<P> The perception that there is a marked class division on the acceptability of the practice has been a popular media theme in Britain, as successive generations of journalists described the practice as newly fashionable and no longer for a marginalised class . Examples of this cliché can be found in every decade since the 1870s . Despite this evidence, a myth persists that the upper and lower classes find tattooing attractive and the broader middle classes rejecting it . In 1969, the House of Lords debated a bill to ban the tattooing of minors, on grounds it had become "trendy" with the young in recent years but was associated with crime . It was noted that 40 per cent of young criminals had tattoos and that marking the skin in this way tended to encourage self - identification with criminal groups . Two peers, Lord Teynham and the Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair however rose to object that they had been tattooed as youngsters, with no ill effects . Since the 1970s, tattoos have become more socially acceptable and fashionable among celebrities . Tattoos are less prominent on figures of authority, and the practice of tattooing by the elderly is still considered remarkable . </P> <P> The Jesuit Relations of 1652 describes tattooing among the Petun and the Neutrals: </P> <P> But those who paint themselves permanently do so with extreme pain, using, for this purpose, needles, sharp awls, or piercing thorns, with which they perforate, or have others perforate, the skin . Thus they form on the face, the neck, the breast, or some other part of the body, some animal or monster, for instance, an Eagle, a Serpent, a Dragon, or any other figure which they prefer; and then, tracing over the fresh and bloody design some powdered charcoal, or other black coloring matter, which becomes mixed with the blood and penetrates within these perforations, they imprint indelibly upon the living skin the designed figures . And this in some nations is so common that in the one which we called the Tobacco, and in that which--on account of enjoying peace with the Hurons and with the Iroquois--was called Neutral, I know not whether a single individual was found, who was not painted in this manner, on some part of the body . </P> <P> In the period shortly after the American Revolution, to avoid impressment by British Navy ships, sailors used government issued protection papers to establish their American citizenship . However, many of the descriptions of the individual described in the seamen's protection certificates were so general, and it was so easy to abuse the system, that many impressment officers of the Royal Navy simply paid no attention to them . "In applying for a duplicate Seaman's Protection Certificate in 1817, James Francis stated that he' had a protection granted him by the Collector of this Port on or about 12 March 1806 which was torn up and destroyed by a British Captain when at sea ."' </P>

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