“I have made a small study of tattoo marks…”

By Mark Alberstat

Jabez Wilson, in “The Adventure of the Red Headed League,” had a fish tattoo on his right wrist. Today, Sherlockians are showing their love of the Canon by wearing it proudly on their skin. This three-page pictorial is just a small sampling of Sherlockian tattoos.

This shoulder tattoo is owned by Wendy Heyman-Marsw, creator of Canadian Holmes’s From Mrs. Hudson’s Kitchen column. The typeface is Baskerville. The “Sherlock Lives” message is Wendy’s firm conviction of the statement: “The man who never lived and will never die.” The tattoo was done by Tyson Ward of Passage Tattoo in Toronto.
	This tattoo is on the right shoulder of Monica Schmidt. The fingerprints are Monica’s own, and the pipe is the Sherlock Holmes model from Peterson. The signature is taken from Holmes’s own signature in the Brett adaptation of Wisteria Lodge. This design is protected under copyright.

	Tiffany French is the owner of two Sherlockian tattoos. The shoulder tattoo’s Excelsior motto is from “The Creeping Man” while The Dancing Men font tattoo spells out “irregular.”

	This tattoo not only reminds us of the famous Baker Street address but is a nice pun on Holmes’s retirement pursuit of bee keeping. This address is on the arm of Courtney Powers.
Lorelei Hoffman of Niagara Falls sports this jaunty deerstalker on her left forearm. The image was done by Curt Montgomery of Toronto. Lorelei is a university student in Toronto majoring in English.

	Showing her arm strength and her love of Sherlock is Laura Schulte. Saying that the skull is a timeless tattoo theme and being a fan of Sherlock, artist Paul Sutton combined the best of both worlds.

	This stylized skull and cross bones tattoo is on the shoulder of Elana Mayer. The bones represent Sherlock Holmes by being displayed as a magnifying glass and pipe while the crow reminds us of Edgar Allan Poe’s influence on Conan Doyle.
Katrina Ohelmacher has this original Norbury tattoo, which is in her own handwriting. “Lacking a Watson of my own,” says Katrina, “I got the tattoo to remind myself to be diligent in all things and not get too far ahead of myself.”

The above article appears in Canadian Holmes, Volume 39 Number 3 – Summer 2016.