Tattoos By Design

History of Tattoos

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Tattoo History

Tattoos are a very old form of body art and have been practiced from a very long time in civilized human history. The history of tattoos is very ancient and seems to be of thousands of years old and even before the birth of Christ.  The recorded indication of tattoos comes from the ancient Egypt where wall paintings as old as 2000 BC have been suggesting the use of tattoos in the ancient Egyptian society.

The etymology of word tattoo provides few very different and interesting answers to the current day practicing of making permanent colored marks on human body or tattooing. The word “tattoo” can have many origins as words in many different languages have the same meaning and similar pronunciation. Different civilizations have been recorded to use the word tattoo or at least practicing of coloring their body parts for different reasons have been recorded.

“Tattoo” or “Tatao” or “Tatu”

The Polynesian word “tatao”, which means “to tap”, can be the originator of this word though researchers suggest an Tahitian word “tatu” which means to mark something to be the distant ancestor of the modern word “tattoo”. Many different cavitations in the past and few in the current world have been performing the practice of coloring their body part for different reasons.

In few groups or religions, tattoo is an integral part of their religion and each person following the religion is required to have that tattoo mark on their body symbolizing the person authority as a group member. Even modern day gangs are seen to have a particular mark on their shoulders signifying their group name.

 

First Electric Tattoo Machine

The first electronic tattoo machine was invented by an American tattoo artist named Samuel O’Reilly  in 1890, which gave birth to the new era of tattooing in which people started to have different kind of tattoos on various parts of their body. But tattoos were not respected in its earlier days and were considered as a kind of non sense thing suitable only for drunkards or sailors and sometimes, criminals too.

The popularity of tattoo gained its current weight age after many years of its existence and now, one can find tattoo as a fashion symbol rather than a simple mark. Tattoo indeed have spread across oceans and people even in the undeveloped countries have been practicing the art of tattoo on their body parts. Once what seems as a non sense thing has truly become an integral part of new generation fashion.

 

 

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