Tattoo's

The word tattoo is coming from Tahitian ‘tattau’, which it means the tap into the body. Tattoos were invented many years ago. There are various designs of tattoo there are plain, elaborated, they been served as charm, status symbols, belief of love, religion signs, adornments and there were also made as form of punishment. The first document of tattoos came out in 1769. In Hawaii there was a tradition that after someone lost someone who used to love they do a three dot tattoo on their tongue.

Some of the original examples of tattoos on bodies were for long time Egyptian and were done on a lot of female mummies dated even 3300 B.C. Recently an Iceman called Otzi from the area of the Italian-Austrian border was discovered, he was discovered in 1991 this date goes back goes a lot of years back in time when he was carbon dated at around 5,200 years old. It shows that the tattoos the iceman had were applied to alleviate joint pain and accordingly essentially remedial.  Otzi was found with 57 tattoos that included a symbol of a cross on the inside of the knee, 6 straight 15cm long lines above his kidneys, and several lines on the ankles.

Female mummies from Nubia and Egypt were also found with tattoos, some experts said they have been carved as a protection during pregnancy and delivery. All the tattoos were found on the abdomen or on the thighs. Males from Egypt were also found with tattoos of geometrical patters on their arms and legs.

Tattoos were called ‘stigmata’ in Ancient Greece and Rome and they used to signify a mark of ownership on slaves or a mark of criminality. Roman soldiers and the Roman Empire across the world contributed a lot to the globalization of the tattoo.

Tattoos disappeared for a while from the Western civilization. In Great Britain tattoos gets there name as ‘Briton’ that means ‘people of the design’ and ‘Picts’ that means ‘the painted people’.

Tattoos | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine. 2013. Tattoos | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/tattoo.html?c=y&page=4. [Accessed 17 May 2013].

Luchito Ruiz. 2012. Interesting Historical Facts on Tattoos. [ONLINE] Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Interesting-Historical-Facts-on-Tattoos&id=6938543. [Accessed 17 May 13].