PEOPLES PERSPECTIVE OF TATTOOS :

Tattooing is an art over 6,000 years old, but I can remember when it
was only whispered about with equal parts awe and revulsion.

My mother would probably faint to know I’m inked.

Tattoos used to be an affront to polite Society, a sign of moral turpitude,

(translate “going straight to Hell”), but they are commonplace, now.
Everyone from teenagers to grannies have them.

This grandma does. Despite the dire warnings, I still love mine every time
I look at it.

Tattoos aren’t without some risk, it’s true. Then again, everything fun in
life has a bit of risk attached to it.

I ride motorcycles, too, much to the horror of my children.

Sowhat, exactly, is it about tattoos? Why do they still give off that little
shiver of rebellion and lawlessness?

You always want more

The main problem with tattoos, as I see it, is that you always want more. I
can’t explain it, but they’re addictive. Everyone I know with a tattoo wants
another one. If I were to get psychological, I would say that it’s all relative
to the underlying reason you get one in the first place.

Or I could just say that they’re fun and often beautiful when done in good
taste.

Of those who have tattoos, 70% have more than one tattoo and 20% have
more than five. 32% of people with tattoos claim that they are addicted to
ink.

More people have tattoos than you might think

In the United States, (46%) of people older than 18 have tattoos, and the
older they get, the more likely they are to have them. It’s estimated that
36% of Americans between the age of 18 and 29 have at least one tattoo,
and 11% of those that have tattoos are between the ages of 50 to 64.
Overall, 15 % of men and 13% of women have tattoos.

All of this may not be so obvious, because the majority of tatted people
have tattoos that are primarily hidden by clothing.
IDEA FOR A SPEECH :

Prepared Speech on Tattoos: Body Art or Rebellion

Introduction

Good [morning/afternoon/evening], everyone. Today, I want to explore a

fascinating topic that has sparked debate for decades: tattoos. Are they
merely a form of body art, or do they represent a deeper sense of
rebellion?

The Art of Tattoos

 Tattoos have been a part of human culture for thousands of years,

serving various purposes across different societies.

 They can symbolize personal stories, cultural heritage, or artistic

expression.

 Many renowned artists have embraced tattooing as a legitimate art

form, showcasing intricate designs and techniques.

Tattoos as Body Art

 Aesthetic Appeal: For many, tattoos are a way to enhance their

physical appearance and express individuality.

 Cultural Significance: In some cultures, tattoos hold significant

meaning, representing rites of passage or spiritual beliefs.

 Personal Expression: Tattoos allow individuals to convey their

beliefs, experiences, and emotions through visual art. This aligns
with the idea that tattoos can be seen as coherent systems of
meaning, where individuals explain, represent, and justify their
experiences as tattooees, producing the act of getting tattooed as a
particular kind of event with specific functions and implications. 1

Tattoos as Rebellion

 Counter-Culture Movement: Historically, tattoos have been

associated with subcultures, such as punk and biker communities,
often seen as a form of rebellion against societal norms.

 Challenging Conventions: Many people choose to get tattoos to

defy traditional expectations regarding body image and
professionalism.
  Social Stigma: Despite their growing acceptance, tattoos can still
carry a stigma, leading some to view them as acts of defiance. This
is articulated in the insight that while alternative culture seeks to
coexist with hegemony, oppositional culture works to displace and
replace it, suggesting that tattoos can be seen as an oppositional
practice in some contexts.1

The Duality of Tattoos

 Personal Choice: Ultimately, whether tattoos are seen as art or

rebellion depends on the individual's perspective and intent.

 Cultural Shifts: As society evolves, the perception of tattoos

continues to change, with many now viewing them as a legitimate
form of self-expression rather than mere rebellion.

Conclusion

In conclusion, tattoos can be both body art and a form of rebellion,

depending on the context and the individual. They serve as a powerful
medium for self-expression, challenging societal norms while also
celebrating personal identity. Thank you for your attention, and I hope this
discussion has provided you with a deeper understanding of the
multifaceted nature of tattoos.

"Tattoos are a way to express who you are, and that can be both art and
rebellion."

HISTORY OF TATTOOS AND WHAT THEY WERE USED FOR OR SIMBOLIZED :

Humans have been marking their skin for thousands of years. Around the
world, across cultures, tattoos have held countless different significances.
Ancient Siberian nomads, Indigenous Polynesians, Nubians, Native South
Americans and Greeks all used tattoos—and for a variety of reasons: to
protect from evil; declare love; signify status or religious beliefs; as
adornments and even forms of punishment.

Joann Fletcher, an honorary archaeology research fellow at the University

of York in the United Kingdom, studies tattooing’s mark on history and
culture. She specializes in ancient Egyptians, who she says were long
thought to be the earliest tattoo artists, thanks to the discovery of
tattooed mummies. That changed in 1991, with the excavation of Ötzi the
Iceman, a 5,300-year-old, frozen mummy near the Italian-Austrian border,
whose body is adorned with ink.

