Contour makeup: the history of the art of underwear

Taisiya Milic , Head of the Specialized Curriculum Development Department of the International Association of Permanent Makeup Professionals, Member of the European Research Association of Educational Psychologists ScienceInternational School of Practical Pedagogy (ISPP)

Art with history (continued, start here )

Continuing the topic of tattoo development, in this article we will dive into the history of the spread of this art in the world and begin to consider the emergence of such a direction as contour makeup. On the road, dear colleagues!

So, having crossed the line of a thousand-year culture of the art of underwear drawing, we are very close to the history of our days. Decorating yourself with pictures is a rather lengthy and painful occupation, drawings were once applied by hand and looked rather primitive, it was painful and long ... But, as you know, laziness is the engine of progress and all inventions of mankind are aimed at simplifying and facilitating difficult tasks.

In 1876, the brilliant inventor Thomas Edison created a pneumatic stencil pen. This machine used a steel tip for perforating paper (for the printing process). This invention was important in its own right as one of the first devices that could efficiently copy documents. The miracle pen saved the “office plankton” of that time from constant copying from one piece of paper to another.

In 1891, tattoo artist Samuel O'Reilly received the first patent for a tattoo machine - a device that was allegedly based on Edison's invention and became the prototype of modern tattoo machines.

O "Reilly, apparently, made only one machine for personal use, since no records of it have survived anymore. But a start had been made. Until the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, a tattoo in Europe was not yet regarded as a wearable decoration and had exclusively identification or entertainment functions.

Tattoo as body decoration

The value of a tattoo as an ornament will be revealed to Europe only after establishing close contacts with the culture of the Far East. When the Prince of Wales in 1881 in Japan got a dragon tattoo by a prominent local artist (hori), "artistic tattoo" immediately became fashionable in high society.

It was the era of fashion for everything Japanese, so the Japanese tattoo received an instant response in Europe. In all countries, especially in the UK, tattoo parlors were hastily opened. Almost every British port in the 19th century had professional tattoo artists. Masters of drawing on the body turned to the art of the Far East and created unique aesthetic compositions.

From Great Britain, the fashion for general tattooing first moved to Germany, Holland and Scandinavian countries (but was much less common in Spain, Austria, Belgium, France and Italy), and then reached the United States. With the invention of the electric tattoo machine, artistic tattooing became a highly profitable business that continues to thrive to this day.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Russian aristocracy also had a fashion for tattoos with Japanese motifs. Believe it or not, Nicholas II also had a drawing of a dragon on his shoulder.

Tattoo as a distinctive sign

Going back a little, I want to draw your attention to the fact that Peter I introduced mandatory tattooing of soldiers. During recruitment, a cross was cut out on the soldier’s wrist, into which a mixture of coal-based smoke powder was rubbed, and the wrist was bandaged. They also pinned the personal number of each soldier. Thanks to this, it was not difficult to recognize the deceased and identify the deceased on the battlefield. Later, the practice appears to indicate a regiment or branch of service with a tattoo.

Accordingly, people of the upper classes who chose the path of tattooing, contrary to social and religious prohibitions, did so as a ritual violation of the norm adopted in their modern society. As for the lower strata of society, the tattoo has become part of the everyday life of not only the lower army ranks, but also sailors, criminals and others. Travelers who have been to other countries and seen a lot, it was easier to get tattoos than their compatriots who preferred a sedentary lifestyle. So, at the beginning of the 19th century, Fyodor Tolstoy, one of the most controversial representatives of the Russian aristocracy, begged a Polynesian artist (in exchange for two axes) to make him a pectoral drawing.

By the end of the same century, Russian convicts exiled to Sakhalin created a tradition of decorating their bodies with "Sakhalin pictures", for the first time fixing the connection between tattoos and prison life.

In 1906, the first artistic tattoo parlor was opened in St. Petersburg. The art of drawing on the body was gaining momentum. But it all ended in 1917 with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks. The tattoo was called a harmful relic of the tsarist regime. In Soviet Russia, a closed directive of the Cheka was issued, ordering to shoot all people with a tattoo.

The ban on tattooing bypassed only the sailors. Respectable Soviet sailors and soldiers fearlessly wore their tattoos, not trying to destroy them as "criminal" signs. The traditional Soviet tattoo includes an army tattoo (a tattoo with a branch of service, a year of service and an indication of a military unit, blood type, a bullet with a target) and a marine tattoo (an image of an anchor, a seagull, just a marine motif).

Tattoo as a hobby

Despite the prohibitions, in the pre-war USSR, underground “body painting” began to flourish. With the help of skin prison cryptography, imprisoned experts could transmit and receive any information. Beginning in the 1930s, law enforcement agencies closely studied the tattoos of the underworld. Specialized catalogs of prisoner tattoos were created.

Tattoos were also in use in those areas of Soviet life where there was a connection with rates, races (jockeys, grooms, etc.). However, here, too, the drawing on the body hinted at the "imprisonment" in places not so remote. As a result, very soon the tattoo became a sign of a "convict", regardless of whether the owner of the tattoo was actually in prison.

But already from the 70s of the XX century, when Western culture nevertheless began to seep through the Iron Curtain, and until the 90s, tattoo culture was born, first among young people, people from a bohemian environment, informal associations, etc. Then The tattoo has become a mass hobby, right up to the present day.

You can endlessly describe different styles, types, forms, purpose of the tattoo. One thing unites them: they are an amazing world that does not tolerate hack-work, art, unfortunately, is temporary, where everyone wears their own gallery ...

I don't want to be like you

The inhabitants of the gray row ...

My self appears on the skin ...

My thoughts on the skin are full of ...

Where is the threshold of minor pain

Will draw a line into a certain symbol ...

I don't have willpower...

Yes, I'm addicted to tattoos...

Taisiya Milic, 2012