Historic Royals with Tattoos

About this episode

This episode explores the surprising history of tattoos among historic royals and their cultural significance.

Tattoos have a long and colorful history across the world, and are an important part of many cultures. While 1 in 3 Americans have at least 1 tattoo today, western culture still sees the art form as counter culture, risque and rebellious. You might be shocked if you learned that your grandma was inked. And you certainly wouldn’t expect that prim and proper royals of the Victorian era were concealing covert tattoos under their stiff dress uniforms and frilly gowns. But in fact, a handful of trend setting Princes in the late 19th century started an aristocratic craze for secret ink. Let’s take a journey through the history of tattoo, learn how it flourished on other continents, but passed Europe by, and was then enthusiastically reintroduced. Along the way, we’ll meet several royals from history who were secretly tatted up! King Edward VII of the UK King George V of the UK Grand Duke Alexis of Russia Alfonso XIII of Spain Frederik IX of Denmark Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany King Oscar II of Sweden King Ferdinand I of Romania King George II of Greece Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria King Alexander of Yugoslavia Empress Elisabeth of Austria Princess Marie of Orléans Join me every…

People in this episode

Host: Lindsay Holiday

Topics covered

• tattoos
• royalty
• history
• Victorian era
• cultural significance
• aristocracy

Keywords

• tattoos
• royalty
• history
• Victorian era
• cultural significance
• aristocracy
• ink

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