In the millennia since Ötzi was inked, tattoos have proliferated worldwide.
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 32 percent of people in
the United States have at least one tattoo, and many of those Americans
share common motivations. Sixty-nine percent of tattooed adults in the
U.S. say they got inked to “honor or remember someone or something,”
while 47 percent say they wanted to make a statement about the beliefs,
and 32 percent say they got tattooed to improve their personal
appearance. Turns out, many of our historical counterparts around the
world had similar motivations.

Fletcher told Smithsonian magazine all about tattoos’ functions,

prevalence and endurance in cultures around the world.

What function did these tattoos serve? Who got them and why?

Because this seemed to be an exclusively female practice in ancient Egypt

—[though recent finds prove at least one man was inked]—mummies
found with tattoos were usually dismissed by the (male) excavators who
seemed to assume the women were of “dubious status,” described in
some cases as “dancing girls.” The female mummies had nevertheless
been buried at Deir el-Bahari (opposite modern Luxor) in an area
associated with royal and elite burials, and we know that at least one of
the women described as “probably a royal concubine” was actually a high-
status priestess named Amunet, as revealed by her funerary inscriptions.

This blue bowl (circa 1300 B.C.E.), housed in the Rijksmuseum van
Oudheden in Leiden, Amsterdam, features a musician tattooed with an
image of the household deity Bes on her thigh. Joann Fletcher

And although it has long been assumed that such tattoos were the mark
of prostitutes or were meant to protect the women against sexually
transmitted diseases, I personally believe that the tattooing of ancient
Egyptian women had a therapeutic role and functioned as a permanent
form of amulet—[an ornament meant to protect its wearer]—during the
very difficult time of pregnancy and birth. This is supported by the pattern
of distribution, largely around the abdomen, on top of the thighs and the
breasts, and would also explain the specific types of designs, in particular
the net-like distribution of dots applied over the abdomen. During
pregnancy, this specific pattern would expand in a protective fashion in
the same way bead nets were placed over wrapped mummies to protect
them and “keep everything in.” The placing of small figures of the
household deity Bes at the tops of their thighs would again suggest the
use of tattoos as a means of safeguarding the actual birth, since Bes was
the protector of women in labor, and his position at the tops of the thighs
a suitable location. This would ultimately explain tattoos as a purely
female custom.

Who made the tattoos?

Although we have no explicit written evidence in the case of ancient
Egypt, it may well be that the older women of a community would create
the tattoos for the younger women, as happened in 19th-century Egypt
and happens in some parts of the world today.

Small bronze tattooing implements (circa 1450 B.C.E.) from Gurob,

Egypt, at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London. Joann
Fletcher

What instruments did they use?

It is possible that an implement best described as a sharp point set in a

wooden handle, dated to circa 3000 B.C.E. and discovered by
archaeologist W.M.F. Petrie at the site of Abydos may have been used to
create tattoos. Petrie also found the aforementioned set of small bronze
instruments circa 1450 B.C.E.—resembling wide, flattened needles—at the
ancient town site of Gurob. If tied together in a bunch, they would provide
repeated patterns of multiple dots.

These instruments are also remarkably similar to much later tattooing

implements used in 19th-century Egypt. The English writer William
Lane (1801-1876) observed, “the operation is performed with several
needles (generally seven) tied together: with these the skin is pricked in a
desired pattern: some smoke black (of wood or oil), mixed with milk from
the breast of a woman, is then rubbed in.... It is generally performed at
the age of about 5 or 6 years, and by [Romani] women.”

What did these tattoos look like?

Most examples on mummies are largely dotted patterns of lines and

diamond patterns, while figurines sometimes feature more naturalistic
images. The tattoos occasionally found in tomb scenes and on small
female figurines which form part of cosmetic items also have small figures
of the dwarf god Bes on the thigh area.

What were they made of? How many colors were used?

Usually, a dark or black pigment such as soot was introduced into the
pricked skin. It seems that brighter colors were largely used in other
ancient cultures, such as the Inuit who are believed to have used a yellow
color along with the more usual darker pigments.

What has surprised you the most about ancient Egyptian

tattooing?

That it appears to have been restricted to women during the purely

dynastic period, i.e. pre-332 B.C.E.. Also, the way in which some of the
designs can be seen to be very well placed, once it is accepted they were
used as a means of safeguarding women during pregnancy and birth.

5,000-year-old tattoos from Ancient Egypt I Curator's Corner S3

Ep 6 #CuratorsCorner

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Can you describe the tattoos used in other ancient cultures and
how they differ?

