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.