Convict Tattoos by Simon Barnard

Author:Simon Barnard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2016-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

An instrument used to brand hands, circa 1641–51. Rather than branding an offender with a letter signifying his crime, the brand bears the royal crown and the letters ‘CR’, commemorating King Charles I. Brands, typically, were heated to burn and leave a permanent scar. In 1826, Joseph Clarke accidentally stabbed Paul Bishop in the head during a bout of drunken buffoonery at Hobart Town. Bishop died and Clarke was tried for manslaughter. He was ‘sentenced to be burnt in the hand’, and suffered a branding in the same manner as convicts branded at the Old Bailey in England.

A law passed in 1807 decreed that army deserters were to be tattooed with a ‘ D’ ‘two inches below and one inch in rear of the nipple of the left breast’. A one-inch high ‘ D’ was cut from card, and an instrument consisting of ‘six needle points fixed close together’ was used to prick around the card to a depth of one-eighth of an inch. In 1841, a British doctor suggested a tool be manufactured to speed up the ‘very painful’ process. The following year the army introduced spring-loaded brass instruments with spiked D-shaped heads. A quarter of a pound of indigo and two sticks of Indian ink were mixed with water, which was then rubbed over the wound. The humiliating mark was designed to last a lifetime, preventing deserters going undetected or re-enlisting. Offending soldiers were branded ‘ BC’, for ‘bad character’. Women found loitering around army camps could be branded, have their left arm broken or even be executed.

Branding deserters wasn’t always successful. Thomas Carey deserted on three occasions, netting three ‘ D’s. His brands may have aided in his recapture but they didn’t appear to deter him from running. In some instances the ‘ D’ was disguised. Four soldiers transported to Australia in 1844 tattooed over their brands with an appropriately patriotic Union Jack. Jeremiah Rahilly attempted to conceal his ‘ D’ with a mermaid tattoo. James Hamilton, branded twice, purported he had merely ‘tattooed himself for his own pleasure’. He was not believed.

A poorly tattooed ‘ D’ could fade or be removed. An order issued in 1851 decreed medical officers were to carry out the procedure to ensure the job well done, and a log was kept detailing deserters and the condition of their ‘ D’ tattoos. Of the estimated 1051 deserters transported to Van Diemen’s Land, 800 are recorded as branded.

Some people viewed branding as barbarous and counterproductive as a disincentive to new army recruits. Others felt it a cost-effective punishment ‘done with far less pain than is suffered by many soldiers and sailors who get themselves tattooed’. The navy, however, did not endorse branding, and not every soldier had experienced the prick of a tattooist’s needle. One British doctor wryly suggested that the community would be better served if drunkards were branded ‘ D’ instead.

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