Early 19th-century dragon tattoos like this one symbolized a completed voyage to the China Sea.
A special summer exhibit, “Dungeons and Dragons: Seafarers and Tattoos,” opens on Saturday, June 10 at the Lincoln County Historical Association’s Old Jail Museum on Federal Street in Wiscasset. The setting is very appropriate for this exhibit, since the seafarers adorned with tattoos were often “guests” of the jail.
Early 19th-century Wiscasset launched and welcomed ships trading cargoes around the world. Each ship’s crew bore colorful witness to their travels — often on their skin.
Today’s fascination with tattoos and body art has roots in that adventurous era of sailing ships — a time that also gave rise to the stereotype of drunken sailors. As a former docent at the Old Jail, guest curator Alice Smith Duncan knew that the rowdiest of them, finally back on shore after months at sea, wound up in the grim granite cells of Wiscasset’s prison. “The name of the popular game Dungeons and Dragons provided the key to unlocking a story I’ve wanted to tell for years,” she said.
“Just imagine nights and days at a stretch, sailors from various ships at anchor in the harbor suddenly in cells with strangers who also followed the sea,” said Duncan. “They’d pass the time by swapping tales and comparing tattoos.” Sailors’ tattoos, she said, were recorded in jailkeepers’ records as identifying characteristics.
A dozen text panels, illustrated with colorful period images from museums and personal collections, recount anecdotes and antecedents of historic tattoos and the earliest tattoo artists. Tours of the cells themselves highlight every visit.
The Old Jail is open to visitors on Saturdays and Sundays, from June 3 to Oct. 1, from noon-4 p.m. Visitors are welcome to picnic on the lawns, enjoy the six-acre property, and take in views of the Sheepscot River.
For directions and additional information on this exhibition and about Lincoln County Historical Association and its three historic properties, go to lincolncountyhistory.org.
