The tattoo...

the birth of a cultural phenomenon

The famous Charles Darwin once noted: Theres no nation on this planet that didnt
knew this phenomenon. The illustrious scientist referred to an aspect of human culture that
followed us, seemingly, from the very Neolithic, THE TATTOO.
In the following lines we will analyse the influences exercised during history by this
complex practice about which the ancient Greek philosopher also talks when he states that
every nation has tattoos. But first we have to learn what did the tattoo meant in the beginning
and how did this technique started to manifest itself.
The word tattoo first entered the European
continent in 1771 when the brave sailor and explorer
James Cook returned from his first journey to Tahiti and
New Zeeland. Aboard the ship of which he was captain,
HMS Endeavour, travelled also the naturalist Joseph
Banks to whom the first mention of the word in the
pages of his diary belongs to. The term has its origins in
the geographical area of Polynesian archipelagos in the
Pacific Ocean where it was found under different
readings amongst the primitive populations, tatu, tatau,
tattaw, tattow or tattaow.
The practice designated by this word is an extremely difficult one which consists of
introducing of different pigments or other materials under the skin to form various patterns
grouped in a stock of decorative symbols or images. At first the geometrical symbols were
chosen because, as we know, they represent some human archetypes that reflect its influences
over the collective unconsciousness in a way that we do not perceive, passing through any
kind of cultural and linguistic barrier. This action was done with the help of different
techniques and tools which it seems that didnt went through any major changes over time,
although significant differences being found when it comes to the quality of the execution of
a tattoo.
We have for instance within the Inuit populations an extremely invasive tattooing
technique. They introduced with the help of a needle a coloured thread under the skin
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actually stitching it. Therefore

we can not expect for complex
images, the rudimentarity of
the technique not allowing this
thing, but rather for some
geometrical patterns formed by
intermittent or continuous lines
that covered various surfaces of
the body.
There was a method that implied only the incision on the skin of some lines with the
help of a sharp rock, the so-called scarification, technique with which more elaborate
patterns could be obtained. In order to do this they used stones, sharp sticks or thorns
attached to a stick to form a kind of comb
Another more complex technique was dividing the area that was supposed to be
tattooed into several areas by several cuts, areas which then could be decorated. However
with this technique the crossings from one colour tone to the next couldnt have been
realized, meaning the tattoo didnt had shadings and lightings, limiting them only to flat
images.
A fantastic richness of details was reached by the Japanese by using their technique
called bokashi. The tools used werent very different from those about which we have talked
already, the only difference being the bigger number of thorns or needles used, as far as 27.
With the aim of these tools they could obtain smooth crossings from the areas of light to
those of shade, this way displaying more complex images such as fishes, dragons or
landscapes.
The pigments used were obtained straightaway from the nature which didnt allowed
a large range of colours. In Hawaii for instance a quantity of kukui nut was pounded which
was then mixed with coconut oil in order to produce an ivory colour pigment.
Nevertheless it seems unlikely to believe that the tattoo appeared in the geographical
area comprised of the Polynesian archipelago about which weve mentioned when we talked
about the origin of the word, because the settlers that established there arrived very late,
somewhere around 900 BC, however the tattoo is much more older. As we said before the
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tattoo first appeared during the Neolithic era but unfortunately few evidences from the time
are preserved due to the fragile condition of the material on which it is done, the human skin.
The majority of evidences that embodies the tattoo from those times are the few mummies
that have the skin relatively intact and several anthropomorphic statues. We can admit that
the tattoo from the beginning of human civilization is poorly, if not at all known due to the
small number of this kind of statues or mummies that bear this type of signs that manages to
withstand time and come to us in a good condition.
One of them, maybe
the

best

known,

is

the

mummy of tzi found in the

tz Valley. It dates from
about 4th millennium BC. On
the mummys surface, which
was a man, when it was
found were noticed what is
now believed to be one of the first occurrences of the tattoo. 57 tattoos realised with charcoal
representing simple patterns of points and lines. Their positioning indicates us some aspects
that grants a bigger complexity to those tattoos, showing us this way that those were invested
even from the beginning with other functionalities than the aesthetic one, functionalities
about which we will talk later.
Another evidence of ancient tattoos, this time originating in the Antiquity itself, is
constituted by some mummies from 2nd millennium BC. We have in this way as testimonies
the mummy of Amunet from Ancient Egypt and also those of pazyryks from the Ukok
Plateau, a region situated on Russian Federation territory near the Altai Mountains, a region
strongly influenced by shamanic cult.
When it comes to the functionality of the tattoo we have to understand that it fulfilled
several roles during the history of human civilization. The Romanian ethnologist and
historian Romulus Vulcnescu, for whom the tattoo is the fingerprint of a complex
civilization, affirmed in his work Popular Masks the fact that primitive human tattooed
himself, totally or partially, in order to magically disguise, to mark his body with kinship-