Among the numerous ancient cultures who appear to have used tattooing
as a permanent form of body adornment, the Nubians to the south of
Egypt are known to have used tattoos. The mummified remains of women
of the indigenous C-group culture found in cemeteries near Kubban circa
2000-15000 B.C.E. were found to have blue tattoos, which in at least one
case featured the same arrangement of dots across the abdomen noted
on the aforementioned female mummies from Deir el-Bahari. The ancient
Egyptians also represented the male leaders of the Libyan neighbors circa
1300-1100 B.C.E. with clear, rather geometrical tattoo marks on their
arms and legs and portrayed them in Egyptian tomb, temple and palace
scenes.

Tattoo on the arm of a Pazyryk tribal chief, Altai Mountains, 5th

century B.C.E. The Hermitage Museum

The Scythian Pazyryk of the Altai Mountain region were another ancient
culture which employed tattoos. In 1948, the 2,400-year-old body of a
Scythian male was discovered preserved in ice in Siberia, his limbs and
torso covered in ornate tattoos of mythical animals. Then, in 1993, a
woman with tattoos, again of mythical creatures on her shoulders, wrists
and thumb and of similar date, was found in a tomb in Altai. The practice
is also confirmed by the Greek writer Herodotus circa 450 B.C.E.,
who stated that amongst the Scythians and Thracians “tattoos were a
mark of nobility, and not to have them was testimony of low birth.”

Accounts of the ancient Britons likewise suggest they too were tattooed as
a mark of high status, and with “divers [sic] shapes of beasts” tattooed on
their bodies, the Romans named one northern tribe “Picti,” literally “the
painted people.”

Greek vase (circa 450-440 B.CE.) depicting the death of Orpheus by a

tattooed Thracian ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Yet amongst the Greeks and Romans, the use of tattoos or “stigmata“ as
they were then called, seems to have been largely used as a means to
mark someone as “belonging” either to a religious sect or to an owner in
the case of slaves or even as a punitive measure to mark them as
criminals. It is therefore quite intriguing that during Ptolemaic times when
a dynasty of Macedonian Greek monarchs ruled Egypt, the pharaoh
himself, Ptolemy IV (221-205 B.C.E.), was said to have been tattooed with
ivy leaves to symbolize his devotion to Dionysus, Greek god of wine and
the patron deity of the royal house at that time. The fashion was also
adopted by Roman soldiers and spread across the Roman Empire until the
emergence of Christianity, when tattoos were felt to “disfigure that made
in God’s image” and so were banned by the Emperor Constantine (C.E.
306-373).

We have also examined tattoos on mummified remains of some of the

ancient pre-Columbian cultures of Peru and Chile, which often replicate
the same highly ornate images of stylized animals and a wide variety of
symbols found in their textile and pottery designs. One stunning female
figurine of the Nazca culture has what appears to be a huge tattoo right
around her lower torso, stretching across her abdomen and extending
down to her genitalia and, presumably, once again alluding to the regions
associated with birth. Then on the mummified remains which have
survived, the tattoos were noted on torsos, limbs, hands, the fingers and
thumbs, and sometimes facial tattooing was practiced.

This female figurine from Nazca, Peru, is now displayed at the

Regional Museum of Ica Joann Fletcher

With extensive facial and body tattooing used among Native Americans,
such as the Cree, the mummified bodies of a group of six Greenland
Inuit women 1475 C.E. also revealed evidence for facial tattooing. Infrared
examination revealed that five of the women had been tattooed in a line
extending over the eyebrows, along the cheeks and in some cases with a
series of lines on the chin. Another tattooed female mummy, dated 1,000
years earlier, was also found on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, her
tattoos of dots, lines and hearts confined to the arms and hands.

This mummified head of a woman from the pre-Inca Chiribaya culture,

located at the Azapa Museum in Arica, Chile, is adorned with facial tattoos
on her lower left cheek. Joann Fletcher

Evidence for tattooing is also found amongst some of the ancient

mummies found in China’s Taklamakan Desert circa 1200 B.C.E., although
during the later Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E.-C.E. 220), it seems that only
criminals were tattooed.

Japanese men began adorning their bodies with elaborate tattoos in the
late 3rd century. The elaborate tattoos of the Polynesian cultures are
thought to have developed over millennia, featuring highly elaborate
geometric designs, which in many cases can cover the whole body.
Following James Cook’s British expedition to Tahiti in 1769, the islanders’
term “tatatau” or “tattau,” meaning to hit or strike, gave the west our
modern term “tattoo.” The marks then became fashionable among
Europeans, particularly so in the case of men such as sailors and
coalminers, with both professions which carried serious risks and
presumably explaining the almost amulet-like use of anchors or miner’s
lamp tattoos on the men’s forearms.

What about modern tattoos outside of the western world?

