Insect Tattoos on Humans: A â•œDermagraphicâ•š Study

Insect Tattoos
OD HamaDS:
A "Dermagraphic" Study
By G. A. Pearson
Editor's Note
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The following article is rather 1It/lIsllaland may
bother some readers. Howeue1',it receiued Uf!1Y fal/orable reuiews, and it was so entomologically appealing to me that I cOllld not ttlm it down.
Hopeflllly, YOIl will not uiew it as grollnds for my
"impeachment ... [would appreciate receiuing comments on this article, whether positiue or negatiue.
II
-J. E. McPherson
Edit01; American Entomologist
I
NRECENT YEARS, TIlE TATIOO HAS UNDER-
gone a renaissance
in America.
Musi-
cians, movie stars, and athletes all
adorn themselves with artwork, and their
fans follow suit. Self-modification, though, is
hardly a new phenomenon. Tattooing has
been practiced for at least 6,000 years, possibly longer (Brain 1984). What do tattoos reveal of the owner's personal imagery and
values? Is a tatoo the human equivalent of
aposematic coloring? Perhaps a signal saying:
"Beware! 1 might be dangerous," or a symbol
proclaiming "Warning! I'm deviant." In a culture that values physical attractiveness so
highly, why would someone choose to be aberrant? What pictures would you choose as a
representation of yourself?
A tattoo represents a painful and usually
irreversible process. Studying the individuals
who choose to permanently mark themselves
with insects (my reveal the underlying symbolism that insects have been invested with in
cultures past and present. In non-Western indigenous cultures, body modification often is
considered necessary to assume a social role
or to become an adult. It is a sign of attainment of puberty, wealth, or beauty. But what
does it mean to be tattooed with an insect in
Western culture today?
AMERICAN
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Traditional tattoo and cicatrization design from Asia and Africa. (A) Yoruba cicatrization
pattern of a centipede (0 rewa I 1988). (B) Yoruba cicatrization pattern of a butterfly (Drewal
1988). (C) Tiv cicatrization pattern of a scorpion (Bohannan 1988). (D) Mentawi Islander
tattoo of a centipede (a/upat). (E) Mentawi Islander tattoo of a dragonfly (toropid). (F)
Mentawi Islander tattoo of a scorpion (terenganga). (G) Mentawi Islander tattoo of a crab
(saggesagged). (H) Samoan tattoo symbolic of a worm or caterpillar (anufe). (I) Ceram
Islander tattoo symbolic of a spider web (Designs 0-1 are after Hanky Panky, in Vale &
Juno 1989). (J) Scorpion tattoo design from Guajaratlndia,
ca. 1984 (Rubin 1988b).
99
port of the attitudes of their day.) Even
Charles Darwin mentioned tattoos (Vale &
Juno 1989): "Not one great country can be
named, from the polar regions in the north to
New Zealand in the south, in which the aborigines do not tattoo themselves."
Tattoos often functioned as group identification. An 1898 Cambridge expedition to the
Torres Strait (New Guinea) described the
marks of the indigenous peoples:
Among the totemic western islanders
some of the cicatrized marks represent a
totemic animal, either realistically or in a
conventional manner .... Women cicatrized on the upper arm a figure of the centipede. Other totemic animals were birds,
snakes, the crab, and crocodiles (Hambly
1925).
Spiderweb tattoo on the elbow of
Representative nature scene
tattoo, with a tiger beetle
incorporated.
An orb-weaver
spider is also part of the design
(artist unknown).
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Body Art History and Insects
Chaudesaiges
Over the course of history, tattooing has
waxed and waned in fashion (Rubin 1988a).
The canvas for this artwork is of an ephemeral nature, however, and has been preserved in
only a few cases. Mummies from Egypt as
early as 2600 B.C. have been found with tattooed skin (Bianchi 1988). A 5,000 year old
"ice man" found in a glacier in Europe had
tattoos, believed to have been a form of tribal
identification (Rubin 1988a).
The majority of the evidence for tattooing
in the past lies in the artwork and writing of
past societies and visitors to them. Historic
writings from 1200 A.D. indicate young girls
of noble families were t3ttooed at the time of
marriage on the island of Hai-Nan, near China. When the child attained puberty, there
was a feast, and pictures were tattooed on the
face representing flowers, butterflies, and insects (Hambly 192.5).
European visitors to the East and Africa
documented local body art customs from the
time of Marco Polo to the present. (Because
these records occasionally take on a censorious tone, they must be \'iewed as a biased re-
Each group purportedly sought to ally
themselves with the animal of the totem and
to claim its character-swiftness,
deadlines,
etc.
