Tattoos...not so new

     I have got my first tattoo on my 18th birthday, it was The Little Prince. It was drawn for me by the tattoo artist and I still enjoy having it.

     However, ever since I have got my first tattoo I have wondered about tattoo custom in ancient times and I have learned that for centuries people tattooed themselves and others for many different reasons. Here is an article that I have written two years ago for you to enjoy...

                                     Tattoo Custom in Ancient Civilizations
     Around the world, even though languages and cultures are different, languages of the symbols are usually the same. Ancient and tribal cultures have used tattoos in a variety of ways for centuries: Medical, spiritual, religious status, and decoration. They even honored the man with tattoos or punished them. In his 1871 publication The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin said that ‘’Not one great country can be named, from the polar regions in the north to New Zealand in the south, in which the aborigines do not tattoo themselves.’’ shows how global the usage of the tattoo once was.

     People have always sought ways to express themselves. They collected rocks, they painted caves, created languages, made sculptures, and eventually they painted themselves. But in a search for something more permanent, they found the tattoo. Anthropologists discovered people with tattoos dated far back to 5300 BC. Even today, with all those electric tattoo devices, the tattoo is still a painful and challenging process. Because of that, one can wonder; in ancient times how people tattooed themselves and why they did it?

     Aetius who was a Roman doctor that lived in the 6th century is the writer of the oldest text about the tattoo technique. He wrote in his book Modicae Arts Principes, the mixture that used in tattoo making. Here is the recipe: Pine tree, especially its shell, a dash of bronze with corrosion crushed with vinegar, some bile, bearing oil, or black paint. Mixed up with leek juice and water. It sounds like a folk remedy but making something permanent must be a hard job. The materials that they have used must have inspired people who do tattooing in the present time.

   

       Bishop Isidore of Seville in the 7th century AD described the tattooing technique used by the Picts. The pricking the skin and the rubbing of sap into the wounds to provide the color. There is another technique used in Australia, Africa, Java, and Sumatra where the native skins are too dark to show the tattoo. The technique called scarification. Scarring skin, making a rough surface, kept open for months to get inflated scar one quadrant inch high or more. Either way, tattoo, and the pain are sisters and brothers in terms of relationship to people. So why for centuries people continued tattooing? There are several reasons for that.

     The most famous tattooed man Ötzi ‘’the Iceman’’ who died in Italian Alps was found covered with more than 50 tattoos located in modern-day acupuncture areas. According to Jarrett A. Lobell, when Ötzi was first studied, archaeologists were shocked because they had never seen Copper Age tattoos used as acupuncture treatment considering that they were thought to have originated in Asia more then 2000 years later (42). 

     In most of the ancient Greco-Roman world, tattoos were seen as a mark of punishment and shame. According to historian Herodotus, The Greeks learned this idea from the Persians in the 6th century BC. In the Roman Empire, slaves were marked to show that they paid their taxes. The emperor Caligula tattooed gladiator as public property.

     The Dai of southwest China once believed that their tattoos protected them from monsters. In Dakota, people believe that if they don’t have a tattoo on their forehead or wrist, they thought none of them could travel the ghost road in safety. In Japan, Ainu woman tattooed their goddess’ images on their body for protection from evil spirits. Hindus used a tattoo of Hanuman to lighten them from pain and disease.

     Inuit sees tattoos as a record of achievements in hunting and battle and this thinking are popular in other tribal civilizations too. For example, Indigenous people are known as the Ibaloi, once they successfully take the head of an enemy in the battle, they would have these favorable animals such as lizards, snakes, scorpions, etc. permanently marked onto their body.

     Some people used tattoo as a connection to their god and connection to the afterlife. Like, In New Zealand, the people known as Maoris thought that a spirit would recognize their fancy facial tattoos after they passed to the portal of the next world. They believed that this spirit would give them the perception to find the way to the next world.

     There is an old custom for pilgrims to be tattooed in their holy places. Christians get tattooed at Jerusalem with some religious symbol, their name, and the date of their pilgrimage. Moslem pilgrims get tattooed at Mecca as well, even though it is opposed to Koran. When they asked about it their usual answer is; ‘’Before entering Paradise we shall be purified by fire and all these Marks will disappear! (Sinclair,363)’’

     As a last example of usage, I will list the sexism in tattooing. We encounter sexism in many different aspects of life; such as in family life, social life, education, and work-life. However, as studies show, we can see sexism even in tattooing of ancient cultures. For instance, there were ceramic figurines and vessels of women that tattooed in Egypt. They were held in homes, temples, and tombs. The tattoos were considered the element of woman sexuality and they may have been included in the tombs to continue the deceased’s sex life.

     Several groups, such as the Drung of China and the Chinook of Burma, developed a tradition of female facial tattooing as protection for women to be not captured by neighboring tribes, as they believed that the tattoos would make the woman unattractive to the attackers. We see that ancient people thought tattoo as a glory symbol form for men but thought unseemly for the woman. Lastly, there is a harsh condition that no man will marry a Polynesian girl unless she has a small triangle tattooed on her at puberty but what's worse was, children of unmarked women were killed.

Conclusion
     The different usage of tattoo in ancient times are listed up here. Regardless of their difference they always had one aim; to express oneself. People get a tattoo to remind themselves what’s matters the most. They get tattoos not to forget the accident, the disease, the bad days they had been through. You can see many people with tattoo in Turkey, especially with a tattoo of Ataturk’s signature or likeness. That signature has one special meaning for all those people. 

     
     It doesn’t matter whether it was for medical, religious, or decoration reasons. The people find a permanent way to express themselves and it became a custom that lasted for centuries down to the present time and I’m glad that it did.

Work Cited

     Leahy, Daire. ‘’A Painful Past.’’ Archaelogy Ireland, vol. 24, no. 2, Wordwell Ltd, 2010, pp.

26-28

     Lobell, A. Jarrett, et al. ‘’Ancient Tattoos.’’ Archaelogy, vol. 66, no. 6, Archaelogical Instıtute

of America, 2013, pp. 41-46

     Poli, Dorothy Belle, et al. ‘’Drawing on Popular Culture:Using Tattooing to Introduce

Biological Concepts.’’ The American Biologhy Teacher, vol. 74, no. 6, University of

California Press, 2012, pp. 381-385

     Reed, Carrie E. ‘’Tattoo in Early China.’’ Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 120,

no. 3, American Oriental Society, 2000, pp. 360-376

     Sinclair, A. T. ‘’Tattooing-Oriental and Gypsy.’’ American Anthropologist, vol. 10, no. 3,

Wiley, 1908, pp. 361-386