History
Tattoos are one of the oldest artforms we as people have. The practise of body modification has been going on for milenia throughout the world. We know this due to mummification which resulted in the preservation of the tattooed skin. We can be certain that it existed as far back as the 4th Millennium BC and the oldest example being Otzi the Iceman dated between 3370 -3100 BC. However tattooed mummies have been found in egypt, Alaska and china to state a few. But we can also theoise that Tattoos predate these mummies as we have found evidence, though artwork and tools they believed were used to tattoo people, suggesting that tattoos have an even longer history then we are aware of.
Although when we think of tattooing we think of tattoos guns but tattoo guns have only been around in recent history and are based off of Samuel o'reilly patterned tattoo gun from 1891. Tattoos before this would usually be done in a similar fashion to stick and poke tattoos however there are other methods which we discuss further below.
James Cook's travels inspired many in Victorian high society to decorate their bodies with tattoos. There has even been speculation that queen Victoria had a tiger fighting a python tattooed on her body. Regardless whether she herself had any tattoos the Royals have historically had them after her. Queen Elizabeth's the seconds grandfather, George V, had tattoos.
However, people within the west had tattoos far before the Victorian era they Crusaders got the Jerusalem cross tattooed on them so if they were to die in battle they would get a Christian burial. Roman soldiers had tattoos to show they were in the military.
Perhaps the most infamous tattooing in recent history is the tattoos the jewish people were given in concentration camp, in particular Auschwitz. They were used to identify stripped corpses. However, this tattoos have been taken ownership by some jewish people who have their ancestors numbers tattooed onto their skin as a reminder of the tragedy.
There has been tattooed mummies found in Egypt from 2000 BC. The oldest of which is Amunet a Priestess Of Hathor. She had tattoos on her abdomen and her hips to represent fertility. There is also theories that they used tattoos for medical purposes however this was a theory put forward in the 19th century and so it has be taken with a pinch of salt.
We do not have a large amount of information about african tattoos due to a lack of records and through colonisation. There is also the aspect of religion, for example islamic faith, do not allow tattoos and so portions of africa and the middle east do not have a rich history in tattoos as many people were devoted.
There are evidence of tribes carrying out skin sacrifices which were deep cuts in their skins which scar into the patterns they designed. There was also a similar practise called Cicatrisation. In which they would cut the skin and pour in ash so their would be pigment.
In ancient china tattoos were considered barbaric with many people who had them in stories being depicted as bandits or folk heroes. This a stereotype that still seems to be within chinese culture which was brought up within one of our interviews.
Pre hispanic colonization in the Philippines tattoos were used to mark rank, therefore many were heavily tattooed, as many believed they were magical. When they first interaction with Spanish settlers in the 16th century they documented them as Los Pintados (The Painted Ones) as they mistook the tattoos for paint. However, after being colonized the amount of people who have tattoos decreases
Criminals in Japan were tattooed as far back as the 7th century to show they were criminals. However, this then developed the loved Japanese style as many criminals decided to expand their tattoos, with borrowed art from wood block prints, after incarceration making them into body art. Tattooing was eventually outlawed in japan until after the second world war.
Post American revolution sailors were given documentation to prove they were American. The documentation was so bad it was easy to fake. So to stop the British Royal Navy taking them they got tattoos so they would be more recognisable and could place it on their documentation. The pigment that was used came from Urine. Which prompted a discussion in our podcast what was more disgusting to be tattooed with urine or being tattooed with the ashes of your dead relatives. We conducted an instagram and these are the results:
Inuit people have been being tattooed for contrary however it has dies t in the 20th century due to colonisation. When asked elders within the Inuit community to remember the their elders they spoke about the women being tattooed on their faces. This was to represent their ascent to womanhood and so they would be tattooed with needle and thread on their face.
The English word from them, Tattoo, comes from Tahiti in which they were called ‘Tatau’. When James Cook landed there in 1769 and he came face to face with many of the Polynesian people being heavily tattooed. We used to use words such as scarring painting and staining but the use of the angelified word that became tattooing seemed to stick.
The maura used tattoos as a tradition and it was very mainstream. If you shied away from them then you were through a coward. Most Mauri tattoos we see are Kiri Tuhi rather than Ta Moko, which is more traditional, as Ta Moko is reserved for head.
South America
Unfortunately we know very little about South American Tattoos and the only information we have is from archaeological digs. We only began to uncover mummies in Peru in 1920 and we came to realise the ancient peruvians from 11 Ad were heavily tattooed. As these mummies were pre-incan civilization very little is actually known about their cultures surrounding the tattoos.
During the Incan period they would never tattoo their bodies as they believed that the sun god had already given them the perfect bodies. It has also been suggested that tattoos died out due to the infection they could caused instead being replaced with paint that would be used during religious ritual.
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