The original tattooed lady was a victim

J. Mark Powell
jmp.press@gmail.com
Posted 5/29/19

Want a challenge? Hang out with young women sometime and see how many have tattoos. Once limited to sailors and grizzled carnival workers, tattoos—for better or worse—are now mainstream among the …

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The original tattooed lady was a victim

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Want a challenge? Hang out with young women sometime and see how many have tattoos. Once limited to sailors and grizzled carnival workers, tattoos—for better or worse—are now mainstream among the fair sex.
Olive Anne Oatman beat them by 150 years. Her standout tattoos, and the remarkable story behind them, were incredible. Here’s what happened.
The Oatmans were an Illinois farm family. There was Ma and Pa and seven children ranging in age from 17 to one. They joined some 50 fellow Mormons in the summer of 1850 and moved west. Olive was almost 13 when the little wagon train headed off down the Santa Fe Trail.
The group quickly started fighting and split in two. Olive’s father led the half that went southwest along the Rio Grande-Gila route. Pa Oatman drove them hard through blazing heat and bone dry conditions. When the others finally demanded a rest, Oatman worried his oxen would soon die. So he and his family pressed on. It was a fatal mistake.
The Oatmans had been travelling for a year when Yavapai warriors attacked them in what’s now Arizona. Olive watched in horror as her parents and four siblings were clubbed to death. Her 15-year-old brother Lorenzo was left for dead, while Olive and her 11 year-old sister Mary Anne were taken as slaves. They did the tribe’s drudgery work, such as carrying water and firewood and gathering grass and seeds. Both were often beaten. 
A year later, the girls were traded to another tribe for two horses, blankets and other trinkets. The sisters were led on foot for days to a Mohave village located in present Needles, California. But things were better this time. The Mohaves treated them well. The chief’s wife and daughter took special interest in the sisters. They were even allotted land to grow wheat, corn, and melons. It appears the girls were relatively happy.
Eventually, their assimilation reached the point where Olive and Mary Anne were given the tribe’s signature blue line tattoos on their chins. The markings were intended to identify tribal members in the afterlife.
There was a bad drought in 1853 and little Mary Anne perished. Believing she was now totally alone in the world, Olive resigned herself to spending her life with the Mohaves.
What Olive didn’t know was her brother Lorenzo had survived the attack. He’d crawled to a settlement, recovered, and spent the following years relentlessly searching for his sisters. Lorenzo wound up at Fort Yuma, where the commandant enlisted a native woman’s help. She soon learned Olive was living in the Mohave village.
On February 22, 1856, the now 18-year-old Olive was greeted with cheers as she entered the small fort. She’d been away from her own people so long, she had trouble remembering English. People in the fort were intrigued by her tales. But it was the blue tattoos on her lower face that mesmerized them. 
Olive lived with relatives in New York state and finished her education. A book based on her story, Life Among the Indians; Being An Interesting Narrative of the Captivity of the Oatman Girls, came out in 1857 and sold 30,000 copies,a best-seller for the time. 
The fame she received launched her career as a popular lecturer. People loved hearing about her dramatic adventures and learning details about the tribes she had lived among. But it was her tattoos that fascinated audiences. Victorian women simply didn’t get inked. When crowds saw the markings on her chin, they couldn’t take their eyes off them. 
Olive eventually married a rancher who became a wealthy banker. They adopted a child and lived a comfortable life near Sherman, Texas. She later developed severe chronic headaches that kept her bedridden for extended periods. Given her symptoms, she likely suffered some type of post-traumatic stress disorder. Olive died in 1903 at age 65.
Even then, people talked about her fascinating tattoos. For better or worse, the highly unusual blue lines permanently marked on her skin were the main thing people remembered about Olive Ann Oatman. Today, few folks would give them a second look.
Have comments, questions or suggestions you’d like to share with Mark? Message him at jmp.press@gmail.com.

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