Tattoos And Culture

The styles of art varied widely across cultures. Oceanic cultures commonly covered their peoples from head to foot in geometric designs, mostly consisting of black lines. Sailor tattoos began as small, thin, stick and poke style tattoos. Prominent circus performers such as Captain Consentenus, “The Greek Albanian Tattooed Man” and Nora Hildebrandt, “The Tattooed Women” were covered in tattoos, maintaining oddity and division from common peoples. When Sam O’Reilly created the tattoo machine, colors, intricate and dynamic designs, and prominent “sailor” imagery became abundant. Sailors tattooed themselves on hands and arms in the beginning, but moved the designs to more coverable areas of the body when tattoos became associated with lower-class and delinquency. Pin-up girls, naked ladies, and harsh imagery were common obscene tattoos amongst sailors, and became integral to the “American Traditional” style, pioneered by Sailor Jerry. Between World War I and World War II, sailors received tattoos in China and Japan. The style is apparent through the imagery of dragons, geishas, and weaponry. Sailor Jerry diversified styles by converging Japanese aesthetic with American

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.

Tattooing is a body modification practice used for centuries across the globe. Because of the multiple origins of tattoos, there are several techniques and countless styles. Every tattoo is unique in meaning to the person that receives it, though often they can fit into generalized categories. Tattoos have fallen in and out of popularity over the course of history, though they have never and most likely will never disappear.

Traditional tattooing was done with a needle, usually made from bone, and a mallet. Tattoos also signified rank in various areas than Hawaii. Traditional tattoos had pictographic representations of humans, animals, plants, etc. Some shapes used in tattoos also resembled environmental aspects. For example, triangles could’ve represented waves, spears, or maybe even mountains.

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

For some people tattoos are being used as a known accessory, the reason on why do people make the decision to get them is hardly if ever even questioned. The pain, the stereotypes, and the misconceptions that are often associated with tattoos would pose the question as to why would you choose to get a tattoo. Tattoos can be personal and good way of expressing yourself. Most people, they are shown as different symbols that each have an equal level of significance. The essential of each tattoo have each found the symbolism of them, and their cultural relevance has consistently been a trend found throughout history, religion, and art.

Tattoos have been around since 3,000 B.C. The oldest discovery of a tattooed mummy was the “Iceman”. The frozen body was discovered by hikers in 1991. The tattoos discovered on the body had no specific drawing there were just straight lines and small crosses. This led to believed that tattooing was used as a therapeutic to relieve pain. The Egyptians hold the true claim to fame regarding tattoos. It was common practice for Egyptian women of high status to received tattoos for the same sort of therapeutic reasons. “Tattooing of ancient Egyptian women had a therapeutic role and function as a permanent form of amulet during the very difficult time of pregnancy and birth” (Line berry 2).

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

The art of cultural tattooing is the art of marking skin with indelible patterns, pictures, or legends by making pricks in the skin and inserting colored ink. This art has been referred to as pricking, scarring, or standing. They use small instruments made of bone, cut into

One of the most universally popular tattoo designs is the sun. Many cultures have used their own stylized representation of this symbol of life to decorate their bodies. Across all of the continents and islands of the Earth, this symbol, in it's many forms, remains constant. It stands for infinity, rebirth and fertility in every part of the world. Positioned at the center of the solar system, the sun has always been the most important feature in the sky.

In this specific culture, there are rules saying what men and women can and cannot ink onto their bodies. The Hawaiian culture have standards when it comes to a person’s body. The right side of the body is for the men, which is called Kū, the left side of the body is for the women, which is called Hina. They represent the masculinity and the femininity in ourselves to balance and/or even out our souls. The men wear tattoo designs on half of their face, inner and/or outer lining of the arm or leg, the backs of the hands, and the front of the body. Just like the men, the women wear tattoo designs on the inner and/or outer leg (specifically the upper thigh area), the wrists, and the back of the hands, the fingers, the arms, the neck, the ankles, and the chest. The priest is the only abled body to actually practice these tattoos, rituals which consist of ceremonies and chants. But present day techniques are usually done by expert

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.

The specific symbolism behind them tattoos will vary in accordance with certain variables. Before you obtain your tattoo, make certain it is exactly what you want. Consider the specific aspects that will affect its overall interpretation including color, size, direction or position and number. For example, the depiction of a platinum koi fish indicates the bearer

What used to be the property of sailors, outlaw and rock star is now become a popular body decoration for many people. It’s not just anchors, skulls, and spider web anymore, people have found plenty ways to express themselves with their tattoo. You might be thinking to get your first one, but fear of the unknown can sometimes hold you back from it. The best thing you can do is educate yourself about the process how the human skin is transformed into a beautiful work of art.

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).