How an Irishman's Tattoo Changed History

Ah, coming home after being enslaved since your late teens only to have your own society condemn you as satanic for what they did to you and then be forced to headline a traveling freakshow until you died. No matter where you go, the tattoos always speak first.
This is the (self-told, probably exaggerated for circus reasons) story of P.T. Barnum's original freak success story. James O'Connell, America's first tattooed man.
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Thanks for watching! You're clearly one of the good ones.

[@RareEarthSeries]

Join the circus: www.patreon.com/rareearth ko-fi.com/rareearth

[@RenayEmond]

💯Thanks for sharing That AWESOME GROVE🕺💃 ✊🏽🇨🇦❤🙏

[@longhairdontcare122]

I have so many questions about the left testicle.

[@JaykPuten]

So uh, Evan.... Can we get your interpretive dance of the Bower wars? In a KZbin short?

[@connarcomstock161]

"He started dancing back" Yet again, the Bard saves the day.

[@lukeamato423]

The first danceoff

[@lukeamato423]

The first danceoff

[@meisteremm]

After hearing all of this, I am just left wondering what the Irishman's Micronesian wife told their kids after he left them all. She couldn't even use the excuse of "Dad's just out getting milk from the store, he'll be back soon," since the store didn't even fucking exist yet.

[@TheRealSkeletor]

Captured by invaders, I should think.

[@lesliespeaker668]

She probably got a new tattoo explaining all this as well as her kids. So no need to tell anybody about this, people could just look at them and know.

[@drpancake4103]

He's Irish, sure he's just gone for a pint. His kids were part Irish sure they instinctively know that already, no need to say anymore 🍻

[@KyrosX27]

whatever equivalent of the store was back then, I'm sure the king owned it lol

[@meisteremm]

@KyrosX27 "King's Taro and Yam: The best around!"

[@ClevelandGod]

Sorry for the wall of text: I have written a few Wikipedia pages on countries / extremely interesting people from countries that aren't well documented. I had the task of writing up more about FSM a few years back and couldn't find anything extremely interesting outside of the usual coverage like diving in Truk lagoon (ik you did that). As someone who probably knows more about FSM than 99% of people outside of the country this entire series has blown me away. I am unsure how you could research stories like this that have "literally" never been told before on the world wide web. I know it isnt safe but there are some seriously compelling pieces to be about French West Africa (Burkina Faso etc). IF youre interested I could help get your feet wet in the subject matter! Have a great day. P.S. I think the titles and thumbnails could use some work because you should be smashing the piss out of the YT algorithm!

[@maf654321]

Lived and worked in Burkina for ~2 years and agree, there are loads of fascinating stories there but yeah, it’s *extremely* not safe currently. Even Ouaga and Bobo aren’t that safe anymore, and going nearly anywhere outside of those as a civilian westerner is just asking to be kidnapped, sadly.

[@malahammer]

Another incredible obscure story from the middle of nowhere. Keep finding and telling them Evan. From Dublin, Ireland.

[@MrPohnpeiboy]

Hey I grew up on phonpei! So cool that you're checking the island out, so many memories 🥰

[@comlitbeta7532]

Name checks out

[@trieuwerts]

Evan, it's a shame you didn't link the original manuscript written by James O'Connell, because it's quite interesting how he describes his experiences with the natives and the whole process off tattooing. According to him it took eight whole days to finish tattooing him, and it took a month before he recovered.

[@jedgarren2901]

I LOVE me some Rare Earth, I tell everyone about this filmmaker

[@williampangelinan1266]

In pohnpei the castration of the left testicle was the punishment for male who feared getting tattoed because tattoos served as their version of social security. It so people know who you are. Or so i was told. Great vid i heard of the story just didn't know the details

[@sirajnakhuda5446]

Hi Evan, I've truly enjoyed your stories exploring the small islands of the Pacific! Your narratives are captivating, and I've been inspired by the way you bring these places to life. Have you ever considered exploring and sharing the stories from the Caribbean's islands. There's a world of untold tales waiting to be discovered here. Your storytelling talent would beautifully unveil the hidden treasures looked over region. Looking forward to more amazing stories from you!

[@RareEarthSeries]

I'd love to, given the time and funding.

[@kalrandom7387]

Nice, as soon as you said PT Barnum I knew it had to be the tattooed man. I didn't know the whole story, that was fantastic, thank you.

[@troyclayton]

I'm so glad you're posting regularly again. Your stories are always though provoking. Thank you.

[@Aeonshield]

Leave it to my kinsman to get a tattoo he doesn't rally want.

