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THE SAVAGE ORIGIN OF TATTOOING. 



BY PBOF. CESAKE LOMBROSO. 



I HAVE been told that the fashion of tattooing the arm exists 

 among women of prominence in London society. The taste 

 for this style is not a good indication of the refinement and deli- 

 cacy of the English ladies : first, it indicates an inferior sensi- 

 tiveness, for one has to be obtuse to pain to submit to this wholly 

 savage operation without any other object than the gratification 

 of vanity ; and it is contrary to progress, for all exaggerations of 

 dress are atavistic. Simplicity in ornamentation and clothing and 

 uniformity are an advance gained during these last centuries by 

 the virile sex, by man, and constitute a superiority in him over 

 woman, who has to spend for dress an enormous amount of time 

 and money, without gaining any real advantage, even to her 

 beauty. But it is not desirable that so inordinate an accession to 

 ornamentation as tattooing would be should be adopted ; for an 

 observation I have made on more than 6,000 criminals has dem- 

 onstrated to me that this custom is held in too great honor 

 among them. Thus, while out of 2,739 soldiers I have found 

 tattoo marks only among 1'2 per cent, always limited to the arms 

 and the breast ; among 5,348 criminals, 667 were tattooed, or ten 

 per cent of the adults and 3*9 per cent of the minors. Baer re- 

 cently observed tattooing among two per cent of German crimi- 

 nals and 9 '5 per cent of soldiers (Der Verbreclier, 1893). 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIMINAL TATTOOING: VENGEANCE. 

 The minute study of the various signs adopted by malefactors 

 shows us not only that they sometimes have a strange frequency, 

 but often also a special stamp. A criminal whom I studied had 

 on his breast between two poniards the fierce threat Jejure de 

 me venger (I swear to avenge myself). He was an old Piedmont- 

 ese sailor, who had killed and stolen for vengeance. A recidi- 

 vistic thief wore on his breast the inscription, Malheur a moi I 

 quelle sera ma fin ? (Woe to me ! what will be my end ?) lugu- 

 brious words, reminding us of those which Filippe, strangler of 

 public women, had traced on his right arm, long before his con- 



