Martin Hildebrandt

Martin Hildebrandt, sometimes recorded as Hilderbrandt, was a German immigrant to the United States and is generally recognized as the first professional tattoo artist in the US. He set up a tattoo shop in New York City in 1846 where he tattooed soldiers on both sides of the civil war and worked on a number of tattooed attractions, most notably his daughter, Nora Hildebrandt. He was committed to an asylum in 1885.