A rare Buchanan flash art panel from the 1910s is included in “Tattoo: Identity Through Ink”, now on display at the Swedish Museum. The show explains the history of tattoos, which dates back over 7,000 years. Egyptian mummies have been found with traces of ink in their preserved skin, and Japanese clay figurines dating to 5000 BCE have been found with what appear to be tattoo-like decorations.

The exhibition pays particular attention to the Nordic origins of tattoos. The Vikings had “green lines from head to toe”, according to the earliest written descriptions in what is now Russia, although no drawings or physical evidence of Viking body art have been discovered.

While the old Norse style of tattooing has been lost in time, modern “Neo-Nordic” styles use symbolism associated with Vikings and Norse mythology, such as runes and Thor’s hammer. The exhibit points out that much of the original meanings of these ancient symbols have been bastardized in recent years by neo-Nazi and white supremacist hate groups, who have co-opted these symbols for their own purposes.

“Tattoo” spotlights a pioneering Norwegian tattoo artist, Amund Dietzel, who joined the Norwegian Navy at age 14. It is believed that he got his first tattoo at age 15, eventually most of his body became covered in ink.

He learned to tattoo at sea as a teenager. When he was shipwrecked off the coast of Quebec in 1907, aged just 16, Dietzel traveled to America where he traveled across the country playing the part of the tattooed man in circus acts.

As with most tattooed circus performers, Dietzel’s body was a form of publicity for his side business: giving tattoos to viewers after the show.

“They were pulling people through the show, and then behind the show tent, they had a little tattoo booth,” said Bray, who publishes books on the history of tattooing on his imprint. House Rake. “They did this at carnival shows across the country. It is really through the spectacle and the circus that the tattoo became popular and introduced into rural communities.

Dietzel eventually settled in Milwaukee, where he ran tattoo shops. He used what was then standard tattoo imagery of nautical themes, pretty women, and hearts with banners, and infused them with clean, bold lines and modern Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.

He became a highly influential mid-century American tattoo artist, nicknamed the “Master of Milwaukee” and the “Rembrandt of the rind”. He continued to work in Milwaukee until 1967, when the city banned tattooing.

“At least it took the city 51 years to find out they didn’t want me,” Dietzel reportedly said at the time. “Milwaukee was a very nice city.”

“Tattoo: Identity Through Ink” was developed by the Norwegian-American Museum in Vesterheim in Iowa, which put it on the road as a traveling exhibit.

The Swedish Museum of American History in Philadelphia took over the show so they could trace the importance of tattooing to Swedes. About 47% of the Swedish population is tattooedmaking it the second most tattooed country in the world, per capita, behind Italy (48%) and ahead of America (46%).

“One of the biggest things we’ve done recently for this museum is to open up our mission statement of Swedish immigration to America to different Scandinavian countries,” said curator Christopher Malone. “The fact that this exhibition has a large section dedicated to a Norwegian immigrant is the reason we chose to bring it here.”