20 Amazing Vintage Portrait Photos of Women With Full Body Tattoos

Tattoos have a long and culturally significant history—being used as a sign of initiation, association, clan, tribe, ownership, or sexual and personal liberty.

The first recorded woman tattooist was Maud Wagner, who was said to have traded a date with her future husband to learn the craft of tattooing. In the 1920s, full body tattoos were popular, but their charm was lost during the 1930s Depression, only to re-emerge during the late 1940s to 1960s, when they were seen as a symbol of outsider status.

These amazing vintage photographs show tattooed women from early in the 1900s to 1960s.