Tattoo – To mark a person with an indelible design by inserting pigment into
punctures in the skin.
Body Art – Art made on, with or consisting of the human body. The most common forms are tattoos and body
piercings, but can include scarification, branding and body painting.
A History of Tattooing
3300-3200 B.C.- Otzi the Ice Man lived during this period and had a
total of 57 tattoos, that could possibly have been medical tattoos.
Some of Otzi the
Ice Man’s 57 Tattoos
2100 B.C. – Female Egyptians from the eleventh dynasty were tattooed for
ritualistic purposes. Also around this time in Ancient Greece and Rome tattoos
were beginning to be used as a sign of ownership on slaves, and also a way of
transmitting secret messages across enemy lines.
487 AD – Pope Hadrian, bans the use of Tattoos, but despite this they were
still evident amongst Christian pilgrims who received them as symbols of their
faith. During this time, the Danes,
Norse and Saxon people tattooed their family crests on their bodies using woad.
300-600 AD In Japan tattoos were being used to
identify untouchable or lower classes.
1769
- Tattoos are re-introduced to the west,
through Captain James Cook who brought a painted ‘native’ from Tahiti, back to
England. Captain Cook was the first
westerner to use the Tahitian word ‘ta-tu’ or ‘tatau’ meaning ‘to strike’
1777 – The word ‘tattoo’ is formally entered into the English language.
During this period it is said that the Prince of Wales had a tattoo of a
Jerusalem cross added to his body and many of the English upper class followed
suit.
America
Early twentieth century – Tattooed circus and carnival performers, started to
appear in sideshows.
1891
– Samuel O’Riley invented the electric tattoo machine
1932 – Lindbergh baby kidnapping prompted a surge in many parents having
their babies/children tattooed for identification purposes.
1936 – Social Security Cards were introduced, so people had their numbers
tattooed onto themselves so that they couldn’t be forged or forgotten.
World War II
The Nazi’s used
tattooed numbers to identify Jewish people.
Sailors had palm
trees tattooed on their arms if they served in the Mediterranean.
Patriotic symbols
of eagles and the American Flag were widely used by servicemen, as part of
tattoo designs.
‘American Sailor Jerry’ Norman Keith
Collins, after leaving the navy,
reinvents the tattoo for the middle classes, by introducing Japanese
style, colours and imagery for the American tattoo.
1955 – Assistant Secretary of Defense suggests that citizens in America have
their blood group tattooed on themselves in case of military attack on America.
1961 – An outbreak of Hepatitis puts tattooing in a negative light.
Present Tattoos are accepted more and more as fine
art, influenced by culture and ancient history.
Tattoo adorned
celebrities are in the news far more now than before, sparking a new generation
of body art followers.
Body Art – As mentioned before, the most popular forms are
tattoos and piercings, but there are other types of Body Art including
scarification, branding, scalpelling, shaping and body painting.
Scarification A form of body modification that is now
becoming popular in western culture.
Scarification has been used by tribes around the world for centuries, as
part of tribal ceremonies and rites of passage.
The idea of
scarification is to get a raised scar called a ‘keloid’ scar, which then gives
the intended design a three dimensional appearance.
Branding is also a
type of scarification, but uses heated metal to create a burn, which eventually
turns into scar tissue.
Body Piercing
First piercings
are thought to have appeared approximately 4.000 years ago in the Middle East.
During the 16th
century body piercing spread to India, although the Aztecs were thought to be
the first civilization to use tongue and lip piercing as a way of drawing blood
‘for the gods.’
During the 1960’s,
when the hippie culture started, many young people travelled to India,
returning with nose piercings as souvenirs, and this is popular world wide,
today.
Designs from the past
Simple designs
were made with lines and crosses, which had a variety of meanings, possibly for
identification within their tribe or culture.
Also, as in the
case of Otzi the Iceman, they were used for medicinal purposes.
As people evolved
so did the designs, animals and figures started to appear, because their
ability to mark their skin improved.
