Tattoo Art - Some Interesting Facts About Where it All Began

Tattoo Art you either have a tattoo or tattoos, or are interested in getting one to be reading this article. So I think its is also worth knowing a little bit about the origins of tattooing, considering we are going to be wearing them for the rest of our lives.

For example the word Tattoo originates from Polynesian 'tatau' and Tahitian 'tatu' meaning to tap and mark respectively. No one is really sure where tattooing first began but you can be sure it involved many early civilizations around the globe.

In fact it was probably by accident. Someone had been cut so to stop the bleeding some ash and soot from a fire would be rubbed into the wound. When it healed it left a permanent mark. Leading to the idea of making lines and marks, your first tattoos.

Otzi The Iceman is the oldest known example he lived around 3300 BC. He was found in the Alps in 1991. He had 57 primitive tattoo designs on him. These consisted of lines situated near his kidneys, ankles, and a cross on the back of his left knee on known acupuncture points. Scientists think that this may have been an early form of acupuncture to aid the arthritis he was suffering from.

Egypt gives us our next oldest examples which are mummies mainly women. These are dated around 2000 BC. The most famous being the priestess Amunet. She featured abstract tattoo patterns mainly dashes and dots. These are mainly located around her lower abdomen and pubic region. Leading archeologists to believe these are signs of fertility.

Moving further east to Japan, into the large burial chambers of the great emperors. Small clay figurines with what look like tattoo markings on their faces have been found. Most likely they were stand-ins for living people to symbolically accompany the dead emperor into the afterlife. These seem to date back to around 2500 BC.

Elsewhere in the pacific ocean, but moving forward in time we have the Maori, Hawaiian and Filipinos. These peoples used Tribal Tattoos. The Maori 'moko' is a bold full face tattoo indicating status and strength as a warrior. The Hawaiians would also have bold Tribal Tattoos, but including animals lizards, snakes and some brightly coloured flowers. Over in northern Europe the Celts became famous for their Celtic Tribal Tattoos. Which were bold and made of symbolic images of animals. These were worn with great pride by the warriors as they went into battle.

The tattoo has also been used many times through out history to mark criminals and slaves. The Romans marked their slaves so they could be easily identified and sold. In 17th century Japan tattooing was the reserve of criminals and outcasts, who would be shunned in the street by family and public. More recently the Nazis in the second world war.

It was the sailors returning on their ships after exploring the pacific ocean that brought tattoos or 'tattaws' as Captain James Cook in the 1760's called them into western culture. But it was the invention of the electric tattoo machine in 1891 by Samuel O'Reilly that really opened up the endless possibilities of intricately designed Tattoo Art.