"Tattoo: Religion, Reality & Regret" at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The tattooed Wild West is not very common in our imagination and yet half of the men and women of that era were tattooed, as we learn from this unique exhibition currently taking place in the United States in the state of Oklahoma at the National Cow-Boy Museum- an event that will be extended throughout the month of May. Tattooing was very popular among the various Indian tribes - Mohawks, Meskwaki, Cherokee - who used it mainly for aesthetic reasons, before the influence of the Christian missionaries from the 19th century onwards made them abandon this practice. Photographs, paintings, illustrations and engravings recall the different techniques and motifs used, as well as the popularity of facial tattoos in these ethnic groups, far from the controversy they may cause today. For the record, Oklahoma was the last state in the US to lift a tattoo ban in 2006, which had been in place in the state since 1963. More info at: www.nationalcowboymuseum.org
