Sutherland Macdonald, The pioneering tattoo artist of the Victorian era.
Photograph of Sutherland taken in January 1895
Born in 1860 in Leeds, England, in the heart of the Victorian era, Sutherland MacDonald established himself as a highly esteemed tattoo artist towards the end of the 19th century by opening the very first tattoo parlor on a public street in 1894.
He was therefore one of the pioneers to offer his services as a professional tattoo artist in London, while this practice had already been common in Asia and the Middle East for a long time.
He is credited with a very particular feat: he allegedly tattooed King George V (when he was "simply" Duke of York), but this seems unlikely. It seems more probable that George V brought his tattoo back from a trip to Japan around the 1880s.
Sutherland discovered tattooing after his service in the British army in the 1870s, during which time he worked as a telephone operator for the Royal Engineers in present-day South Africa.
He started by using manual tools before moving on to a revolutionary invention in our trade: the electric machine! (patented in 1894). Sutherland is also considered a pioneer in the use of colors in tattooing, even if these black and white photos do not necessarily do justice to this part of his work.
Many tributes have been paid to his exceptional career, notably in 2016 at the Museum of London where some of his creations are exhibited in the Tattoo London exhibition:
"Tattooing was around in the 16th century, but it was much more ad hoc, people weren't walking in and paying for a tattoo as a commodity until the late 19th century [before Sutherland's practice]," tattoo historian Dr. Lodder said (to the Independent newspaper in an article about the exhibition in question).
He died in June 1942 on the outskirts of London at the age of 82 after a more than respectable career spanning over 40 years. He has since unfortunately fallen into obscurity with the general public despite his crucial role in the rise of tattooing in England and throughout Europe.
It is important to add a more than honorable mention for his contemporaries George Burchett and Tom Riley who also contributed to the culture and history of tattooing.
