Slide 1 of 11,

A photograph from 1899 shows a sailor getting tattooed aboard the U.S.S. Olympia.

Skin and Bones: Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor, at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, is a revealing exhibition about how sailors became the carriers and creators of tattoo culture. The modestly sized but ambitious show includes objects from the archives of the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington, Ind., and the Whitney Museum as well as from the museums own collection.