THE SACRED AND PROFANE TATTOOS: OF THE HOLY HOUSE OF LORETO (Echoes of Italy: Classical Italian Narratives of the 19th Century, Translated)

Human skin, understood as a symbolic surface and a living archive, constitutes the point of departure for the investigation conducted by Caterina Pigorini Beri, whose work on the tattoos of the Holy House of Loreto stands as one of the earliest and most significant examples of Italian proto-ethnography. Inserted within the broader framework of Costumi e superstizioni dell’Appennino marchigiano (1889), the study documents a practice both widespread and deeply rooted among the populations of the Piceno area, observed with scientific rigor yet interpreted through an anthropological sensitivity that transcends the positivist paradigms of its time.

The author begins from an empirical observation: the widespread use of tattooing among the lower classes, particularly peasants, sailors, and artisans, who bore on their bodies turquoise-blue markings, most often visible on the forearms. These signs, apparently simple, in fact constitute a complex symbolic system: crosses, instruments of the Passion, pierced hearts, amorous mottos, dates, and sacred figures combine into a visual grammar that merges religious devotion, personal identity, and emotional memory.

The core of the work lies in demonstrating that the so-called “Loreto tattoo” is not a marginal or degenerative phenomenon, as argued by Lombrosian criminal anthropology, but rather a practice deeply integrated into the spiritual and social life of these communities. Within a context marked by precariousness, mobility, and constant risk—travel, maritime labor, warfare—the tattoo assumes both a mystical and a pragmatic function: it becomes an “indelible sign” of Christian belonging, a veritable passport to eternity, capable of ensuring recognition and burial in consecrated ground.

Alongside its sacred dimension, a profane component develops without ever being severed from religiosity. Love tattoos—intertwined hearts, doves, naïve inscriptions—represent emotional vows pronounced before the sanctuary; funerary tattoos—skulls, crossed bones, formulas such as Memento mori—translate mourning into permanent memory. In both cases, the body becomes a space of inscription, where emotion and faith converge seamlessly.

Particular importance is given to the technical description of the practice. Tattoos were executed by the marcatori, local craftsmen who used engraved wooden matrices and rudimentary multi-pointed tools to inoculate soot-based pigments into the skin. The author directly documents these instruments, eventually assembling a significant collection, and proceeds to a systematic cataloguing of 104 iconographic motifs, classified according to thematic domains and religious influences.

The work thus acquires a dual value. On the one hand, it constitutes a material and iconographic archive of a tradition destined to disappear under the pressure of hygienic regulations and modernization; on the other, it represents a theoretical stance against the reduction of tattooing to a mark of deviance. Pigorini Beri restores dignity to a practice interpreted as an authentic expression of popular faith, defining it as a true “mystical institution” and a collective rite of passage.