Tattoos of Indians (indigenous peoples of the New World) tend to focus on bust portraiture of various Plains Indians groups, notable for their FEATHER headdresses. Whether these images draw on well-known Western art images (such as James Fraser’s famous statue End of the Trail, with the emaciated HORSE mounted by an exhausted Indian brave, both with heads drooping low) or are generic representations of ”American Indians,” they arc romanticized attempts to depict the heroic and tragic struggle of these indigenous peoples to maintain their cultures and even just to survive. They are often intended as poignant and patriotic symbols, and it is ironic that these indigenous peoples did not use portraiture in their own tattoo artwork. Instead their images have been co-opted and incorporated into an Americana of which they were not necessarily willing participants.
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