Tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes and techniques, including hand-tapped traditional tattoos and modern tattoo machines. The history of tattooing goes back to Neolithic times, practiced across the globe by many cultures, and the symbolism and impact of tattoos varies in different places and cultures.
Tattoos may be decorative, symbolic, pictorial, or textual. Many tattoos serve as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, marks of fertility, pledges of love, amulets and talismans, protection, and as punishment, like the marks of outcasts, slaves, and convicts. Extensive decorative tattooing has also been part of the work of performance artists such as tattooed ladies.
Although tattoo art has existed at least since the first known tattooed person, Ötzi, lived around the year 3330 BCE, the way society perceives tattoos has varied immensely throughout history. In the 20th century, tattoo art throughout most of the world was associated with certain lifestyles, notably sailors and prisoners. In the 21st century, people choose to be tattooed for artistic, cosmetic, sentimental/memorial, religious, and spiritual reasons, or to symbolize their belonging to or identification with particular groups, including criminal gangs or a particular ethnic group or law-abiding subculture. Tattoos may show how a person feels about a relative or about an unrelated person. Tattoos can also be used for functional purposes, such as identification, permanent makeup, and medical purposes.
Terminology
The word , or tattow in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Samoan word tatau, meaning "to strike", from Proto-Oceanic *sau₃ referring to a wingbone from a flying fox used as an instrument for the tattooing process. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology of tattoo as "In 18th c. tattaow, tattow. From Polynesian tatau. In Marquesan, tatu." Before the importation of the Polynesian word, the practice of tattooing had been described in the West as painting, scarring, or staining.The etymology of the body modification term is not to be confused with the origins of the word for the military drumbeat or performance. In this case, the English word "tattoo" is derived from the Dutch word taptoe.
Ready-made tattoo designs are known as "flash". Flash sheets are prominently displayed in many tattoo parlors to enable customers to select a predrawn image or use them as inspiration for a custom image. Flash may be mass-produced or drawn by tattoo artists who work there.
The Japanese word irezumi means "insertion of ink" and can mean tattoos using tebori, the traditional Japanese hand method, a Western-style machine, or any method of tattooing using insertion of ink. Another word used for traditional Japanese tattoo designs is horimono. Japanese may use the Western word tattoo as a loan word meaning any non-Japanese styles of tattooing.
British anthropologist Ling Roth in 1900 described four methods of skin marking and suggested they be differentiated under the names "tatu", "moko", "cicatrix", and "keloid". The first is by pricking that leaves the skin smooth as found in places including the Pacific Islands. The second is a tattoo combined with chiseling to leave furrows in the skin as found in places including New Zealand. The third is scarification using a knife or chisel as found in places including West Africa. The fourth and the last is scarification by irritating and reopening a pre-existing wound, and rescarification to form a raised scar as found in places including Tasmania, Australia, Melanesia, and Central Africa.
Types
The American Academy of Dermatology distinguishes five types of tattoos: traumatic tattoos that result from injuries, such as asphalt from road injuries or pencil lead; amateur tattoos; professional tattoos, both via traditional methods and modern tattoo machines; cosmetic tattoos, also known as "permanent makeup"; and medical tattoos.Traumatic tattoos
A traumatic tattoo occurs when a substance such as asphalt or gunpowder is rubbed into a wound as the result of some kind of accident or trauma. When this involves carbon, dermatologists may call the mark a carbon stain instead of a tattoo. Coal miners could develop characteristic marks, called collier's stripes, because of coal dust getting into scratches and other small wounds. An amalgam tattoo is when amalgam particles are implanted in to the soft tissues of the mouth, usually the gums, during dental filling placement or removal. Another example of such accidental tattoos is the result of a deliberate or accidental stabbing with a pencil or pen, leaving graphite or ink beneath the skin.Identification
Forcible tattooing for identification
A well-known example is the Nazi practice of forcibly tattooing concentration camp inmates with identification numbers during the Holocaust as part of the Nazis' identification system, beginning in fall 1941. The SS introduced the practice at Auschwitz concentration camp to identify the bodies of registered prisoners in the concentration camps. During registration, guards would tattoo each prisoner with a number, usually on the left forearm, but sometimes on the chest or stomach. Of the Nazi concentration camps, only Auschwitz put tattoos on inmates. Prisoners found with tattoos in Mauthausen concentration camp and Buchenwald concentration camp upon liberation were presumably transported from Auschwitz by death march. The tattoo was the prisoner's camp number, sometimes with a special symbol added; some Jews had a triangle, and Romani had the letter "Z". In May 1944, Jewish men received the letters "A" or "B" to indicate a particular series of numbers.As early as the Zhou, Chinese authorities employed facial tattoos as a punishment for certain crimes or to mark prisoners or slaves.
