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Charlie Wagner in New York studio, 1940s.Bodies of Subversion/Powerhouse Books
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Work by Jessie Knight, Britain's first female tattoo artist, circa 1939.Public Domain
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Japan, 1870.Felice Beato/Library of Congress
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Poster of woman wearing nun's habit revealing a tattoo of Che Guevara, 1965.Library of Congress
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Private Burchall and L/Corp. Griffith displaying their tattoos in 1944.Public Domain
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Tattoo at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Baltimore, 1935Margaret Bourke-White/Public Domain
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Japanese man, 1890.New York Public Library
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Mrs. M. Stevens Wagner, 1907.Library of Congress
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German stowaway at Ellis Island, 1911.Augustus F. Sherman/New York Public Library
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1955.Sherman Hulton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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A model in the 1970s.Roy Kemp/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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Butterfly leg tattoo by Jessie Knight, circa 1939.Public Domain
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Betty Broadbent, 1930s.Vintage Images/Getty Images
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Irma Senta, 1920s.Public Domain
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Vintage pirate and veterans designs.Vintage Tattoo Flash
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Because kimonos were usually reserved for royalty and the elite, Japanese lower classes rebelled with large body tattoos, circa 1940s.Public Domain
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August, 1973.Roy Kemp/Getty Images
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Al Schiefley and Les Skuse give woman "sweet" and "sour" tattoos in 1940s England.Public Domain
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Doris Sherrel getting her social security number tattooed by Jack Julian, 1942.Public Domain
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Bird tattoo by Jessie Knight. Virginia, circa 1939.Public Domain
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A woman gets a permanent beauty mark tattoo in Copenhagen, 1956. John Firth/Getty Images
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Janet “Rusty” Skuse, who held the Guinness World Record of Britain's most tattooed woman for more than 20 years.Amsterdam Tattoo Museum
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Edith Burchet. London, 1920.Public Domain
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Date unknown.Vintage Tattoo Flash
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Les Skuse at work on champion tattoo lady Pam Nash in 1960. John Pratt/Keystone Features/Getty Images
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Wallona Aritta, date unknown.Public Domain
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Vintage mermaid tattoo design.Vintage Flash Tattoo
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Tattooed sailor in 1908.Huton Archive/Getty Images
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Emma de Burgh's Last Supper tattoo, 1897.Mary Evans Picture Library/Everett Collection
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Cally d'Astra, 1860.Time Life Pictures/Mansell/Getty Images
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Tattoo of a naked woman riding a bird in 1928.Fox Photos/Getty Images
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Tattoo artist Stella Grassman in the 1930s.Pinterest
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Back tattoo of man's face, 1936.William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Getty Images
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Japanese man in the 1870s.Felice Beato/New York Public Library
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Horse and jockey tattoo, 1930s.Public Doman
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Young man with tattoos, date unknown.New York Public Library
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Unidentified woman, 1897.Mary Evans Picture Library/Everett Collection
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Betty Broadbent, date unspecified.Public Domain
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Butterfly garter belt tattoo, 1930s.Public Domain
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Tattooed lady on the midway during the World's Fair, circa 1939 - 1940.New York Public Library
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Bob Wicks' flash sheet number 36, circa 1930.New York Historical Society
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India, 1880s.New York Public Library
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Tattooed lady with sailor during the World's Fair, 1939-1940.New York Public Library
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Snake tattoo, 1928.Public Domain
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Eagle and shield, circa 1875–1905, by Samuel O'Reilly.New York Historical Society
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Tattooist and goldsmith "Nerses the Goldsmith" tattooing a pilgrim, probably an Armenian woman, at his store underneath the Armenian Patriarchate, in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem. Circa 1900-1911.Library of Congress
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Alaskan indigenous Tlingit woman named Kaw-Claa wearing her potlatch dancing costume, Alaska, 1906. Frank H. Nowell/Alaska Digital Collection/Wikimedia Commons
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Māori woman, Mrs. Rabone, in 1870. Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand.Wikimedia Commons
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Thom de Vita and client in his studio at 326 E. 4th Street in New York, 1976.John Wyatt/New York Historical Society
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Ed Smith's self-portrait showing Rock of Ages back piece, circa 1920.New York Historical Society
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Nora Hildebrandt, circa 1880.Charles Eisenmann/New York Historical Society
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