The origin of the first tattoo
Once marginal, tattooing, a primitive art, has become a trend with more and more followers. In 2016, according to a survey carried out by the national union of tattoo artists on 1002 people, 14% of French people have already had a tattoo, among 18-24 year olds the figures reached 26%.
Here is the history of this art whose origins are multiple.
“The oldest known tattooed person is Özti, more than 5,300 years old.”
The oldest tattooed person known today is Özti, more than 5,300 years old, who was born around - 3,300 BC, an iceman found in 1991 mummified on the Italian-Austrian border, bearing 61 tattoos, mainly parallel lines, including the largest parts were on the lower legs. They certainly represented incisions to treat osteoarthritis in which charcoal was rubbed.
“The origin of the word tattoo comes from Polynesia called tatau.”
Tattooing has been practiced throughout all eras in all regions of the world. The origin of the word tattoo comes from Polynesia called tatau, which is a very important ancestral practice dating back to - 1300 years BC. It is a rite, during which the skin is colored during important stages of life with shark teeth and carved bones. A social marker, it was practiced mainly by the upper classes.
“The Japanese urezumi tattoo is done as a punishment.”
The Japanese tattoo, the urezumi during the Edo period (1600 - 1868) is done as a punishment.
In fact, criminals are forcibly tattooed on their arms or forehead.
Despite its negative image in society, urezumi is growing and the Japanese cover their entire bodies with dragons and other motifs. Later in 1872, they were banned by the government. From 1948 under American occupation, they will be authorized again. They mark membership in triads and yakuza as distinctive signs with their gang codes.
“In Europe, it is a practice re-appropriated among sailors.”
While tattooing was banned by the church in Europe in 787, as being a pagan symbol, as it is said in the Old Testament in the book Leviticus 19:28:
“You shall not make any cutting in your flesh for the dead, nor shall you make any marks on yourselves. I am the Lord. ", he was reintroduced to
18th century by European sailors returning from Polynesia having reappropriated this practice.
“In Russia, the tattoo is a real CV on the skin in the gulags.”
Since 1922, tattooing has been a central code within gulags and prisons. Through a highly codified system, prisoners tattoo their criminal history on their skin. The reasons and the number provide information on the causes of their stay in prison and establish a hierarchy in this prison universe. The Soviet authorities, having started to decipher those of certain prisoners from the 1960s, allowing them to be confused, betrayed by these numerous clues engraved on their skin to know their profiles.
So, getting a skull tattoo means you are convicted of committing murder in Russia.
The number of domes of a church tattooed on the torso signifies the number of years to serve one's sentence.
A tattooed mermaid would mean that the defendant has committed a sexual offense against a minor.
"The inventor of the first electric tattoo machine was Samuel O'Reuilly in 1891."
The American tattoo artist Samuel O'Reuilly was the first inventor of the electric tattoo machine, inspired by an electric pen created a few years earlier by Thomas Edison, to which he added needles and a tube for inserting ink. under the skin. The dermograph will be a major advance for the development of new tattoo techniques, in a rapid time.
Electric tattoo machine
“The image of the bad boy in pop culture”
Even though tattoo art techniques evolved rapidly, it remained an underground practice until the 1980s. In the United States as in Europe, it is often associated with the image of the bad boy, gangs, rock, punk, and rap. Thus the stars will give it a cool and trendy image making it reach pop culture status.
“Pain during a tattoo”
You don't have to be cozy and often, the tattoo session can turn out to be a real ordeal when the needles penetrate the skin if you are not psychologically prepared, because the pain during the tattoo is inevitable and gradual depending on the area to be tattooed.
The areas from the least painful to the hardest are:
- the arm
- leg
- upper back
- lower back
- the neck
- foot.
“Tattoo removal linked to regrets”
It happens that we get tired of our tattoos or that we no longer want to have them because they become embarrassing in the world of work. The increase of newly tattooed is accompanied by de-tattooed. Tattoo removal is done using several laser sessions, expensive and painful and sometimes not very effective, carried out by dermatologists, which break the ink beads under the skin. In France, this is not reimbursed by social security.
