Sutherland Macdonald

❧

Wikipedia

Sutherland Macdonald
In The Sketch, 23 January 1895
Born(1860-06-25)25 June 1860
Boundary Terrace, Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Died18 June 1942(1942-06-18) (aged 81)
Surbiton, London, England
Burial placeSurbiton Cemetery
OccupationTattoo artist
Spouse(s)Sophia Weedon Annie Caroline Mayne (M:1887)
Amy Mary Keen (M:1934)
Parents
  • Robert Macdonald (1821/2–1898) (father)
  • Elizabeth Mitchell Macdonald (1821–1893) (mother)

Sutherland Macdonald (1860–1942) was a prominent English tattoo artist in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and the first tattooist in Britain with an identifiable premises open to the public. After a start, tattooing mainly soldiers, at his Victorian Turkish baths in Aldershot, he was appointed Stewart at the London Hammam in Jermyn Street.[1] Soon he was tattooing there in the basement, and later in a roof-top studio specially built for him. Listed in the 1894 London Post Office Directory, he is considered the first person to offer a professional tattoo service in London, although the practice was already popular in Japan and the Middle East prior to that time.[2] He was erroneously said to have tattooed kings and princes, including George V when he was Duke of York.[3]

Life and career

Sutherland Macdonald was born in Boundary Terrace, Leeds on 25 June 1860. He served in the British Army in the 1870s as a telegraph operator in the Royal Engineers and was in the Anglo-Zulu War.[4]

In addition to artistic designs, he also performed color blending on skin grafts of accident victims.[5]

He died on 18 June 1942 at his home on 3 Guilford Avenue, Surbiton, and is buried at Surbiton Cemetery.[4]

Legacy

On 29 January 2016, the Museum of London opened a display which included some of his work called Tattoo London.[6]

Tattoos by Sutherland Macdonald, circa 1905:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Shifrin, Malcolm (2015). Victorian Turkish baths. Swindon: Historic England. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-84802-230-0.
  2. ↑ "The man who started the tattoo craze in Britain is coming to a museum near you". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  3. ↑ Barker, Dudley (23 February 1937). "This Tattooing Business". Evening Standard. No. 35, 098. London, England. p. 7. Retrieved 28 August 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 Lodder, Matt. "Macdonald, Sutherland". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/100996. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ↑ Written at London. "Tattoo Needle 'Darns Socks'". Sunday News. Vol. 13, no. 10. Lancaster, Pennsylvania. UP. 17 November 1935. p. 49. Retrieved 28 August 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Incredible ink". The Independent on Sunday. No. 1, 349. London, England. 10 January 2016. p. 3. Retrieved 28 August 2023 – via Newspapers.com.