Other invertebrates served also as tattooed
totemic symbols. The Haida of northwest
Canada used the squid as a totemic animal. In
1910, a European explorer wrote that Eastern
Pacific Islanders were decorated with "faithfully rendered representations of sea urchins,
quaint zoophytes, just like plates out of a naturalist's album" (Hambly 1925).
One interesting function of tattooed images was described by Hambly (1925): tattooing
dangerous arthropods on one's body as protection from the real animals. One 19thcentury author cited by Hambly went so far as to
say that tattooing functioned primarily as an
ornamental form of "insecticide." He wrote:
The centipede was a favorite design of the
Daudai [New Guinea] women, who carried it upon their legs, but there is no evidence there of a centipede totem, and
probably the mark is a magical protection
against the bites of these creatures.
and on Indian tattooing at the turn of the century:
The Dombs of jeypur Uaipurl mark themselves with the scorpion and others apply a
design which, they say, represents an insect cut through the middle in order to render it powerless to harm them. This is ...
a case of protective magic, or possibly a
transference to the individual of any useful qualities the creature may possess ....
[In Malay] tattooing with the design of a
poisonous insect, such as the scorpion,
may in one respect be compared with the
tattooing of a totemic design, for in each
case the wearer desires to show some
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tattooist Stephane
(artist unknown).
nmount of respect nnd fenr for the animal
represented.
A~tl'.RICt\N ENTOMOLOGIST
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mains relatively unchanged (Fellman 1986).
Butterflies occasionally were included in tattoos, serving as a symbol of the powers of
transformation
and immortality
and for
beauty arising from apparent death and corruption. Dragonflies also appeared and were
used as a symbol of summer and instability.
In the late 1800s, Japan, sensitive to the
opinions of foreigners, tried to suppress tattooing (McCuallum 1988). Westerners, however, were enthralled with the colorful men
working on the wharves and in the streets,
and ambassadors and princes, as well as sailors, began to sport tattoos. It is rumored that
Prince Albert of England had a green fly tattooed on his shoulder (Ebensten 1953). Thus,
tattooing was exported to the Western world.
"Butterfly Man." Artist: Chuck
Eldridge.
Contemporary Western Tattoo
Contemporary westerners have a variety
of reasons for selecting permanent personal
Table 1. The number (percentage) of invertebrate photographs seen in 14 tattoo
magazinesa from January 1993 to May 1995 (n = 90)
Invertebrate group
Common name
Insecta
Aranea
Scorpiones
Chilopoda
Mollusca
Cnidaria
Insects
Spiders
Scorpions
Centipedes
Snails, Octopi
Jellyfish
54 (60)
24 (27)
8 (9)
Beetles
Butterflies
Dragonflies
Wasps
21 (39)
20 (37)
5 (9)
4 (7)
No. observed
(%)
2 (2)
1 (1)
1 (1)
Insect Order
Coleoptera
Lepidoptera
Odonata
Hymenoptera
Diptera
Homoptera
Flies
3 (5)
Leafhoppers, etc.
1 (2)
aTattoo World, Skin and Ink, Tattoo, and Outlaw Biker Tattoo Magazine.
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Sm:ietally sanctioned tattooing currently
practiced in some areas of the world reflects
ancient traditions of body marking. For example, in some African cultures, a child is
considered uncivilized until marked (Faris
19RR). A Maori of New Zealand without
moko (t:1£toOS) is not considered a complete
person ((;athercole 1988). The colonization
of the East often resul ted in the suppression or
discouragement of indigenous peoples' body
art systems, but some are making a comeback
as a sign of cultural pride and solidarity.
Several African populations use cicatrization (scarring) to mark bodies in elaborate
designs (Bohannan 1988). Formation of keloid scars are encouraged by putting ash into
cuts. Yoruba peoples of Africa undergo extensive scarification to create designs aesthetic
and rel.igious in content (DrewaI1988). Simple forms from na ture are combined into complex patterns.
Animals
are commonly
represented, induding the centipede and butterfly. The Tiv people of Africa admire and
scarify scorpions on men: "it never gives away
its position before it strikes; ... it is always
dangerous if disturbed" (Bohannan 1988).
In New Guinea and the nearby Menawi
Islands, several invertebrates are represented
in the traditional tattoo iconography. Samoan
tattoos are composed of traditional patterns
and symbols, some of which represent caterpillars and worms (Valen & Juno 1989).
