In celebration of this February’s LGBTQIA+ History month.
As a part of LGBTQIA+ History Month, which is celebrated every February, in this Artworks from History segment we will be looking at how tattoos, and art generally, can provide us with a few key insights into the history of the LGBTQIA+ community. Though, before we begin it is perhaps best that we briefly explore what LGBTQIA+ History Month is, how it came to emerge and why it is important.
Firstly, we ought to acknowledge that not everyone wants to have a ‘month’ assigned to them. ‘BlackHistory Month is an insult. You’re going to relegate my history to a month?’ Morgan Freeman once stated in a 2023 interview with the Sunday Times. ‘Also, ‘African American’ is an insult... I don’t subscribe to that title. Black people have had different titles all the way back to the n-word and I do not know how these things get such a grip, but everyone uses ‘African American’. What does it really mean? Most Black people in this part of the world are mongrels. And you say Africa as if it’s a country when it’s a continent, like Europe.’ He added. For millennia, history was a subject that focused upon the life and times of ‘great white men’
Some people, whether they are from a minority group or not, also believe that the good intent that helped to lay the foundations of the likes of the LGBTQIA+ and Black History Months has been replaced by corporate greed. ‘Corporations are painting rainbows on everything and are throwing extravagant Pride parties, but are they really showing up for the LGBTQIA+ community? This seemingly harmless act, often touted as ‘supporting the cause,’ subtly benefits the corporations more than it does the community’ Medium Magazine columnist Nathan Chen wrote (an argument that has also been put forward by a few of my own friends). Though, it is fair to say that not everyone endorses Freeman’s viewpoint and even if elements of corporate world are exploiting such months for their own gain, it is arguable that months such as these are still necessary.
For millennia, history was a subject that focused upon the life and times of ‘great white men’ (I heard this phrase a lot during university although it was never established who said it). In other words, if you were not some noble King, Emperor, lawmaker, or heroic warrior, then you were left out of the history books. It would not be until the likes of Howard Zinn came along in 1980, with his pioneering work, A People’s History of the United States, that other people, such as women, black people, and the working classes, had any sort of significant mention in the historical record.
Though, even then the LGBTQIA+ community was left out. It was not until Rodney Wilson, a Missouri high school teacher, began to advocate for the inclusion of the then LGBT community within our history books that the LGBTQIA+ History Month came into being. So, whenever someone says, ‘why isn’t there a white history month?’ Well, that’s because there has been one every month for the past two thousand years.
The truth is there has always been an LGBTQIA+ community, so there has always been a history there. The ‘Warren Cup’ found in Palestine, for instance, dating from the year 10 A.D. depicts two male lovers. Yet there has always been women and black people, but, like the LGBTQIA+ community, this does not mean to say that their history has been recorded. Indeed, it is rather infuriating that such ignorance has resulted in scant historical records, which has meant that we know very little about what minority groups experienced throughout human history.
Of course, some great LGBTQIA+ history books have now been written, most of which focus upon the LGBTQIA+ movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (for a more comprehensive timeline however, I recommend A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity
Across the World - did you know for instance that the Roman Emperor Hadrian was openly bisexual?). Aside from literature however, one of the most powerful mediums that we can use to explore the past is art. I mean, it would be a bit strange if I kept talking about old books and not artworks, it is Art Etceteta after all.
Though, whilst there are some great artworks out there that can inform us about the history of the LGBTQIA+ community, such as the Warren Cup mentioned earlier, it is perhaps a good idea if we focus upon tattoos. This is not only because this is an ‘ink’ themed edition, but since the very nature of these artworks seem to epitomise the LGBTQIA+ community’s fight against prejudice in general - strong statements that are frequently used to form the basis of someone’s identity.
Transforming negative labels into positive statements:
The reclamation of hateful words, signs and symbols has been a huge part of the LGBTQIA+ movement over the past few decades - in which tattoos have played a significant role.
People within the LGBTQIA+ community have consistently been labelled in derogatory terms for centuries, particularly during the 1800s and 1900s. Words such as ‘Queer’ and physical tags, such as that of the Nazi’s Pink Triangle, for instance, were negative labels and statements that were used to stigmatise millions of those within the LGBTQIA+ community. Yet over the past few decades, the community has been reclaiming some of these words, signs, and symbols to use as a force for positive change. Indeed, just as the word Queer is now an official gender (literally the ‘Q’ in the LGBTQIA+), so too did those in LGBTQIA+ community during the 1980s tattoo themselves with the pink triangle that the Nazis once used to shame them.
As discussed, the 1950s and 1960s were dangerous times for those in the LGBTQIA+ community. So, to keep under the radar, some lesbians in the U.S. began to tattoo nautical stars on their wrists. Unfortunately, the police soon got word of this new trend, but many got around this by having it tattooed on their ankles instead. Around this time, a similar movement also emerged in the Middle East, where feminist lesbians tattooed themselves with double-faced axes, known as the Labrys. Interestingly, these were thought to symbolise the ancient matriarchal culture of Sumer (modern day Iraq) and subsequently were worn to represent female independence and determination.
In more recent times, tattoos have been used by those both inside and outside of the LGBTQIA+ community, in a manner akin to the Pink Triangle, to represent atrocities. The Rainbow Pulse tattoo for instance is sometimes worn in memory of those who were killed in the Pule Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in 2016. Yet as well as being a form of remembrance, this particular tattoo has evolved in the eight years since the shooting. Now it is also worn by many to represent strength and survival – attributes that doubtlessly encapsulate a community that has had to fight so hard to just be here.
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