tattoo

Permanent mark or design under the top layer of skin made by the injection of coloured pigments. Tattoos have been used for a variety of reasons: to identify slaves or criminals; to signify marital availability, skill as a warrior, or social class, clan, or group affiliation; for ritual or magical reasons; or for beauty.

Methods The art of tattooing is widespread and cave paintings and statuettes with tattoolike marks from archaeological sites indicate that the art is thousands of years old. Pigments used to make tattoos can be applied in a variety of ways. In Papua New Guinea, needles set in a wooden handle are used to tattoo very elaborate multicoloured designs over much of the body. The Maoris of New Zealand use a miniature bone adze; other cultures use knives, hollowed teeth, thorns, or other needlelike instruments to introduce pigment under the skin. Today most tattoos are applied by an electric needle in special studios or parlours.

Risks The greatest risk in tattooing is infection by the hepatitis B virus. In 1961 a hepatitis outbreak in the USA led New York City and the state of Massachusetts to ban tattooing. It is also banned in Indiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Other reported complications include allergic reactions to the pigments, and aggravation of existing skin disease. There is little evidence that AIDS is transferred by tattooing. Tattoos can be removed by new laser technology.

History Many ancient Egyptian mummies had tattoos, and the iceman, discovered in the Alps in 1991, and thought to have been frozen in a glacier for 5,000 years, was also tattooed. In South America, tattooing played an important part in the religious rituals of the Incas, Maya, and Aztecs.

The Vikings tattooed their tribal symbols and family crests, and the Maoris developed a style called moko, which consists of many shallow coloured grooves in complex curvilinear designs on the face. It is associated with religious rites and taboos. Different patterns denote tribal communities, families, and ranks, and there are also special patterns for girls and married women.

The Romans tattooed criminals and slaves, and in the 19th century released US convicts and British army deserters were identified by tattoos. Prisoners in Siberian and Nazi concentration camps were tattooed with an identification number. Many prison inmates still tattoo themselves as an indication of time spent in prison.

Because the Bible prohibits tattooing (Leviticus 19:28), Pope Hadrian banned it in AD 787. It survived in Britain, however, and all the Anglo-Saxon kings were tattooed. The body of Harold II, who died 1066, was identified by the name ‘Edith’ tattooed over his heart. Tattooing then disappeared from Western Europe until the late 17th century.

In 1691 the English explorer William Dampier brought a tattooed South Pacific islander to London. He was known as the Painted Prince, because his whole body, except for his hands and face, was tattooed. He became the first in a long line to be displayed to the public at fairs, markets, and circuses.

The word ‘tattoo’ was brought to Europe by the explorer James Cook when he returned 1771 from his first voyage to Tahiti and New Zealand. In his narrative of the voyage, he refers to an operation called ‘tattaw’. Before this it had been described as scarring, painting, or staining.

Stimulated by Polynesian and Japanese examples, amateur tattoo artists were in great demand in port cities all over the world, especially by European and American sailors. The first professional tattoo artist in the USA was Martin Hildebrandt, a German immigrant who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, 1846. Between 1861 and 1865 he tattooed soldiers on both sides in the American Civil War. The first professional tattooist in Britain was established in Liverpool in the 1870s. Tattooing was an expensive and painful process and by the 1870s had become a mark of wealth for the crowned heads of Europe. Japanese artists cost the most and were the most desired.

In 1891 the first electric tattoo needle was invented in New York City by modifying Thomas Edison's electric engraving pen. This made the process cheaper and faster; it was taken up by the poor and abandoned by the rich. The association of tattoos with sailors, circus freaks, prisoners, and motorcycle-gang members gave tattoos a negative image. The counterculture of the 1960s, however, portrayed tattoos as an expression of rebelliousness; they gained acceptability through the 1970s and 1980s, became increasingly popular in the 1990s, and have now invaded the cultural mainstream. Women make up slightly more than half the tattooed population.