THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Several of the men had undergone traditional Tahitian tattooing over large parts of their body, particularly on their buttocks. In Tahitian tradition, a man was not eligible to marry unless he had undergone the lengthy and painful operation of having his entire backside blacked over.  Bligh left descriptions only of the mutineers, and with one exception (John Mills, the Scottish gunner’s mate) every one of them was tattooed, and usually “very much tatowed” or “tatowed in several places”.

Alexander/Bounty

We are reminded of the tattoo artist’s myth of the fox hunt, in which a man’s back is completely covered with hunters and hounds pursuing a fox whose tail is disappearing up the man’s anus. No one has actually seen the fox hunt, but there is always a friend who has.

Di Lauro/Stag