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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 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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By infmom, February 2, 2009 5:55 pm

Image via Wikipedia

Geometric designs are among the oldest tattoo patterns in the world. It was easy to create them with primitive tools (especially using the horribly painful technique of “sewing” a pigmented thread just under the skin to make the designs) and a surprising variety of patterns could be created with just a few simple shapes.

In modern times the tribal tattoo has brought the ancient geometric shapes back into fashion, even though it might be difficult to find an actual tribe out there with any of those designs.     One of the major advantages is that the design’s size can be easily changed to fit the amount of skin available–an arm band can wrap around perfectly, for example, or a bracelet or sleeve be made to fit as though they were clothing on the skin.

The geometric pattern can be made with solid colored shapes, or outlines, or anything in between.   It can be the same shape repeated, or mirrored, or a selection of harmonizing shapes.   It can be created in such a way that small mistakes are not noticeable, which would not be so easy to do with writing or a recognizable image.   Many tribal patterns today are done in solid black ink, but I have seen them applied in a rainbow of colors as well.

The down side to a geometric pattern is that if it is applied by a less talented artist, it can quickly look muddy or blurred.   If the ink is applied too deeply, the spaces between the elements can fill up and destroy the pattern.   If you plan to have a geometric or tribal tattoo done, be sure to check your artist’s portfolio for similar work.   Don’t rely on the selection of flash on the wall–anybody can put flash on a wall.   What’s important is how the flash translates to body art.   If you have a particular design in mind, be sure to bring a clear photo, drawing or printout of what you want, just so you and the artist understand what’s to be done.

Geometric designs are striking and attractive when done right, and their popularity is well deserved   I don’t have any geometric designs myself, but I have often contemplated a bold bracelet in bright colors.   Maybe this will be the year I’ll get it done.

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By infmom, September 29, 2008 1:06 pm

Mark your calendars for Sunday, October 12. The History Channel will be rerunning “Ancient Ink.”

Host Craig Reynolds travels around the world to document traditional methods and styles of tattooing, and has himself tattooed in traditional ways by several artists.

The final artist is Zulu, of Zulu Tattoo in Los Angeles. My daughter and I each got two tattoos in Zulu’s shop, although not by the master himself, who is in such great demand (and quite rightly so) that one has to make an appointment months in advance.

Here is the link to information on the History Channel web site.

photo credit: dalbera

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By infmom, July 22, 2008 10:48 pm

Not long ago, I recorded a show on the History Channel called “Ancient Ink.” I finally got around to watching it yesterday. The host traveled around the world, featuring various traditional styles and methods of tattooing. A Maori artist amplified the tat on his back, a Japanese artist tattooed his leg in traditional style, and he showcased other people getting traditional tattoos (for example, a Polynesian body suit and an Inuit tattoo done by sewing the ink into the skin). He finished up at Zulu Tattoo in Los Angeles, which is where my daughter and I got inked (although we weren’t lucky enough to get inked by Zulu himself, who is so popular that one has to wait months for an appointment, and for good reason).

Naturally, the effect on me was to get me thinking about more ink.

But that’s not what got me to thinking tonight. There was the obligatory segment on tattoo removal,although it was focused on the removal of gang tattoos. I’ve had laser resurfacing done on my face (in a less than successful procedure to get rid of my eye bags) and the plastic surgeon put me under general anaesthesia for that. I know what it feels like afterwards, and I certainly wouldn’t want to go through it with just numbing cream on my skin.

Tonight on Los Angeles’ Channel 5 news, the “health and beauty” segment also talked about tattoo removal, and this time the patient was a woman in her 30s who was having a teenage indiscretion erased. The reporter, Marta Waller, revealed that she also had had a tattoo done on her foot as part of a past story on tattoo parlors, and is currently in the process of having it removed. And she agreed, removal is very painful.

I wonder why a reporter would go that far in quest of a story, if she wasn’t really committed to keeping it? Did she plan all along on having it removed, not treating it as a permanent thing? Was it just one of those things that sounded like a good idea at the time, and she regretted it later? She didn’t go into it.

At least the host of the “Ancient Ink” show got his new tattoos for good, spiritual, personal reasons, and I doubt he’ll be the host of a show on getting rid of tattoos any time soon.

Meanwhile… I’m definitely thinking about my own next trip to the tattoo parlor.
photo credit: riviera 2005

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By infmom, September 23, 2007 10:56 pm

All the early examples of tattooing that we have been able to find were composed of simple dots and lines. Even the ancient Egyptians, who had richly symbolic writing, did not put hierogyliphic or other graphic designs on the body. They did mark figurines with graphic designs. No one yet has explained why figurines would be decorated in different ways from the people they were created to represent. (It was common for small figurines known as ushabti to be placed in tombs for the symbolic purpose of serving the deceased in the afterlife.)

A few mummies have been found with patterns of dots and dashes tattooed into the skin. Since the number of tattooed mummies we have found so far is small, no real conclusion can be drawn about the reason for the designs. But since the best-known mummified tattooed person was a priestess, it has been assumed that the tattoos served some ritual purpose. So far, no tattooed male Egyptian mummies have been found.

Archaeologist Flinders Petrie found implements that could possibly have been used to create tattoos, and later archaeologists have compared those instruments to those still in use in that area of Africa, particularly in Nubia. It has been speculated that the Egyptians adopted the practice of tattooing from the Nubians.

Smithsonian Magazine did an article recently about the history of tattoos, and if you’d like further information on ancient tattoos you can read that article here.

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By infmom, September 15, 2007 4:16 pm

Nobody knows, of course, when and where tattooing got its start. I think it’s reasonable to assume that some cave dweller or other got poked with a burnt stick, and found that afterwards the black mark left in the skin by the ashes didn’t go away.

It’s pretty clear that human ancestors liked to decorate themselves, and it would be a lot easier to poke a few burnt, sharpened sticks into your skin than to make other kinds of nonpermanent adornment. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to try to make a hole in a shell, much less the incredible amount of work it would have taken to make beads.

Magical, medicinal markings

The “iceman,” the oldest human body ever found, has tattoos–dots and lines in various places on his skin. Investigation has shown that those dots and lines are over places where he had problems with his bones. Whether the tattoos were thought to be medicinal in their own right, or just marked the places where what passed for a “physician” in those days to concentrate his or her treatment, of course, is unknown.

Many other more recent ancient human bodies have tattooed marks of various kinds. Some have elaborate designs, some just simple dots or chevrons. It is clear that permanent marks on the skin were significant and important in the ancient world. Long before people had written languages, they had meaningful symbols, and they had the desire to mark themselves in meaningful ways. Paint would wash off. Tattoos wouldn’t.

Is the urge to decorate our bodies part of our ancient heritage? Something that no overlay of more recent belief systems can overrule? Are more recent body modifications like circumcision simply another manifestation of our biology rather than the theology they ostensibly represent?

Food for thought.

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