identification

Children, indeed, may be forgotten and lost in cabs, omni-buses, stations and other conveyances or public places, or,coming to more modern times, kidnapped by gangsters.American tattoo- masters reported a brisk business in themarking of children in the spring and summer of 1932, atthe time the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped. There is awave of such tattoo- orders each time the newspapers runscare headlines about the kidnapping of a baby. Again, thereis a mild wave of tattooing the newly born babies each timethe newspapers report an accidental exchange of babies inmaternity hospitals. Charlie Wagner says that a certain ma-ternity hospital in Manhattan has been negotiating with himto tattoo all the babies there immediately after birth, toavoid the mix- up in babies so feared by mothers. A few yearsago, a certain young British countess had her two newly borntwin sons tattooed with two different marks to ensure one ofthem, older by a few minutes, his right to the ancient Scottishearldom and vast estates.

There is more of seeming justification in such cases thanin the many cases of adult tattooing- for- identification. Andyet again, even in these cases of tattooing the children, thereis much more than the" simple" and" honorable" motive ofidentification. There is the subconscious drive of incest un-doubtedly governing those parents who order tattooings ontheir children's skin. As to the results, the evil element insuch tattooings by far outweighs the identification- benefitthat may accrue in cases of kidnapping or of succession- argu-ments. What deeply- hidden fears of castration, and conse-quently of hatred for the parents, these" identification"-tat-toos may not start in the children, pursuing them far intotheir wrecked and wretched adult lives!*

* For a more detailed discussion of the castration complex and other prob-lems of the tattooed young, see Chapter IV.

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