Tattoo Cultural Significance
Abstract - The significance of tattoos and the tattooing arts are neither smooth nor unified, and actually can be considered as varied and punctured as the skin on which the tattoo is placed. The elusive unified account is due in part because of the wide variety of cultures in which tattoo has been practiced, from Japan and the South Pacific to ancient Greece. There is even evidence of tattooing that can be traced to the Bronze Age. Indeed on the 5300 year old “Iceman”, tattoos were found in great number. In addressing tattoo, four areas that may prove useful to understanding the craft art history, cultural meaning, individual meeting, and self-expression.
Tattoo has been around since the early Neolithic era, or fourth or fifth millennium
BCE. The word itself is most likely adapted from the Tahitian word tatau, meaning "marking something”. In the mid-1990s between Austria and Italy, a frozen human body was recovered bearing 57 tattoos. The estimate on the death of the man is somewhere between 3200 and 3100 B.C.E. The debate is still open as to whether the markings on the frozen man where in some way medicinal or used in a practice of healing, however it could also be that the tattoos were decorative and displayed rank and identity. Throughout history, these markings have been used to demonstrate status, served as amulets, signs of religious beliefs, declarations of love and even forms of punishment. These permanent designs, sometimes simple and plain and other times elaborate, but always personal, have come to signify an uprising trend in cultural status. Tom Yak of New York Adorned says of tattoo design, “About 80 to 90 percent of what I do are personalized designs. That's what people want.” Making tattoo even more personal than it has ever been. Tattoo is personal. It’s a story to the one “getting ink’d” that for whatever reason, and the reason is strong enough to be remembered, is now indelibly part of the individual.
Establishing a cultural identity is one common and important role the tattoo has played throughout history. Tribes throughout history and on virtually all continents have used scan images as a mark of identification, from the Celtic in Germanic peoples of Europe to Japan and Polynesia. These images have also had roles within tribes of identifying particular practices such as religious devotion, warrior, healer, mystic and shaman. They have been used to describe a history or ancestry, utilizing symbols of bravery or victory. Some tattoos have even service device is designed to protect the bearer of the tattoo. In this context the tattoo is seen to have magical powers to ward off evil or bad luck, thereby functioning as an amulet. Paradoxically, tattoos have also been used to mark criminals to identify them as having been subject to punishment.
Equal with a tattoos cultural meaning is the individual meaning. Tattooing can simply be a customer walking into a shop and choosing an image of a sheet known as flash, which is straightforward, yet unoriginal. It is more commonplace for tattoos to have individual natures and meanings. A person may be tattooed in a way that reflects their individual dreams, their particular loves, or specific events of fulfillment or loss, or that involve symbols that are so esoteric that their "public meaning" is unavailable. A tattoo might also represent an existential, individual act. In all likelihood, once a tattoo and its associated context is created it cannot be undone. There is in a sense an inherently existential individual nature to getting a tattoo: the decision to be tattooed is one that will mark you as an individual indefinitely.
Tattoo has been around since the early Neolithic era, or fourth or fifth millennium
BCE. The word itself is most likely adapted from the Tahitian word tatau, meaning "marking something”. In the mid-1990s between Austria and Italy, a frozen human body was recovered bearing 57 tattoos. The estimate on the death of the man is somewhere between 3200 and 3100 B.C.E. The debate is still open as to whether the markings on the frozen man where in some way medicinal or used in a practice of healing, however it could also be that the tattoos were decorative and displayed rank and identity. Throughout history, these markings have been used to demonstrate status, served as amulets, signs of religious beliefs, declarations of love and even forms of punishment. These permanent designs, sometimes simple and plain and other times elaborate, but always personal, have come to signify an uprising trend in cultural status. Tom Yak of New York Adorned says of tattoo design, “About 80 to 90 percent of what I do are personalized designs. That's what people want.” Making tattoo even more personal than it has ever been. Tattoo is personal. It’s a story to the one “getting ink’d” that for whatever reason, and the reason is strong enough to be remembered, is now indelibly part of the individual.
Establishing a cultural identity is one common and important role the tattoo has played throughout history. Tribes throughout history and on virtually all continents have used scan images as a mark of identification, from the Celtic in Germanic peoples of Europe to Japan and Polynesia. These images have also had roles within tribes of identifying particular practices such as religious devotion, warrior, healer, mystic and shaman. They have been used to describe a history or ancestry, utilizing symbols of bravery or victory. Some tattoos have even service device is designed to protect the bearer of the tattoo. In this context the tattoo is seen to have magical powers to ward off evil or bad luck, thereby functioning as an amulet. Paradoxically, tattoos have also been used to mark criminals to identify them as having been subject to punishment.
Equal with a tattoos cultural meaning is the individual meaning. Tattooing can simply be a customer walking into a shop and choosing an image of a sheet known as flash, which is straightforward, yet unoriginal. It is more commonplace for tattoos to have individual natures and meanings. A person may be tattooed in a way that reflects their individual dreams, their particular loves, or specific events of fulfillment or loss, or that involve symbols that are so esoteric that their "public meaning" is unavailable. A tattoo might also represent an existential, individual act. In all likelihood, once a tattoo and its associated context is created it cannot be undone. There is in a sense an inherently existential individual nature to getting a tattoo: the decision to be tattooed is one that will mark you as an individual indefinitely.