Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads “We’ve had glimpses of this sort of unofficial history within the official history, but no one had ever talked about it,” Boyle says. When Sgt John Spence signed up on 29 July 1915, the officer noted six tattoos: an eagle and Australian flag on his back, the Australian coat of arms on his chest, “Advance Australia” on his left arm and “unity” on his right – as well as a swallow on both. The enlistment papers of servicemen attest to how many had tattoos, Boyle says, because the medical officer assessing their fitness for duty would note any distinguishing marks such as appendix or smallpox vaccination scars – including tattoos. Australian soldiers use an electric needle for tattooing on board their ship bound for Egypt during the first world war.
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