Heavily tattooed skin isn't something typically associated with the upper crust. Pirates, soldiers, I don't know, dice-throwers and the like, sure, but King George V? I'd think that the closest thing to body modification he'd endure would be mustache wax. But no, beneath the layers of gilded lapels and golden scabbards, the upper echelon of history bear lions and tigers and bears in worn blacks and blues just the same as folks from the modern day. The man responsible for popularizing wealthy lords (and sometimes ladies!) gettin' inked up? That'd be Sutherland Macdonald, a tattooist (not tattooer, he'd clarify), who operated on Jermyn Street in London.
Part of Macdonald's genius was his ability to court wealth by elevating the status of his artform. Earlier in the nineteenth century, tattoos were shadow signs — encountered on the bodies of sailors, soldiers, and recidivists, occasionally described in medical literature or criminology handbooks, but largely obscured from public discourse. Macdonald changed these perceptions by wearing a white coat (emulating a medical professional), using the latest technologies (he is credited with inventing the first electromagnetic tattoo machine), operating in proximity to a popular Turkish bath (playing up fashionable orientalism with a studio full of luxurious cushions), and registering a legitimate practice in the Post Office Directory (necessitating the creation of a new category of business).
Hunter Dukes, The Public Domain Review
He had an incredible sense of composition, using the body not just as a blank canvas, but as a complex template. The contours and edges of the chest, the curvature of the arm, the open plane of the back, these are all graphic problems, solved with compositionally pleasing designs. He utilized symbols and motifs that were popular in his day, both Victorian and from abroad. An ornate frame might demarcate the edge of the figurative image from the body on the whole. Some pieces exhibit an uncanny balance between open space and an intricately rendered animal, blending Western European shading with Japanese-influenced composition.
Celebrities, they're just like us!
I really wish there was whole book of Macdonald's work.
