Tattoos are an increasingly popular form of body modification, but where do they come from? The word "tattoo" means drawing or word that is recorded, while the tattoo is the act of making prints on human skin dyes or pigments introduced under the epidermis. It is believed that the term "tattoo" derives from the word ta, Polynesian "hit" or onomatopeyatau-tau, imitating the sound it produced the percussion of a blunt instrument that records the stylus on the skin.
History
Practice of tattooing comes from ancient times, although no accurate records of their origin or how they discovered the process of realization. Probably these techniques have been independently widespread among many peoples of antiquity, and are the heritage of many civilizations. The earliest record of tattoos is found in the body of a Neolithic hunter found inside a glacier.
The Egyptian mummies in 2000 BC had a few tattoos, shapes and simple styles, mostly composed of lines and points. There are numerous reports of archaeological findings where there are small signs or representations tattooed.
Both the meaning and the motives of the tattoos were different for every age and culture. For example, Egyptian tattooing was associated with a sacred or religious nature, others used it to impress or cause feelings of fear to the enemy in battle. In ancient cultures, slaves or people who had done some crime were marked as a sign of his status to society.
In Japan, the yakuza, members of organized crime groups, expressed their ideology through body tattoo, a painful procedure and indelibly demonstrated courage and loyalty for life to the group to which they belonged. They can be tattooed all over the body, a situation that made them marginal, since these practices were illegal.
Tattooing was a widely practiced body modification among sailors, convicts and members of marginalized social classes during the first half of the nineteenth century.
