ABSTRACT
Beginning in the late sixteenth century, pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land regularly took time out of their travels to get tattooed by local Christians in Jerusalem or Bethlehem. Through the examination of French, English, and German written and visual sources, this chapter explores the multiple meanings and uses of the pilgrim tattoo, which circulated in early modern Europe on the bodies of members of the upper echelons of society. It shows how pilgrims’ Holy Land tattoos served as a memorial to their pilgrimage, a safeguard for their passage home, a devotional gesture, and a powerful means of self-fashioning.