Modern Japanese tattoos are real works of art, with many modern
practioners, while the highly skilled tattooists of Samoa continue to create
their art as it was carried out in ancient times, prior to the invention of
modern tattooing equipment. Various cultures throughout Africa also
employ tattoos, including the fine dots on the faces of Berber women in
Algeria, the elaborate facial tattoos of Wodaabe men in Niger and the
small crosses on the inner forearms which mark Egypt’s Christian Copts.

The tattooed right hand of a Chiribaya mummy is displayed at El

Algarrobal Museum, near the port of Ilo in southern Peru. The Chiribaya
were farmers who lived from 900 to 1350 C.E.. Joann Fletcher

What do Maori facial designs represent?

In the Maori culture of New Zealand, the head was considered the most
important part of the body, with the face embellished by incredibly
elaborate tattoos or "moko," which were regarded as marks of high status.
Each tattoo design was unique to that individual and since it conveyed
specific information about their status, rank, ancestry and abilities, it has
accurately been described as a form of ID card or passport, a kind of
aesthetic bar code for the face. After sharp bone chisels were used to cut
the designs into the skin, a soot-based pigment would be tapped into the
open wounds, which then healed over to seal in the design. With the
tattoos of warriors given at various stages in their lives as a kind of rite of
passage, the decorations were regarded as enhancing their features and
making them more attractive to the opposite sex.

Although Maori women were also tattooed on their faces, the markings
tended to be concentrated around the nose and lips. Although Christian
missionaries tried to stop the procedure, the women maintained that
tattoos around their mouths and chins prevented the skin becoming
wrinkled and kept them young; the practice was apparently continued as
recently as the 1970s.

The Resurgence of Maori Ta Moko: NEEDLES & PINS (Clip)

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Why do you think so many cultures have marked the human body
and did their practices influence one another?

In many cases, it seems to have sprung up independently as a permanent

way to place protective or therapeutic symbols upon the body, then as a
means of marking people out into appropriate social, political or religious
groups, or simply as a form of self-expression or fashion statement.

Yet, as in so many other areas of adornment, there was of course cross-

cultural influences, such as those which existed between the Egyptians
and Nubians, the Thracians and Greeks and the many cultures
encountered by Roman soldiers during the expansion of the Roman
Empire in the final centuries B.C.E. and the first centuries C.E.. And,
certainly, Polynesian culture is thought to have influenced Maori tattoos.

OTHER WEBSITES AND ARTICELS ABOUT TATTOS :

 Infrared Reveals Egyptian Mummies' Hidden Tattoos

December 5, 2019

 Discover the Aromas of Ancient Egyptian Mummies, From Orange

Peels to Pine to Incense

February 14, 2025

 Earliest Figural Tattoos Discovered on 5,000-Year-Old Mummies

March 5, 2018

 Can Tattoos Be Medicinal?

December 10, 2012

 Richly Adorned Egyptian Tomb Could Rewrite the History of

Mummification

EXAMPLE OF A SPEECH TO WORK FROM :

Introduction Good [morning/afternoon/evening], everyone. Today, I’m

going to talk about tattoos. Some people think they’re just a way to make
your body look cool, while others see them as a way to rebel against what
society expects. So, are tattoos art, rebellion, or maybe both?

The Artistic Side of Tattoos People have been getting tattoos for thousands
of years, and they’ve always meant different things in different cultures.
Some people get tattoos to tell a personal story, show pride in their
culture, or just because they like how it looks. Nowadays, many talented
tattoo artists create amazing designs that look just as good as any other
kind of art.

Why Some People See Tattoos as Art Looking Good: For lots of people,
tattoos are a way to make their body more unique and show who they are.
It’s like wearing your personality on your skin.

Cultural Meaning: In some places, tattoos have important meanings. They

might show that someone has reached a certain stage in life or hold
spiritual value.

Personal Story: Many people choose tattoos that mean something special
to them, like a reminder of a tough time they got through or a tribute to
someone they love.
Why Some People See Tattoos as Rebellion Going Against the Norm: In the
past, tattoos were often connected to groups that didn’t fit in, like punks
or bikers. They used tattoos to show they didn’t care about fitting in.

Breaking Rules: Some people get tattoos because they want to challenge
what society says about how they should look, especially in workplaces
that expect a more traditional appearance.

The Stigma: Even though tattoos are more accepted now, some people
still think they’re unprofessional or a sign of rebellion, especially in
conservative settings.

Tattoos: Art or Rebellion? It really depends on how you look at it. Some
people see tattoos as a beautiful way to express who they are, while
others see them as a way to push back against what’s expected. As
society becomes more open-minded, more people see tattoos as normal
and even beautiful, rather than just rebellious.

Conclusion In the end, tattoos can mean different things to different

people. They might be art, rebellion, or a mix of both. What matters most
is how the person with the tattoo feels about it. Thanks for listening—I
hope you learned something new about the way tattoos can be both
creative and controversial.

"Tattoos aren’t just about ink; they’re about telling a story and making a
statement."