He appeared out of the blue in Vienna, covered from head to toe in Burmese tattoos. Then, as the Golden Age of American circus began, P. T. Barnum made him the most famous tattooed performer of all time. He said he had been a pirate and a patriot, a rebel and a slave. He claimed he had been tortured by an evil Tatar despot, tattooed by a vengeful sailor in Kashgar, or inked by a princess in Turkistan. Captain George Costentenus told so many outrageous and conflicting tales – what is the truth?