In India, traditional tattooing still survives,
although it is waning under the influence of
westernization
(Rubin 1988b). Traditional
tattoo designs focus upon religious themes
and various natural designs, including scorpions, bees, and flies.
The art of tattoo is generally thought to
have reached its greatest height in Japan. Chinese chronides dating from 238-247 A.D. reported that "men both great and small tattoo
their faces and work designs upon their bodies," a practice uncommon in China until centuries later (Hambly 1925). Tattooing was
generally practiced only among the Japanese
lower dasses until 1805, when Suikoden, a
14th-century Chinese story, was published
(McCallum 1988). It featured a heavily tattooed band of warriors in, essentially, a
bloodier Asian version of Robill Hood.
Suikoden was immensely popular and
adapted to Kabuki. Ukiyo-e artists illustrated
the major scenes. Artisans moved from drawing on paper to skin, and the book and its
prints set a style for Japanese tatoos that re-
if the tattoo is of exceptional quality (c. Eldridge, personal communication).
In the interests of furthering science, I also
attended two tattoo conventions. Below I
present the opinions I gleaned from tattoo
artists and owners about their insect tattoos.
Client Attitudes Toward Insects
B. Valverde's chest. Artist: Juli
Moon. The right arm shows the
top of a work in progress,
featuring a large centipede and
insecs wound around the arm.
Artist: Paul Booth.
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Flock of beetles by artist Juli
Moon.
adornments. Tattooing is a matter of personal
choice only; no cultural imperative or aesthetic demands it. In fact, "inked" men and women are likely to be shunned or regarded with
suspicion. In Americar. society, about 20% of
citizens are estimated to have tattoos (Sanders
1989). In the military and some other occupations, this proportion is higher. Generally,
more men than women are tattooed (Sanders
1989).
Of this select group decorated with body
art, how many actually have insects on their
bodies? By counting the photographs in tatoo
publications, one can produce a rough estimate. The tattoo magazines available at your
average newsstand are basically picturebooks of tattoos and various tattoo competitions, with a mean of 190 photographs per
issue. Four magazines served as my sources:
Tattoo World, Skin and Ink .•Tattoo, and Outlaw Biker Tattoo Magazine. A random sample of 14 of these magazines over a 2-year
period found that 3% of the photographs
were invertebrate-related. Insects dominated,
with 60% of the photographs depicting an
insect of some sort. Of the insects seen, most
were beetles and butterflies. However, there
may be a bias in the magazines, as butterfly
tattoos on women are seen by magazine editors as a "cliche," and thus are only depicted
Clinton Sanders (1989), a sociological researcher,divided American motivations for getting a tattoo into five categories: as a symbol of
an interpersonal relationship; participation in a
group; self-identity/magicaVprotcctive significance; as a decorative/aesthetic statement; and
a representation of key interests or activities.
Individuals I interviewed fell neatly into these
motivational divisions.
Symbol of an Interpersonal Relationship.
Unfortunately, when arthropods were used in
this context, the imagery was always negative. For example, a black widow with the
face of a former girlfriend and a death's head
moth both symbolized failed relationships.
One person said his black widow tattoo symbolized the women in his life, and how they
were "nothing but poison to me in my past."
Often spiders and spiderwebs appeared in
context of sadomasochistic imagery-a spider web created out of whips, or a hapless
male nude stranded in a spider web.
Participation in a Group. A classic tattoo
icon is the spiderweb on the elbow, and extremely painful place to tattoo. It has a variety of meanings, but supposedly once
functioned to mark one as a murderer or a
"Hell's Angel" member (c. Eldridge, personal communication). One inmate said that his
spider web tattoo represented his being
"caught up in time" and the four rings on the
web represented his four years in prison (].
Marquez, personal communication). Today,
it is often used as a connecting piece between
forearm and upper arm work-it covers a lot
of space with very little ink.
Several people I talked to
chose it as a traditional tattoo
icon, an homage to earlier
tattooists of the century.
Tattoos may represent a
form of sign language by
which members of the underworld recognize each other's
specific of occupation. Often
these tattoos are applied in
prison, with hand tools and
ink from a writing pen. A butterfly or a fly is said to repre-
('111 aller~ic to bees. If I get stung by one
again I'm goin~ to die. So I thought I'd
come in here and have a big mean-looking
bee put on. I want one that has this long
stinger and these 'Iong teeth and is coming
in to land. With that, any bee would think
twice ahout messing with me.
