Multi.Colored—tattooed people, tattoo dreams

I’m not finished with my brief overview of ancient tattoos, but along the way I’ve found some wonderful internet resources for anyone who would like to learn more about ancient practices.

Here are a few:

Tattoo History (The Vanishing Tattoo)
A pictorial history of tattoos (tattoos.com)
Pigments of Imagination (National Geographic)
History of Tattoo (tattoo.co.uk)
Tattoos: The Ancient and Mysterious History (Smithsonian Magazine)

Check Google… there are a lot of great references out there.

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Although archaeological evidence for Polynesian tattoos is scant compared to what we’ve found elsewhere, the mythology of Polynesians says that the art of tattooing was brought to people by the gods in the very beginning. Thus the oral tradition gives us what the archaeologists haven’t–evidence of ancient origins of tattoos. While we don’t know exactly what the oldest Polynesian tattoos looked like, we do know that the present-day designs evolved from ancient originals.

A sacred art

Tattooing was considered sacred, and the application of the designs was part of a religious ritual. The designs conveyed personal meaning–heritage, achievements, and position in society. Shamans were responsible for applying the tattoos, and there were special ceremonies for both the shaman and the person who would be getting the tattoo. If ancient designs were as extensive as historical ones, the full tattoo would take many separate sessions over quite a long period of time.

Symbols on the skin were used for protection, for reverence for one’s ancestors, and to signal the attainment of marriageable status. The tattoos also served as an indicator of status and power. The higher one was up the hierarchy, the more tattoos one had. Women were apparently less-tattooed than men.

The ancient traditions were maintained up to the time of the coming of the missionaries, who, in their zeal to convert the world, forbade tattooing based on their interpretation of the Old Testament. The fact that they were trying to abolish an ancient and very sacred religious tradition was of no particular consequence because it was not their ancient and very sacred religious tradition.

Fortunately, some of the missionaries made drawings and took notes, so the traditional designs were not lost forever, and people who want the traditional sacred designs today can have them just as their ancestors did.

Treat these designs with respect

Since these designs are sacred, it is especially important for people outside the Polynesian culture not to copy them. One may base one’s design on a Polynesian original, but an exact copy would be sacreligious and offensive. People from outside Polynesian culture who want a “tribal” design should keep this in mind. You would not want an image from your own sacred tracditions just slapped on somebody’s body somewhere with no understanding of what it meant.

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It appears that tattooing in Asia is as ancient a practice as it is in the rest of the world. While we have no Asian equivalent to the tattooed Iceman, prehistoric figurines have been found that show distinct markings on their skin that are thought to represent tattoos.

As in other cultures, markings on the “skin” of the figurines are thought to be representations of fertility. It seems common world-wide for women (or statues of women) to be marked on belly, breasts and pubic area.

We have written records from Asia that are very ancient and as early as 3oo BCE there are mentions of tattoos and their symbolic meanings. It is clear that in Asia, as in other parts of the world, tattoos were not just for decoration but for punishment–criminals were often permanently marked.

A mark of status

Chinese archaeologists have excavated tomb sites containing well-preserved tattooed mummies in western China. These decorated people were not usually Asians, and are thought to have been connected to the Celts and Scythians. Some of their tattoos are said to be extremely elaborate, but the archaeologists haven’t published much. Heavily tattooed bodies identified as Scythians have been excavated in the area of what is now Siberia, and it appears that at least one of those people was indeed Asian and not Caucasian. Tattooing appears to have been a mark of high status and to record the person’s accomplishments in life.

…or the mark of an outcast

By the Middle Ages, the Chinese appear to have begun to associate tattoos only with criminals and we do not have much in the way of descriptions of decorative tattoos. By about the 1600s in Japan, tattoos were not acceptable among “polite society” and were considered strictly a practice of the lower class and criminal elements. It is thought that the design of the elaborate “body suit” tattoo came about so that a person’s everyday robes could completely cover the tattoo.

While the body art in today’s Japan is astonishing in its beauty and complexity, it is still not a widespread practice and there is still a common association (warranted or not) with lower class and criminal elements.

Archaeologists still have a lot to learn and discover about the decorated people of the past.

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