Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Tattoos

  • Tattoo stories

    Alan BlumTuscaloosa, Alabama, United States A century before reality TV, there were circus sideshows, and one of the star attractions was the tattooed lady. Betty Broadbent was the most famous. The 1939 song “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,” written by Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen and performed by Groucho Marx in At the Circus, was a…

  • Tattoos in the twentieth century

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “It was in 1972 and you didn’t really go around showing tattoos or talking about them…And now all of a sudden it has become the thing to do.”1– Cher, American singer, actor Placing dyes or pigments into the dermis to form a design dates back at least 12,000 years. Tattooing was seen…