotypical part of an eroticized image of Japan. Many society figures got a Japanese tattoo when visiting the country, such as the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, Queen Olga of Greece, Lady Randolph Churchill, and the Duke of Newcastle.

Original text: “With the China Squadron in the East-Tattooing an officer in Japan.”

Published in the British weekly illustrated newspaper The Graphic on November 13, 1886 (Meiji 19).