MALE ACTORS TATTOO INDEX

Celebrity Actors Index - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z  

The surge of interest in tattoos and body art in mainstream popular culture during the modern era can be traced, in part, directly back to the the 1970's and 1980's when a number of high profile male celebrities in the arts displayed their tattoos with no hesitation. In fact, in the case of musicians, it might even be considered an essential part of their stage persona. Between the turn of the century and the 1960's, tattoos were largely considered a male pursuit and activity and perhaps less than ten percent of the general population was tattooed (Life Magazine estimates were 6% in 1936). Tattooing was largely a fringe activity carried out within specific cultural groups with society and body art was closely associated with members of the armed services, particularly in the Navy, primarily ordinary seaman or sailors and Marines, sailors in the merchant marine and working class men. Tattoos were also associated to some extent with darker fringe elements of modern culture, including men who had been incarcerated within correctional facilities and prisons, and as badges of membership within organizations considered to have criminal overtones such as "biker gangs".

Tattoo artists were primarily located in towns with large numbers of military personnel, boot camps and ports, and tattoos were often associated with the world of circuses and sideshows. On the East Coast and West Coast of the United States, two mainstays of tattooing until the modern era were the Coney Island and The Pike Amusement Parks, respectively. Both were similar in that they were enormous entertainment venues that drew crowds and attendance figures that numbered in the millions during any given year. The booths and the attractions and rides at both venues added to the circus-like atmosphere and they were wildly popular entertainment for the young at heart, servicemen on leave, and working class public.

Actors like Robert Mitchum and Sean Connery were men who made a career playing hard-bitten tough guys, and both had tattoos from their youth. Actors with working class backgrounds or who had served in the military were far more likely to have tattoos than other members of Actors Equity. During the social revolution of the sixties and the rise in the popularity of rock and roll music, increasing numbers of performers expressed their independence from the mainstream by acquiring body art. The cross-over between the entertainment worlds of music and film meant that there was a powerful cross pollination. In films and television themselves, tattoos on actors were generally covered up, unless you were a character actor, like Danny Trejo in any number of films, or cast members of shows like OZ -- think Evan Seinfeld. Conversely, many characters in films had elaborate fake tattoos to flesh out their characters. Robert Mitchum's "Love and Hate" knuckledusters in Cape Fear and Rod Steiger in the "Illustrated Man". Today, no edgy, hip young actor would be caught dead without a little soul-searching body art.

Celebrity Actors Index - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z