Tattoos
...are those who consider it an art form as well as religious and sentimental values and beliefs.
The word tattoo is believed to have had two derivations- one coming from the Polynesian word “ta” meaning strike something and the other from the Tahitian word “tatau” which means “to mark something. (http://www.designboom.com/history/tattoo_history.html) On December 8, 1891 the first electric tattoo machine was registered for patent by Samuel O’Reilly. Samuel’s machine was based on a machine invented by Thomas Edison in 1875 which was used to embroider fabric. But tattoos have been around longer than that. The first discovery of tattoos known to man came from a well preserved mummy nicknamed Otzi. Otzi was a man believed to be from around 3300 B.C. and was discovered in a glacier near the border between Austria and Italy. Otzi had 57 tattoos on his body, scientist believe that the positions of the tattoos were probably placed there for therapeutic reasons. Scientist believes that the very first tattoo was probably made by accident. They believe that someone may have had a wound and rubbed it with dirty hands or suit from a fire and when the wound healed, a mark was left behind. The processes of the first tattoos was said to be long and painful. The tools used back then were very primitive. The “needle” was often made of bird bone, turtle shells, bamboo, and shark teeth. Some of these needles were crafted in the form of a rake and were dipped in some types of ink and then another stick was used to tap the design into the skin. Other types of tattoos were scratched into the skin and then the ink was smeared into the wound.
One of the earliest tattoos was tribal tattoos, used mainly by the Polynesian culture. These tribal tattoos consisted mainly of detailed geometric shapes. Depending on the placement of the shape, the person being tattooed and...
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