Tattoo

:For the unrelated Military music tattoo, a parade, see Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

History

Diversity

Tattooing has been a practice of almost every known people. The Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan, wore unique facial tattoos. Tattooing was widespread among Polynesian peoples, and in the Philippines, Borneo, Samoa, Africa, Mesoamerica, Japan, and China. According to Robert Graves in his book The Greek Myths, tattooing was common amongst certain

Related Topics:
Ainu - Polynesian - Philippines - Borneo - Samoa - Africa - Mesoamerica - Japan - China - Robert Graves

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religious groups in the ancient Mediterranean world, which probably contributed to the prohibition

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of tattooing in in the Old Testament.

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Tattooing in prehistoric times

Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice since Neolithic times. "Ötzi the Iceman", dated circa 3300 BC, exhibits therapeutic tattoos (small parallel dashes along lumbar and on the legs). Tarim Basin (West China, Xinjiang) revealed several tattooed mummies of a European physical type. Still relatively unknown (the only current publications in Western languages are those of J P. Mallory and V H. Mair, The Tarim Mummies, London, 2000), some of them could date from the end of the 2nd millennium before our era. Three tattooed mummies (c. 300 BC) were extracted from the permafrost of Altaï in second half of the 20th century (the Man of Payzyrk, during the forties; one female mummy and one male in Ukok plateau, during the nineties). Their tattooing involves animal designs repertory carried out in a curvilinear style. The Man of Pazyryk was also tattooed with therapeutic dots lined up along the spinal column (lumbar region) and around the right ankle.

Related Topics:
Eurasia - Neolithic - Ötzi the Iceman - 3300 BC

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• Comparative study about Ötzi's therapeutic tattoos (L. Renaut, 2004, French and English abstract)
• PhD Thesis on body-marking in Antiquity (L. Renaut, 2004, French and English abstract)

Tattooing in Chinese literature

Tattooing has also been featured prominently in one of the Four Classic Novels in Chinese literature, Water Margin, in which at least two of the 108 characters, Shi Jun and Yan Qing, were described as having tattoos covering nearly the whole of their bodies. In addition, Chinese legend has it that the mother of Yue Fei, the most famous general of the Song Dynasty, tattooed the words 精忠報國 (pinyin: jin zhong bao guo) on his back with her sewing needle before he left to join the army, reminding him to "repay his country with total loyalty".

Related Topics:
Chinese literature - Water Margin - Chinese - Yue Fei - Song Dynasty - Pinyin

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The Water Margin had a major influence on tattooing in Japan. See irezumi.

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Rediscovery in Europe

Europeans rediscovered tattooing during the exploration of the South Pacific under Captain James Cook in the 1770s, and sailors were particularly identified with tattoos in European culture until after World War I.

Related Topics:
Europe - South Pacific - Captain James Cook - 1770s - Sailor - World War I

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The electric tattoo machine

The "modern" electric tattoo machine is fundamentally the same machine invented by Samuel O'Reilly in 1891, which was based on an electric engraving pen invented by Thomas Edison.

Related Topics:
Tattoo machine - Samuel O'Reilly - 1891 - Engraving - Thomas Edison

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Today

Tattoos are more popular now than at any time in recorded history. Current estimates have one in seven or over 39 million people in North America who have at least one tattoo.

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