Thread: Vintage Tattoo Photographs

Tattooist Les Skuse at work on champion tattoo lady, Pam Nash, who boasted a fabulously elaborate large Japanese scene across her back






A young woman has a linear tattoo of a horse and jockey on her breast in this photograph dating from the 1930s

Elaborate: A tattooist created a detailed Chinese dragon design on the breast and stomach of a glamorous female client in the 1960s



US Sailors. Tattoo-Jack in his parlor during the 40's or 50's ?





George Burchett-Davis on 23 August 1872 in the English seaside town of Brighton, East Sussex and became one of the most famous tattoo artists in the world.

from “Tokyo Sex Underground”by Romain Slocombe- Female full body irezumi

Forbes A. Hendry, a tattooist in British Columbia, tattoos a small boy's foot with his name in 1965

The Tattoos Of Old-School Russian Criminals
rose on the chest means he turned 18 while in prison

This convict’s tattoos were applied in the camps of the Urals where the tattoo artists produce work of exceptional quality. Because they were so held in such high regard, criminals often attempted to be transferred there in order to be tattooed. The dollar bill on the shoulder signifies the bearer’s commitment to a life of crime.




This prisoner’s tattoos display his anger and bitterness towards Communist power; the tattoos on the face signify that he never expects to go free.Text around the neck ‘To each his own’; above each head of the double-headed snake ‘Wife’ and ‘Mother-in-law’; on the chest ‘It is not for you whores, to dig in my soul’
Read more at The Tattoos Of Old-School Russian Criminals. Crazy Stuff! | Amplifying Glass

In general, I like tattos, but I prefer the small ones, not when it covers half of the body