If you do a quick search, you’ll find plenty of photos of Nicholas’ tattoo. It’s no subtle hidden tat either, it’s a massive S shaped Trogdor-esque dragon coving his whole forearm..

In Tsar Nicholas II’s wikipedia page we have this passage:

“In 1890 Nicholas, his younger brother George, and their cousin Prince George of Greece, set out on a world tour, although Grand Duke George fell ill and was sent home partway through the trip. Nicholas visited Egypt, India, Singapore, and Siam (Thailand), receiving honors as a distinguished guest in each country. During his trip through Japan, Nicholas had a large dragon tattooed on his right forearm by Japanese tattoo artist Hori Chyo.[27] His cousin George V of England had also received a dragon tattoo from Hori in Yokohama years before.”

Even weirder is that it appears to have been a spontaneous late night after dinner decision, implying that alcohol may have played a role. In his diaries we have:

“After dinner during a stopover in the Japanese city of Nagasaki, I decided to get a tattoo of a dragon on my right arm. It took precisely seven hours from 9pm to 4am! The dragon turned out splendid, and it didn’t hurt at all.”

My mind is really blown about the idea of royals getting tattoos back then. Especially something as trashy as a whole forearm covering dragon tattoo.

How would that have been seen in contemporary Russian society?

How would something so esoteric and, basically, “foreign” have been talked about?

Was it seen as poor judgement or was everyone running out and copying his Japanese dragon tattoos in late 1890s Russia??