How We Remember the Dead: Field Notes on the Human Memorial Tattoo

In 1891, Samuel F. O’Reilly of New York patented the first “electromotor tattooing-machine,” a modern and innovative device that revolutionized the ancient practice of tattooing and forever altered the writing of history on the body. Join Dr John Troyer as he delves into the fascinating historiographical practice of memorial tattooing, and how the human memorial tattoo is not just an image, but a narrative, establishing a new language of intelligibility between the living and the dead.

John Troyer is the former Director of the Centre for Death and Society, and a senior Lecturer in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at Bath.