Welcome to the History Tricks where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

And here's your 30-second summary.

In an era when a woman showing her angle was seen as transgressive, a group of radical women broke societal norms to use their bodies as canvases for their art and repopularize an age-old tradition.

The End.

Let's talk about tattooed ladies, but first let's drop them into history.

In 1882, Circus Impressario P.T. Barnum bought his elephant jumbo, soon to be the most famous elephant in the world, whose ashes some of them are strangely stored in a peanut butter jar in the office of the Athletic Director at Tufts University.

There was an assassination attempt against Queen Victoria while she was boarding a train at Windsor, the last of the eight attempts on her life during her reign.

Czajkowsky's 1812 overture for full orchestra and cannons debuted in Moscow, Thomas Edison created the very first string of electric Christmas tree lights, and 10,000 workers marched in the very first Labor Day parade in New York City.

To campaign for such things as a 40 hour work week, collective bargaining, and an end to child labor.

Born this year, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, painter Edward Hopper, Virginia Wolf, Bella Legosi, and composer Igor Stravinsky, died this year, outlaw Jesse James, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, Charles Darwin, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

And a few weeks apart in 1882, the two first professional tattooed ladies in America made their debut in New York City.

Hello, and welcome to the show. It's just me today, Beckett. Susan is away for this episode.

During the Victorian and Gilded Ages, a number of tattooed ladies became famous throughout America and Europe.

After I got my own first tattoo recently, and after a little nudge by the Barry Boy's own Greg Young, today I'm going to bring you some of their stories.

But first, a little background. It's important to note that the history of tattooing, which is the practice of marking the skin with indelible patterns by making punctures in it and inserting pigments,

goes back throughout recorded history and even into prehistory through figurines and other art decorated with patterns or even preserved human skin.

The oldest example of this is Otsi the Iceman, who was born approximately 3,300 BC and was found in 1991 with significantly tattooed skin.

Most cultures all over the world practiced some form of body illustration or modification, though it had different meanings, marking someone as a slave or as a member of the tribe or of high status or as the shameful mark of a criminal,

as a nomage to their own deities, to express their personalities, or the early Christian practice of getting religious tattoos as a sign of their devotion to God.

But by the 300s, that particular practice was getting a little bit tied up with barbarian outliers in the Christian world, and I quote St. Basil the Great,

no man should let his hair grow long or tattoo himself, as do the heathen, do not associate with those who mark themselves with thorns and needles so their blood flows to the earth.

This debate went on for hundreds of years. By the 787 Council of Northumberland, they seem to come down on when an individual undergoes the ordeal of tattooing for the sake of God he is greatly praised.

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