[@dogchaser520]

Wonderful little story. Thanks. Always happy when I see one of these roll through. (Though strangely, I had to seek it out by opening subs. Subscriptions are giving increasingly reduced weight in the main feed.)

[@MisterMakerNL]

Am I the only one who always pauses the end credits and reads them :)?

[@allein1001]

Nope!

[@2Links]

Definitely not! One of the best parts, and that's saying a lot.

[@jamesgrigsby3971]

Absolutely not

[@spugintrntl]

Same here

[@jaywitt5171]

Guilty here - but don't forget to watch the final clip after the credits.

[@jabbman42]

I cannot express how much I loved this video. After living in Pohnpei for 5 years, I have so many stories I like to share with people. This video captures familiar images and presents it in such a unique visual way. Great work!

[@kennethtan6403]

Much Love from the Philippines❤.

[@Silverizael]

I'm surprised James F. O'Connell doesn't have a Wikipedia article. The existing article by that name is an unrelated professor. And there seems to be plenty of in-depth coverage of O'Connell's life. I might need to fix that discrepancy.

[@ClevelandGod]

It is harder than you think to make an article on Wiki despite what people say! There are a lot of interesting people in history that get zero recognition. I researched FSM extensively and have never even heard of him fwiw

[@Silverizael]

@@ClevelandGod Well, the coverage in reliable sources seems to exist on O'Connell from a cursory search. Both for his life prior to and during his circus act.

[@ClevelandGod]

@@Silverizael this would have been circa 2014 ish and I dont really see anything before 2020ish that would be a reputable source to cite for Wiki. Hagiographies etc arent reputable and ofc this video in a way is one but that happens when history is told and not written. The truth has been stretched as much as the mens skin in the tattoo hut and thats what makes it interesting. Hearing how cultures and people tell stories

[@Silverizael]

@@ClevelandGod Truth is kind of irrelevant. A Wikipedia article would be covering what the variety of reliable sources say about him and his life. Even if they base that off his autobiography, they would still be considered reliable sources with significant coverage for the purposes of Wikipedia.

[@ClevelandGod]

@@Silverizael thats now how Wiki works. We need main line sources to write articles contrary to what most HS teachers say. Its actually quite tough to get an article published and takes a lot of work. You cant site a reddit post / 2 hand source! Your article will be taken down within hours. Its much more comprehensive than most think!

[@JoshuaDb_The_Witness]

You are making me fall in love with a country I really knew nothing about. Loving these videos

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

All of your videos are fascinating, but this one is especially so!

[@dharnamobrien7498]

That's an absolutely fantastic story. This channel is amazing 👏 Well done.

[@krokodyl1927]

This was another great story! Thanks! 👌😁

[@melissamiller2696]

I ran across this story during my extensive research of the written history and anthropology of Micronesia in the 1970s. It stuck with me all these years. But I couldn't remember quite where I'd seen it and never found it again. I'm so glad to run across this. I only remember the story of him ingratiating himself to the locals through dancing a jig, and thus likely saving his life and that of the other mates. I imagine those others who are lost to history left a little DNA on the other side of the island.

[@Kierron85]

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have stumbled across this channel! Top quality content Evan. Thank you for your time and effort!

[@VictoriaPitt01]

Love you. Love your channel. People are missing out.

[@BRBTechTalk]

Another great end screen. Thanks for making this video.

[@matthewshaffer9427]

That was a fantastic piece. Thanks for the history lesson. Really well put together.

[@Prometeo59]

This is an amazing story. Worth telling and very well told. Thanks for sharing it!

[@SoundboyStrange]

Would be awesome to see you in Aotearoa or other parts of the Pacific Islands, thanks for sharing these amazing stories

[@Doomroar]

Holly shit George is getting roasted so damn hard man

[@RareEarthSeries]

living among the no-status women for a few years and then dying before having to get a real job seems pretty ideal for ol' George

[@stadtbekanntertunichtgut]

Man that would be a great movie plot!

[@agargamer6759]

Amazing stories!

[@awogbob]

Is there any genetic heritage / descendants of oconnel or George left in the present day? This story was really sad for some reason

[@RareEarthSeries]

Presumably, if their story was true as they claimed. But as far as I know it isn't a known ancestry.

[@kuukeli]

thank you for the video

[@KyoushaPumpItUp]

I'm glad you're still alive after you uploaded your previous video. Also, what's the next country you're going to make a series on next after Micronesia?

