History Of Tattoos

The history of tattoos is both rich in curiosity and some of it even unknown. What we do know though both intrigues and inspires. The word tattoo was derived from the Tahitian word "tatu" which means to mark something. The practice of marking people for different reasons has been in most every society on earth. In Japan tattoos were used to mark criminals, each offence merited a different mark on the person’s forehead, and with more offenses, the marks combined to spell the Japanese word for dog.

The Japanese though, eventually developed tattoos into an art form. Around 1700 only royalty were allowed to were ornate clothing, so the middle class would adorn themselves with elaborate and beautiful tattoos.

These were not the earliest tattoos though; the first tattoo is believed to have been found on the body of a man preserved in a glacier from 5,300 years ago. The man had a cross behind one knee and a series of lines above his kidneys. Egyptian and Nubian mummies have tattoos on there bodies as well. Tattooing was an art practiced around the year 2000 B.C. throughout the Egyptian empire.

In the 8th century in Europe, Pope Hadrian banned tattooing altogether. For around 4 centuries after that there was no mention of tattooing. Captain Cook brought news of the practice to Europe after seeing tattoos performed in the year 1771 in Tahiti. Cook refers to the art form and practice as "tattaw", using the word "tattawing" for the first time, forever marking the way the world speaks about the historic artistic and social expression.