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By infmom, May 28, 2009 5:25 pm

Oh, what a lovely article from Discover magazine.   Click the link to see a true scientific tattoo!

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By infmom, May 26, 2009 11:35 am

It seems pretty safe to assume that people have been making permanent marks on their bodies for a lot longer than we have the actual bodies to prove it. I’m sure our ancestors noticed that if you cut or puncture the skin (either accidentally or on purpose) with some sharp object that has some kind of pigment on it (anything from soot to red ochre) the mark stays after the wound heals. (Many a former grade school kid has the permanent mark of a pencil stab somewhere even today.)

After that discovery impinged on the general consciousness, some enterprising artist undoubtedly figured out pretty quickly   how to make permanent marks on purpose, and body art took another giant step.

The first tattoo implements were likely things like thorns, sharp stone points and knives, and the colors those easily obtainable nearby.   Soot makes good solid black marks; wood ashes rubbed into a wound would lead to scarring much more noticeable than if the wound were left to heal on its own.   (Of course, rubbing such things into open wounds increased the chances of major infection, so perhaps each person who survived felt much more protected from the dangers of a primitive world.)

As people were able to make better carving tools, it became possible to carve fine-toothed tattoo “combs” and thus make larger marks all at once.   Traditional Polynesian tattoo artists use this technique today.   The comb is tapped with a stick to force the color into the skin, which got the work done a lot faster than poking individual dots with a thorn or sharp stone point.   Traditional African tattoo artists still use the thorns.

People also used to use thread or sinew rubbed with pigment and “sewed” under the skin.   This appears to have been the favored method among people in the arctic areas.   This traditional method is not commonly used today, although there are still a few artists who know how to do it.

Advances in metalworking techniques helped as well.   Up till fairly recent times, making needles was a labor-intensive process.   Today’s machine-made needles are so common that we often don’t understand why people even a century ago had needle cases and had to make sure they cared for the needles they had as carefully as possible, re-sharpening them with emery if necessary (a reminder of this remains in the classic tomato-shaped pincushion with the little emery strawberry that people of my generation remember, and which is still being sold today).   Being able to purchase relatively inexpensive needles for the purpose of tattooing, and being able to replace those needles easily should they get too dull or break, made life a lot easier for the artists.

With the advent of electricity, everything changed.   Thomas Edison invented an electric engraving machine that was quickly adapted to “engrave” on skin, with a reservoir to deliver the pigment down hollow needles.   At about the same time, a tattoo machine using electromagnets was invented, and this proved to be the superior design.   Every advance in tattoo-machine technology since then has improved on that electromagnetic original.

I don’t think I would have had the courage to get an old-style tattoo.   Even with the most modern technology the process is still painful.   But at least it’s over a lot more quickly than it could once have been.   And now more people can have traditional designs done with modern equipment, helping keep tradition alive in the Space Age.   It’s one of the best examples of a combination of the old and the new.

photo credit: karenwithak
photo credit: Juan Eduardo Donoso

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By infmom, May 11, 2009 8:12 pm

Image via Wikipedia

I babysat for Our Official Grandson the other night. His parents have a fairly large hi-def TV, which is something we don’t have, and won’t be getting any time soon.

What’s that got to do with tattoos? Well, I watched “American Chopper” in HD for the first time and got a better look at Paul Teutul Sr.’s tattoos.

Yuck. 

He’s had multiple artists work on his arms, and if I recall correctly, he had one of them try to unify all the separate artworks.  He’s got odd litle blobs between the designs, mostly.  I’m not sure what they were intended to be or to do, but the overall effect looks pretty bad.

I understand the desire to turn separate tattoos into one.  I’ve done it myself.  When it’s done right, it enhances the artwork.  (I like to think that my additions turned a mediocre tattoo into a good one.)  When it’s done by a lesser artist, as apparently Paul Sr’s was…   well, the result is unfortunate.

But what happens after something like that is done?  Does the tattooed person just consider all the work that went into it, and accept it despite the fact that it doesn’t look good?  I wouldn’t, myself.  Of course, I had the artist draw out the transformation before agreeing to the work.  So if it had turned out badly I would have been just as responsible.

Have you tried to unify separate works?  If so, how did it turn out?

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By infmom, May 6, 2009 5:50 pm

I was watching the “Ancient Ink” show (for the third time) the other day, and musing about how we humans seem eternally determined to decorate ourselves permanently.

Some of the methods ancient people used to decorate their bodies were incredibly painful (for that matter, some of the methods modern people use to decorate their bodies must hurt just as much). Cutting the skin and rubbing ashes into it, sewing lines under the skin with sinew coated with soot, branding, pounding pigment into the skin… yes, people have to be very determined and very brave.

And yet there’s evidence that our ancestors did it on a regular basis. We don’t know for sure why, or whether the designs were purely decorative, ceremonial or or medicinal purposes. We don’t know why paint, beads, feathers, etc were not enough and why a permanent mark was the only possible choice. Speaking as someone who wanted a tattoo for 30 years before actually getting one, I can say that the urge to get these permanent decorations can be both strong and lasting.

People in the modern world get tattoos to decorate, to acknowledge life milestones, to show membership in a group, for protection and to demonstrate our spiritual beliefs. We don’t want temporary decorations–we want something that will for all intents and purposes last forever.

Watching the host of “Ancient Ink” and the other people in the documentary go through the most painful processes to pay homage to human tradition gave me the sense that as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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