[@carportchronicles1943]

I missed my chance to visit Pohnpei back in the late '90s. I was a passenger aboard an Air Force C-12, a small, twin-engine, aircraft. We were flying from Okinawa, Japan via Iwo Jima and Guam to visit a Navy Seabee detachment working on a humanitarian service project in Pohnpei. We spent the night in Guam and when we returned to the airfield the next morning the pilots told us they were leaving us in Guam because they had to fly around a typhoon that was forming and they needed to reduce weight to ensure they had the range. Another Sailor and I wound up spending four-days hanging around in Guam while our command tried to figure out how to get us back to Okinawa. Our trip had been planned as "space available" flight, at no cost to our command. Once we were abandoned on Guam, our command discovered that even though there were military flights back to Okinawa none had space available. To make matters worse, they never budgeted funds to get us home if something like that happened. I am sorry I never got to Pohnpei, but I had a good time in Guam.

[@angeloangelojoseph1494]

I live in Las Vegas now, but back home, we called it a Ceili. I really enjoy your Rants!

[@SaunterVaguelyDown]

Another awesome vid! Hey if you're ever near South Carolina you should go to Salley during the chitlin strut. Just had this year's yesterday. Literally the whole town smells like boiling pig shit, in fact you can often smell it from the town over. But they've been doing it for decades & it's a bit part of the culture there. But really i just want to see the look on your face when you approach pine st. 😂

[@Alsatiagent]

The American Captain no doubt learned from the death of Captain Cook.

[@bishalbasnet6612]

Hye evan, why don't u visit a land locked country with the highest mountains, Nepal. i am sure u will find great stories here. I live in kathmandu, and i can be your guide.

[@aperson1]

Stories like this make me think of people talking about being time travellers to influence history; how if they'd just gone back to the Titanic, they could have told the captain they would sink. How if they had just gone to Germany in the 1930s and told them not to vote for the youtube-demonetizers, the whole of ww2 could have been avoided. This video isn't exactly about a travel through time, but 'the past is a different country' goes both ways. Much like you couldn't possibly convince an 8th century Frenchman why building this box full of rearrangable letter blocks will be super duper useful very soon, how could you possibly explain to the native Micronesians how traditional Irish society works? "in my country we don't have a king who implicitly rules everything: we have the 'much saner' system where everybody accumulates abstract counters that represent how much you get to keep for yourself and not share with anyone unless they give you some of their own counters" has as fat a chance of getting through as "you see captain, there's an iceberg ahead that none of us can see yet but will result in thousands of deaths with the supreme power of just-trust-me-I'm-right." Even saying all this, it's still difficult for me to imagine spending much time with this society and failing to explain to them the differing worldview that my culture has. Couldn't I just explain it really slowly to them? If I took my time and was good friends with them, surely I could explain to the white plantation owner's of 1800s Mississippi why black people really are just about the same as them, with equal intelligence and emotional depth and basic rights. Right?

[@Coeurlarme]

You can't explain to plantation owners that Black people are human, because there's a conflict of interests, and you're just one person against their whole world. Try telling a fast fashion addict that consumerism bad and that the price of that shirt is low because someone else had to suffer for it. Try telling a Nazi that they aren't superior to anyone, and that jews are not actually a big threat to society. Try telling a Zionist that the massacres of 10k+ people in Gaza are not justified. Try saying "land back" to a non native American. Try convincing a meat eater to become vegetarian. Try encouraging people to eat more responsibly. You can tell that plantation owner that black people are human and all, but he still benefits financially from the worldview that they are property. Just like we benefit from not thinking of the ethical and environmental impact of our food, clothes and phone. Just like one benefits from thinking their group deserves all the land and anyone standing against them is less than animals. Maybe something I've listed angered you because it goes against your views: I with not debate any of it, but how you felt is exactly how that plantation owner would have felt. And being friends with the person you're trying to convince won't change that. We all know what topics are to be avoided during family reunions :/.

[@indestructiblemadness8531]

But can you proof (teleported into the 1800s mississipi), that blacks are just as intelligent? Spoiler, you cant. And even if you could, you'd have to find people who listen to logic, against consensus and against their own profits. Nope, I share the sentiment of your first paragraphs. All progress is limited to the right conditions, not one person finding the knowledge. Which is a reason why I dont like it if people attribute key developements to a single person or incident. Its most likely not the work of a single genius, but of many people working together until the right conditions are met.

[@kidmohair8151]

somehow we knew it was going to end up being a circus, didn't we?

