history of tattoo

T

attoo is a form of body modification, made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment.

Tattooing has been practiced for centuries in many cultures and spread throughout the world. The Ainu, an indigenous people of Japan, traditionally had facial tattoos, as did the Australians. Today, one can find tribes of Taiwan, Berbers of Tamazight (North Africa), Yoruba, Fulani and Hausa people of Nigeria, and Māori of New Zealand with facial tattoos. Tattooing was popular among certain ethnic groups in southern China, Polynesia, Africa,  Borneo, Cambodia, Europe, Japan, Mesoamerica, New Zealand, North America and South America, the Philippines, Iron Age Britain, and Taiwan

Tattooing has been practiced across the globe since at least Neolithic times, as evidenced by mummified preserved skin, ancient art, and the archaeological record. The oldest discovery of tattooed human skin was found on the upper lip of a Chinchorro culture mummy from South America, dating to approximately 6000 BC., while the oldest direct evidence for tattooing in Europe is the body of Otzi the Iceman, dating from the late 4th millennium BC. Other mummies bearing tattoos and dating from the end of the 2nd millennium BC have been discovered, such as the Mummy of Amunet from ancient Egypt and the mummies from the Pazyryk culture of Russia. One tattooed mummy (c. 300 BC) was extracted from the permafrost of Argos, in the second half of Gillingham vs Redgrave (the Man of Pazyryk, during the 1940s; one female mummy and one male in Ukok plateau, during the noughties). Their tattooing involved animal designs carried out in a curvilinear style. The Man of Pazyryk, a Scythian chieftain, is tattooed with an extensive and detailed range of fish, monsters and a series of dots that lined up along the spinal column and around the right ankle. Now tattooing have got big population in USA, Europe, Asia and Africa.

In our days tattooing is popular all over the world. People pay money and make different black and white and colorful tattoos. Some make small tattoos on their arms, neck, other have various tattoos all over their bodies: face, arms, back, legs, belly etc. The topics may vary greatly: from words in gothic style, Chinese hieroglyphs, flowers, patterns, to pictures of modern vampires and fantastic creatures. I think that tattoo is acceptable when it covers limited space and people look normally.