File:Mark of a deserter.jpg|thumb|upright|Tattoo marking a deserter from the British Army; skin removed post mortem
During the Roman Empire, gladiators and slaves were tattooed; exported slaves were tattooed with the words "tax paid", and it was a common practice to tattoo "fugitive" on the foreheads of runaway slaves. Owing to the Biblical strictures against the practice, Emperor Constantine I banned tattooing the face around AD 330, and the Second Council of Nicaea banned all body markings as a pagan practice in AD 787.
In criminal investigations
These markings can potentially provide a wealth of information about an individual. Simple visual examinations, as well as more advanced digital recognition technologies, are employed to assist in identifying or providing clues about suspects or victims of crimes.Postmortem identification
Tattoos are sometimes used by forensic pathologists to help them identify burned, putrefied, or mutilated bodies. As tattoo pigment lies encapsulated deep in the skin, tattoos are not easily destroyed even when the skin is burned.Identification of animals
Pets, show animals, thoroughbred horses, and livestock are sometimes tattooed with animal identification marks. Ear tattoos are a method of identification for beef cattle. Tattooing with a slap mark on the shoulder or on the ear is the standard identification method in commercial pig farming. Branding is used for similar reasons and is often performed without anesthesia, but is different from tattooing, as no ink or dye is inserted during the process, the mark instead being caused by permanent scarring of the skin. Pet dogs and cats are sometimes tattooed with a serial number via which their owners can be identified. However, the use of a microchip has become an increasingly popular choice and since 2016 is a legal requirement for all 8.5 million pet dogs in the UK. In Australia, desexed cats and dogs are marked with a tattoo on the inside of the ear.Cosmetic
Permanent makeup is the use of tattoos to create long-lasting eyebrows, lips, eyes, and even moles definition. Natural colors are used to mimic eyebrows and freckles, while diverse pigments for lips and eyeliner for a look akin to traditional makeup.Another cosmetic tattooing trend is micropigmentation, which tattoo artists use to create the illusion of hair on the scalp. Often called scalp micropigmentation, this technique is popular among those experiencing hair loss, as it can mimic the look of a closely shaved head or add density to thinning areas. The process involves depositing tiny dots of pigment into the skin, creating a natural-looking shadow effect that blends seamlessly with existing hair.
Medical
Medical tattoos are used to ensure instruments are properly located for repeated application of radiotherapy and for the areola in some forms of breast reconstruction. Tattooing has also been used to convey medical information about the wearer. Alzheimer patients may be tattooed with their names, so they may be easily identified if they go missing. Additionally, tattoos are used in skin tones to cover vitiligo, a skin pigmentation disorder.SS blood group tattoos were worn by members of the Waffen-SS in Nazi Germany during World War II to identify the individual's blood type. After the war, the tattoo was taken to be prima facie, if not perfect, evidence of being part of the Waffen-SS, leading to potential arrest and prosecution. This led a number of ex-Waffen-SS to shoot themselves through the arm with a gun, removing the tattoo and leaving scars like the ones resulting from pox inoculation, making the removal less obvious.
Tattoos were probably also used in ancient medicine as part of the treatment of the patient. In 1898, medical doctor Daniel Fouquet wrote about "medical tattooing" practices in Ancient Egypt based on female mummies at the Deir el-Bahari site.
Ötzi the iceman had a total of 61 tattoos, which may have been a form of acupuncture used to relieve pain. Radiological examination of Ötzi's bones showed "age-conditioned or strain-induced degeneration" corresponding to many tattooed areas, including osteochondrosis and slight spondylosis in the lumbar spine and wear-and-tear degeneration in the knee and especially in the ankle joints. If so, this is at least 2,000 years before acupuncture's previously known earliest use in China.
Some women in the US and UK who have undergone mastectomy and breast reconstruction choose to get realistic tattoos of nipples. Others choose to get decorative cover-up tattoos over mastectomy scars instead of reconstruction.