[@JaykPuten]

So uh, Evan.... Can we get your interpretive dance of the Bower wars? Maybe a short of what it's like to be Canadian, when until spoken or told, everyone assumes you're an American? (given I live north n south of Canada, it's annoying when Michiganders assume I'm Canadian because... Well stereotypes.. I just have to be nice, and say eh? From when I had an Irish accent, only now in a south Detroit/north Windsor accent)

[@jed-henrywitkowski6470]

Ironic, that he went from being a freak in the eyes men who looked not like him to being...one of them, only to dying a freak in the eyes of men who looked like him.

[@mreventos]

⭐ Moral of the story: dancing will save your life ⭐

[@ChrisCaramia]

An interpretive dance concerning the Boer War? Alright, I'm curious.

[@Randomdive]

Keep on dancing Hadfield

[@billpetersen298]

Now you have to tell your perspective, on the Boer War.

[@OmarLivesUnderSpace]

Ahhh, the George's story after retrieving would be a real pearl

[@GuntherRommel]

That was lovely

[@keosh777]

I really enjoy your story telling. Thanks for sharing. I guess 'When in Rome .... do as the Romans do'. What on Earth will happen when we start visiting alien planets ... I shudder at the thought.

[@joevip76]

Im inspired to read the book❤

[@threemothers]

What a smile I had at the end of the story

[@arnemeyer1474]

WoW nice cultur inside .... THX

[@SP-ny1fk]

The importance of privacy in society - of not being on file.

[@mrnice4434]

Yeah don't tattoo your passport on your fore head :)

[@ms_cartographer]

Wow. It's so sad that they went from a pretty good life to dying and being made to be in a freak show.

[@ponyote]

How are you this charming? I thought your dad had owned the GOAT title, but you topped him somehow.

[@iangomez7190]

Beautiful

[@oz5223]

What’s the song at the end???

[@oz5223]

@rareearth

[@oz5223]

@RareEarthseries 11:21

[@nobody8717]

Fortunately, we don't need circuses anymore. we have twitter and instagram for viewing freaks and sideshows.

[@Mayakran]

You also get shows like My 600 Lb life or whatever, gawking at the morbidly obese and their misery from the safety of your own home!

[@ArchFundy]

If ya wanna see freaks, check out American politics.

[@ShayanQ]

You know by the end, was o'connels "escape" an escape at all?

[@trumpetmano]

'Lived on Saipan for 12 years. Got to visit all of Micronesia-great place on Earth. Pohnpei is the Gem,

[@Terminus316]

So, that’s the place they referenced the Rook Islands from!

[@dindings]

2:10 dr Seuss rhyme moment

[@o1ecypher]

sounds like a plan when do we leave?

[@chrigdichein1560]

fantatic

[@WesternCommie]

I worked with a few guys who've had more tattoos than these guys.. Funny to think about the fact they'd be "freaks" along time ago. (I knew this already though, but fun till)

[@sergeantjoe6802]

This is what real isekai looks like.

[@JTA1961]

IRISH I were back HOME...

[@knotzed]

10:55 those stars on his knees means he wont kneel down for anyone hes a Russian Vor or a thieves in law hes tattoos show he is probably = to a boss or underboss

[@justdiane5]

So back then it was considered freakish yet today it's not that big of a deal

[@Android480]

This reminds me of a story from Cortez’s rampage. Upon landing, they met two shipwrecked Spaniards who had been stuck there for years. One of them was overjoyed to finally have a way home. The other had married a local, had children, and took on all the local tattoos. He denied the offer, and decided to stay in his new life.

[@marcelhofman9360]

nice

[@perrya4878]

👍

[@BigTruck27]

...arrows should point from the word to the thing they are describing, not from the thing to the word.

[@RareEarthSeries]

on this channel they go the other way

[@GMT439]

Proof of all the CLAIMS made in this video are Required.

[@RareEarthSeries]

His autobiography is available online and, like, 29 easy pages. Go give it a read.

[@lebendigesgespenst7669]

Truly an Irish exit

[@cfc1523]

Irishmen are natural survivors

[@tedinvictus6925]

why is vengance lust filled?

[@user-uq5bq1fc6v]

Кому це потрібно , просто жахливо знято

[@TakeWalker]

is it just me or does the thumbnail of this video look like a man's face?

[@juicyjay831]

The Irish were never slaves, if anything they were subjugated to indentured servitude which is nowhere near the same as chattel slavery that black and indigenous peoples endured. Saying the Irish were slaves makes it seem like you’re trivializing the chattel slavery of black and indigenous peoples.

[@RareEarthSeries]

He was enslaved in Micronesia by indigenous people. You might try watching videos before commenting on them with presumed woke smarm. Just a thought.

[@eddieyoung5928]

Wrong, the first tattooed men in America. We're Native American men.