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Tattoo History - Jean Baptiste Cabri
Jean Baptiste Cabri
The French tattoo-exhibit Jean Baptiste Cabri was born around 1780 and died in 1822. Cabri was part of the crew on a british whale hunter that stranded on Nukaiva, the biggest of the Marquesas Islands. He was accepted by the natives, adopted their customs, let the natives tatau him and he was even allowed to marry the daughter of a chieftain.
When an european expedition came across the Marquesas he acted as a guide through the south seas for some time but the seasonal storms in the south seas had become so strong that it was impossible for Cabri to return to Nukaiva.
Cabri returned to europe with the expedition where he found an employment as a swim teacher at the naval cadets in Brasov in 1811 where he worked for six years and from 1817 on he displayed himself as savage on fairs.
With this Cabri was the first european ever to display his extensively tattooed body to the public at so called sideshows.