Two people I interviewed indicated they
chose a spider tattoo as a way of overcoming
their fear of spiders. A pa ratrooper leaving for
Desert Storm got tattooed with many small,
flying insects, symbolizing their skillful flight.
Decorative/Aesthetic
Statement. Insect
tattoos arc often a small part of a larger nature scene, or decorative in nature. Butterfly
tattoo owners include actresses Drew Barrymore, Cher, and Melanie Griffith. Perry Farrel, lead singer of the band jane's Addiction,
has a large praying mantis on his shoulder. A
young woman I spoke to with lime-green hair
and multiple piercings had a 3-cm green
blowfly on her wrist: "I saw it in a Calvin and
Hobbes book and I thought it was pretty."
.J. Peterson, known as the "Butterfly Man,"
is covered literally from head to toe with butterfly tattoos. When I asked him how he felt about
bugs, he said he liked butterflies because they
"arc free, like me." His first tattoo was a butterfly, and he just kept collecting.
Representation of Key Interests or Activities. The majority of individuals I spoke to
had a special appreciation for insects. In fact,
I would have to describe several of them as
thwarted entomologists, who for various reasons pursued other career paths. One woman
said she had wanted to be an entomologist,
AMERICAN
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but did not thi nk she was good enough at "science" to succeed.
The other surprising fact I learned during
this exploration was that most individuals
with insect tattoos were women. Conventional wisdom proclaims that women are more
entomophobic than men. One woman wrote:
Dragonfly on tattooist Sara Lee's
thigh. Artist: Linda Lee Privacek.
Since I was a young girl I have been fascinated by bugs .... Included in my tattoo
collection are 7 ants, a horsefly, a bumble
bee, a scorpion, a tarantula, and a huge
centipede .... I chose insects for my tattoo collection mainly because of their
constant presence in my life and deeper
meaning of an animal connectedness I am
still discovering.
Barbara V. has a beautiful chest tattoo by
Juli Moon that depicts autumn leaves and six
different beetles, large and small, and a shoulder tattoo of a web and a spider. Also, she has
an entire sleeve of bugs in progress. She works
at a bird sanctuary and is wonderfully enthusiastic about insects:
The stuff I'm wearing isn't weird to me...
[My artistl says I'm a creepy broad but I've
alwa ys loved things that other people
think are scary.
One of the "Bug Girl's" cerambycids. Artist: Scotty Lowe.
juli Moon also is responsible for the intricate spiral of
beetles down another insect
fancier's arm. Several individuals admired dragonflies and
choose them as tattoo subjects:
I really like my dragonfly. To
me, it means the forest, it's a
symbol of the woods
dragonflies are so elegant!
To
me, Libelulas are happiness.
I admire their skillful flight
and freedom .... They are the
hardest bugs to catch, but now
I have one permanently!
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sent a burglar (Ebensten 1953). In Russia, a
beetle symbolizes a pickpocket, and insects
caught in a web mark a junkie, symbolizing
an inability to eSGlpe an addiction (Bronnikov
1993).
Self-Identity, or Magical/Protective Significance. By far, the most common arthropod
tattoos are scorpions and crabs, chosen because of the individual's astrological sign (c.
Eldridge, personal communication). The popularity of scorpions, in part, also stems from
the bad reputation of the animal.
Interestingly, the idea of magical protection from arthropods by tattooing is found in
America. One woman had a giant dust mite
tattooed on her wrist to try to repel the mites
she was allergic to. Several individuals had
large bees or wasps tattooed on them to
"scare away" an real venomous insects. Clinton Sanders (19~9) reports an interview with
a man in his twenties: .
sects. They're the most misunderstood
creatures, but I think they're cool. They can
carry a hundred times their body weight,
and their survival instincts are intense.
Peter O. has a large orb spider on his left
forearm. He says:
I decided on a spider tattoo while living
in... British Columbia .... There were a
lot of flies and mosquitoes in the place and
one of the way [sic] that they were kept
under control was by the spiders so I decided to make a piece of art out of this
much misunderstood arachnid.
Artists' Attitudes Toward Insects
They are an integral part of the island ecosystem. I have been interested in these
creatures since the first dragonfly lit on my
arm .... It is for all these biological and
spiritual observatiop.s that I am proud to
wear a permanent dragonfly.
Laurie M. has a large firefly on her back:
The lighting bug I g.ot because I was so
homesick for them when I moved to the
West Coast. I think it's tragic that people
who grew up out here have never seen
lightning bugs sparking in the summer
night.
