Tattoo. What a loaded word it is, rife with associations to goons, goofs, bikers, tribal warriors, carnival artists, drunken sailors and floozies. – Jon Anderson, “Epidermal Dalis,” Chicago Tribune, 6 October 1994

We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Poet at the Breakfast Table, 1872

And what is it, thought I, after all! It’s only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin. – Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

The universality of tattooing is a curious subject for speculation. – James Cook, 1779