Designs from other cultures
There are many
designs from other cultures, that have an influence on today’s choice of
tattoo, but two of my favourites are the Maori and Japanese tattoos.
Maori Tribal Tattoos
Maori facial
tattoos were called ‘Moko’ and they revealed important facts about the person,
such as his identity within the tribe.
A Maori Tribesman.
If a maori man
didn’t have his face tattooed he was known as a ‘papatea’ or ‘smooth face’ and
did not have any social standing within his tribe, so basically he was a
nobody.
The tattoo was
usually in two halves and symmetrical in design.
The forehead was
only tattooed on tribal members of high nobility.
Coils on the tip
of the nose are meant to characterize great knowledge, and the spiral on the
cheek means first born.
Japanese Tattoo Designs
Japanese tattoos
are usually of koi carps, tigers, cherry blossom trees and mythical creatures
such as dragons and phoenixes.
Each tattoo has a
different meaning: -
Cherry Blossoms
Used to represent
life, because the cherry blossom is fragile, it symbolizes that you should live
life to the full.
Koi Carp
A myth states that
a koi carp swims upstream to a bridge or a gate of heaven where they are
transformed into dragons.
This
transformation symbolizes luck, strength, power, ambition and individuality.
A dragon tattoo
This tattoo design
is associated with many things, as stated above, it also represents courage,
freedom and strength.
Modern Ranges and Conventions
Body art has
become increasingly popular over the past thirty to forty years, particularly
piercings and tattoos, not least amongst the rich and famous.
During a period of
thirteen years, England footballer, David Beckham, has developed a fascination
with tattoos and has many adorning his arms, back and neck.
Examples of David
Beckham’s many tattoos.
Amongst his many
tattoos, he has ones commemorating the births of his children, celebrating his
marriage to Victoria, religious ones to remember his grandfather and roman
numerals.
These tattoo
designs work like a road map of David Beckham’s family commitment and his love
of them.
The ‘Mum’ Tattoo
There seems to be
mystery surrounding the origins of the ‘Mum’ tattoo, but it seems to have
become popular during the second world war, particularly with servicemen, who
used it as a reminder of home.
Today the ‘mum’
tattoo design is still popular with both sexes, although women tend to go for
more cute designs, but it does prove that people young and old, male or female,
still love their mum.
Symbolism plays an
important part in this type of design, hearts, and flowers etc have a special
meaning to them:
Hearts – love,
passion, and adoration.
Roses - represents
everlasting beauty, and love, but also the colour is important, each colour has
its own meaning, which comes from the Victorians fascination with the flower.
The rose tattoo is often viewed as a good choice for a woman, as it is a
delicate flower.
Flames – can mean
remembrance, light of love, and purification.
My Design
For my design I
choose to produce something for a female friend because the sex hadn’t been
stated in the exercise brief. Iwanted something stylish but feminine and
I didn’t want to go for anything conventional, i.e the traditional one
with a heart in the centre, so I looked at other styles of tattoo.
I sketched out a
few ideas, and decided I wanted a mother and baby image as a central part of
the design, so used a modern photograph
to sketch from.
I produced some
thumbnail sketches of the proposed tattoo/greetings card image, from which I
chose a circular design to work with.
I started to work
on a coloured client visual of the image, and got part of the way through, but
discovered that it wasn’t working as well as I would have liked, the colours were
too strong, and the design overall wasn’t what I wanted, so I went back to the
thumbnails and chose a more traditional art nouveau, styled, design.
Examples of Art Nouveau Tattoos and Colour Schemes.
I found that the
design shape I chose to work with, would suit use on an arm, back or body,
because you wouldn’t lose the structure of the image, no matter what position
the limb/body would be in.
The pink roses
symbolize feminism, the yellow primroses, I can’t live without you and the
hearts, love, all the things that you would say/should say to your mum.
Overall I am happy
with the design, it works well as both a tattoo and a greetings card, and can
be reproduced at any size without losing any detail or meaning, it is not as
intricate as some of the art nouveau designs I have come across, but it is
still in the same vein.
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