Some quite astonishing art work belongs to
Kat, the "Bug Girl." Although not a scientist,
the Bug Girl belongs to an entomological society and is an entomological aficionado. Some
professional entomologists also sport some
highly realistic insect tattoos.
Ray P., nurse and butterfly collector, says
he is:
... not planning to stop until I'm wearing
all 250 species of butterflies known to exist in the U.S.... The beauty and freeness
of them made me start doing research on
their life cycles many years ago and what I
learned about them made me want to have
a butterfly on my torso as my first tattoo.
I counted about 13 species above the waist
on him.
Paul D. has a tattoo on the back of his leg
of the "Insect God" from a children's book by
Edward Gorey:
Insects steal this half-babylhalf-cocoon
and sacrifice it to their god. It's a creepy
figure .... I have a serious affection for in-
104
I'm creating my own symbolism, work
that means something to me.... I like
variations on a single theme; like flames,
beetles, flowers-they
look like little
icons-very symmetrical, stylized.
Other artists indicated that they like doing
custom insect work:
Are you crazy? I love doing insects-a hell
of a lot better than doing Tweety-bird on
someone's ass .... Bugs are cool. It's more
of a challenge for me [as an artist].
I've done tattoos of a squashed bug on the
bottom of a foot and a roach on someone's
ankle .... It was interesting.
Matthew Wojciechowski of Scorpion Studios in Houston was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the Egyptian scarab
god Kefra, a symbol of protection. He says he
does a lot of mantis and scarab pieces, mostly
on female clients:
They are like real monsters ... they have a
form I can play with. Sort of like aliens.
I'm also scared of bugs-it's my way of
becoming at ease with them. When they're
done with humans and take over, maybe
they will spare me. 'This human has bugs
on him-he's ok.'
Artist Stephane Chaudesaiges of Paris
(speaking to me through a helpful bilingualbystander) said he frequently tattoos insects
on clients, usually ladybugs, butterflies, and
praying mantids.
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Tattoo on an ESA member. Artist:
Marshal Bachelder.
In conversations with tattoo artists, it becomes clear that many have an appreciation
for the beauty and diversity of insect forms.
Tattoo artist Kevin Veara has developed an
elaborate style that blends insect and other
natura] forms into his own unique tattoo iconography.
In conclusion, insect tattoos seem to be on
the rise, signifying a more positive attitude
tow~ud :uthropods in a small segment of the
public. Whatever your feelings about the appropri:lteness of marking human flesh permanently, one must appreciate the beauty of
some of the artwork. A common expression in
the tattoo community is that "the ink rises up
from your soul." In other words, the inner
world becomes outer through a nonverbal,
symbolic marking. Perhaps modern tattooing
is just a mass atavistic impulse, connecting
past and present generations. Insects and other arthropods presumably will playa role in
the future tClttoo iconography of humans, as
well as the present one.
Acknowledgments
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I tbank Chuck Eldridge (Tattoo Archive Research Center. Berkeley, CAl, Tattoo Magazine,
and the National Tattoo Association for their great
helpfulness and friendliness in my quest for insect
tattoos. I also thank the many wonderful tattooed
people 1 met in person and through the mail who
were amazingly kind and patient and allowed me
to photograph
and interview them.
body: Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, CA.
Hambley, W.1925. The history of tattooing and its
signficance. Witherby, London.
McCallum, D. 1988. Historical and cultural dimensions of the tattoo in Japan, pp. 109-134.
III A. Rubin [ed.], Marks of civilization:
artistic
transformations
of the human body. Museum
of Cultural History, Los Angeles, CA.
Ruhin, A. [ed.]. 1988a. The tattoo renaissance, pp.
233-264.
Marks of civilization: artistic transformations
of the human body. Museum of
Cultural History, Los Angeles, CA.
1988b. Tattoo trends in Gujarat, pp. 141-154.
Marks of civilization: artistic transformations
of the human body. Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, CA.
Sanders, C. R. 1989. Customizing the body. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.
Vale, V. & A. Juno. 1989. Modern primitives: an
investigation of contemporary
adornment and
ritual. RE/Search #12. RE/Search Publications,
San Francisco, CA.
•
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AMFRICAN
EmOMOLOGIST
•
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G. A. Pearson is a former assistant professor
in the Department of Life Science, University of
Texas, Permian Basin, 4901 E. University, Odessa, TX 79762. Her current address is at the Department of Entomology, Box 7626, North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695.
105