TATOWIREN, NARBENZEICHNEN UND KORPERBEMALEN

FIRST EDITION, [1], VIII, 128pp., 11 chromolithograph plates, 1 photogravure plate, 30 zinc etchings after original drawings, ownership inscription to front free endpaper, original cloth backed printed boards, corners slightly worn, top board slightly toned, folio (380x260mm), Berlin; for A. Asher & co., 1887

 “that there is no people, no tribe in the world, among whom the painting or tattooing of the body was not or is not a custom.”/“dass es kein Volk, keinen Stamm in der Welt giebt, bei dem das Bemalen oder Tätowiren des Körpers nicht eins Sitte war oder noch ist.” – Joest

A Scarce First Edition of the fundamental work on tattooing by the ethnologist and natural scientist Wilhelm Joest (1852-1897). He produced this work after travelling extensively through Asia from 1879-1881, spending considerable time in Japan. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Joest didn’t limit his understanding of tattoos to “degenerates and criminals” but instead focused on cultural practice. Joest took a neutral, scientific approach that values these body techniques and their origins as an important part of the culture of the respective society, which always sought a connection with European forms of body modification, painting, and tattooing. Joest not only encountered tattooing partially within the context of a broader engagement with a particular ethnic group, but also produced the first monographic writings on this cultural practice. Joest, himself, had been tattooed during his stay in Japan.

“An extensive treatise on tattooing and flesh-colouring, showing that the practice is widely spread and belongs to all ages. Much reference to New Zealand, and Polynesia generally, its method, and examples, also of carving in wood” (Hocken)

[Taylor, Pacific Bibliography, 51 and 81; Hocken 380]