The first known professional tattoo artist in the United States was Martin Hildebrandt, a German who immigrated to Boston in 1842. He was the most sought-after body artist of the U.S. Civil War. He traveled across the North and the South, tattooing countless soldiers on both sides of the conflict. But Hildebrandt wasn’t the only tattoo artist working in the U.S. at this time. Artists flocked to Washington, D.C. to capitalize on the thousands of soldiers stationed in the city.
