Tattoo Research Paper

My senior project was over the History of Tattooing, I chose this as my topic because Tattoos really interest me with all the different styles and meanings behind them. Some things I already knew about Tattooing is a lot of tribes used tattoos to symbolize things, but I didn’t know what.

Evidence of tattoos is found not only on mummies or in text, but on the objects left behind by ancient civilizations.

Tattoos are a great way to self-express. Most people get them for decorative, symbolic, or pictorial purposes. However, the tattoos, or tattooing process, kakau, of olden Hawaiian and Polynesian times were always intricate and symbolic. Tattoos were also placed on certain areas of the body for good reasons. Olden Hawaiians worshipped many different gods and their physical environment was very important to them.

Tattoos have been around throughout our history, from Egyptian times to the present day. Many people may say they know the history of tattoos, and where they originate from, but do they really? Does one know that there were reasons that some people had tattoos? There may be people who know the actual history of tattoos and body art and why one would decide to get one; however there are people who do not. To be able to understand the idea of tattoos, one should educate themselves to the history of tattoos. Although tattoos have been considered taboo and a stereotype, history reveals that this particular form of body art has been used for self expression, status and

When the Egyptians extended their empire, tattooing extended as well to civilizations such as Crete, Greece, Persia, and Arabia. Later on in 2000BC this form of body art also reached china. With almost every culture influencing the practice of tattoo’s, the concept ranged from medical purposes, branding slaves to even determining the coming out of women. Examples include:

Tattooing is the art of marking the skin with indelible patterns, pictures, or legends by making pricks and inserting colored ink. The word itself has its origins in the South Pacific. The art had been referred to as pricking, scarring, or staining until explorer Captain James Cook encountered the indigenous peoples of Tahiti. (Wilkinson 6)

The families in these photos have no shame! From wild hair to wild animals, these awkward family photos will have you rolling on the floor laughing. My all time favorite is the family with the tattoos; what in the world were they thinking?!

Tattoos have been around since 450 BC, it was used to mark the criminals and those fallen from social grace. But since then or since the Europeans discovered the “New World” and the tattooed tribes, its concepts has changed many times. You could classify the different changes in six eras in the tattoo history; the colonist or pioneer Era, the circus or carnival Era, the working-class era, the rebel era, the new age era and presently the supermarket era. The colonist or pioneer era was between the 1760s and 1870s is when the Europeans discovered tattoos amongst Native American tribes such as Hawaiians and Borneans whose tattoos had spiritual meaning, it was a way to protect themselves from physical harm and snakebite. But after their introduction with the Europeans

Tattoos were not always used as therapeutic. In ancient China, tattoos were considered barbaric practice. Criminals were tattooed as a visible mark of

A tattoo is a puncture wound, made deep in your skin, that’s filled with ink. The tattoo is made by penetrating your skin with a needle and injecting ink into the area creating some sort of design of

In different modern culture people often express themselves with tattoos. People express their beliefs and, in some cases, prove themselves, like fight to prove that they are worthy to be in that culture. Some cultural tattoos, like ones from Japan, can tell a story or indicate one’s social status. People have to prove to themselves and the other members of their culture that they belong. Cultural tattooing has many different meanings to many different cultures.

For as long as there have been people, there have been methods of distinction amongst them. Throughout the years we have discovered ways in which to express our beliefs, our ideals, and our passions. Tattooing has been one of forefront methods in expressing our humanity, or in certain cases, our lack there of. For so many, they have taken on many different representations, each with an equal level of significance. The importance found in the symbolism of tattoos and their cultural relevance has consistently been a trend found throughout history, religion, and art.

The tattoo is a very old form of body modification, but in spite of that there is still a certain rejection towards those who carry them in a visible area of the body, for some it disfigures what has been created in the image and likeness of God while for others associates this with convicts or gang members mainly because they were one of the first groups to use tattoos to differentiate themselves from the rest of society. But also it is true that there is a very limited understanding about this corporal modification that could be one of the reasons why it can not be appreciated as for how it should be. However, modern society reflects the current popularity of tattooing because it has acquired an entirely artistic meaning to a social expression and a way of identity.

It was used for sprictal, labeling, medical and as a punishment. Tattooing goes back as far as 5000 BC. Throughout the years tattooings meaning has differed and grown into new ideas and meanings. Now people can even do temporary fum tattoos or permanent ones that are for enjoyment, labeling they are in a group or even to remember an important time or someone.

There is a long list of cultures that utilised tattoos as a form of decoration and communication (Swami, 2011). That said, within some western societies, that historical connection to the tattoo is not that strong. However the art of tattooing has seen a steady growth of its popularity and acceptance, and since the early 1990s, that growth has accelerated dramatically (Caplan, 2000; Cash, 2011; DeMello, 2000; Swami, 2011). The current estimated incidence of tattooing amongst the populations of North America and Europe is approximately 25 percent (Laumann & Derick, 2006; Swami, 2011), with one researcher suggesting those rates could continue to increase to as much as 40 percent of the population (Anderson, 2006).