In 1991, 21 percent of Americans had tattoos. In 2015, scientific re-assessment of the age of the two oldest known tattooed mummies identified Ötzi as the oldest example then known.

As a result, the demand for tattoos and artists grew immensely. Preserved tattoos on ancient mummified human remains reveal that tattooing has been practiced throughout the world for many centuries.

While wartime America was keen on tattoos, in less-wealthy urban districts and overseas the art was mostly confined to a small clientele. Early History of Tattoos in America Towards the end of the 19th century, tattoos were widely considered taboo in America. Working class men in Europe and America wore tattoos primarily as a symbol of tough masculine pride throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The logo of one of the oldest, most famous and successful department stores in America was actually inspired by a tattoo. Like most aesthetic trends, tattooing didn't make its way to rural America quickly. But would-be sailors with tattoos of naked women weren't allowed into the navy and tattoo artists clothed many of them with nurses' dresses, Native-American costumes or the like during the war. Ancient and traditional practices. Small-town introductions to body ink came via the circus, where those with body art were billed as bizarre attractions. 14 years later, this number doubled to 40 percent Tattoos were no longer associated with particular subcultures or fringe classes of society. Socialite Ward McAllister had this to say about them: “It is certainly the most vulgar and barbarous habit the eccentric mind of fashion ever invented.