Olive Oatman

She was the first tattooed white woman in US history. Her tattoo was hardcore even by today’s standards: 5 vertical blue bars running from her lower lip to the base of her chin. What led a Mormon girl to do such a thing? Oliva Oatman’s story is even more interesting than the tattoo itself. In 1851, at the age of 13, Oatman and her family traveled from Illinois to California, along the way the family lost their bearings and ended up in what is now known as Arizona. Here they were attacked by Yavapai Indians, everyone died except her and her sister Mary Ann. The two sisters were taken captive by the Yavapais and became slaves for a year until they were sold to a Mohave tribe. It was this tribe who tattooed blue stones on them with dirt. Mary Ann starved to death, and Oliva continued to live with the Mohave people, who treated her as one of their own. In 1856 an army search was launched for Mary Ann and Olive Oatman who was found after two months and returned to live in white America. Oliva was psychologically devastated by the removal of her adopted tribe.