The National Maritime Museum Cornwall has a major new exhibition entitled: Tattoo: British Tattoo Art Revealed.
Running from now until January 2018, the exhibition illustrates how tattoos have been used to express individual and group identity across every social class.
The exhibition includes work by the Victorian, Sutherland Macdonald, who is thought to have been exposed to the art while in the British Army. He was said to be a 'natural' who was adept in the use of Japanese hand tools ~ and Japanese tattoo styles definitely influenced his work. However, in 1894, he received a patent for his own electric tattooing machine, and he has also been credited with extending the popular shades of blues and greens, which are classics of the palates of almost all tattooists today.
Examples of his work are shown below. I only wish the photographs were in colour.
For another VV post on Victorian tattoos, see: Tattooed ~ by Royal Appointment