tribal signs and to adorn himself to show his sexual pride. The disguise by tattooing was
made especially in the period comprised by the initiation until maturity1.
Among the functionalities of the tattoo we can count marking of a victory or defeat,
obtaining of a convenient position in the afterlife, help during puberty or pregnancy, as an
initiation ritual, punishment, as an amulet or talisman, nonverbal way of communicating the
belonging to a certain group or gender, personal beliefs, heroic actions, successful buntings,
possessions, talents, health condition, social statute, for intimidation, etc. we have therefore a
differentiation of those that are tattooed according
to their sex, caste/tribe/kinship etc., social or
economical state or religious or political beliefs.
This is how the strong investment of the tattoo with
symbolical means reveals itself.
But which was the reason that triggered the
birth of this technique after all? Well it seems that it
appeared out of reasons that are more pragmatic
that we couldve imagined. Lets imagine for a
second a hunter in the middle of the forest. He
would need a good camouflage in order for his
position to not be detected during his still/hunting.
The easiest way would be covering his body with
dirt or dust. We arrive this way to the first phase of the emergence of the tattoo technique. We
continue by presuming that our hunter has some wounds. In his need for survival continues to
go and hunt and thus cover his body with dirt, ignoring his wound. By doing this until his
wound scared over he probably noticed the strange looking shapes that resemble the shape of
the wound. He also noticed that those shapes didnt disappear. Correlating these two things
that he noticed he presumed that if he would deliberately injure himself and after that apply
on the surface of the wound dirt as he did when he did that by mistake, the same thing could
happen again. The hunter begins to do this, thus getting rid of the whole process of soiling
himself.

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We managed in a few lines to issue a relatively plausible supposition about the

emergence of the tattoo, whats next to follow being to talk about its evolution. We will try
this way once again to picture the same hunter but this
time after his first deliberate tattoo. When he reaches
back to his village with his newly applied marks on his
body could have intimidated, or on the contrary, stir up
the admiration of the villagers. Since fear and
admiration draws after themselves power he could have
been invested with a significant title in the midst of his
community. If our hunter would have had some
uncommonly successful hunts also the people could
have imagined that those were caused by those signs,
the magical, spiritual side of our topic thus revealing,
our hunter probably being invested with religious
attributes, the idea that bilateral influences between the macro universe, the world in which
he lived and the micro universe, concretized by himself. Therefore if someone intervened on
one of the two changes would have been felt in the other also, thus being able to speak about
the tattoo as a demiurgical structure, ordering the two above mentioned universes, the
geometry present in the patterns tattooed being an attribute of human reason, of constant
need of ordering the elements that forms the Universe, straight lines not being found
anywhere in the nature. Also those who did the tattoos had to have a spiritual investment.
We have seen how the tattoo became a very important cultural phenomenon in human
civilization and also how it obtained its spiritual function. Now we will see how it diversified
over time. Therefore its necessary to talk about the functionalities acquired over time, the
simple enumeration of them from the beginning of this work not being entirely enough.
When we talk about tattoo we refer primarily to a nonverbal way of rapidly
transmitting a message. For example it played an important role in transmitting the
appurtenance to a larger or smaller group. Tattooing a secret symbol as in the case of the
magical sign from the secret society of head hunters from Indonesia kakean or of the totemic
animal was a practice often found in tribes. At slaves it was common practice to tattoo on the
forehead or on other visible areas of the body the name of the proprietor so that in case of his
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escaping and capturing back to be known where he should be returned back. Exactly because
of the emergence of a strong slavery system in the Antiquity the tattoo gaved up its
aristocratic side, it becoming stigmatized on an increasingly larger scale and becoming more
and more popular.
Other messages transmitted with the aid of tattoos are heroically deeds, dangerous
hunts and those that were successful, expeditions, material belongings, talent, social statute,
sex, etc. At the Maori populations we encounter different lines and spirals that shows with the
help of a hidden symbolism within the simple shapes the life and ancestry of the person. At
the Inuits we can see tattooed on their bodies lines that tell the different crimes committed by
the bearer. We need to understand the fact that those tattoos that described the bearer didnt
limit their action in the material life, they continuing to play a very important role even in the
afterlife, especially in the judgment of the soul
Another type of tattoos about which we will talk is the one that transmits an
eminently religious message. Those that chose this kind of tattoos wanted to secure
themselves a privileged place in the afterlife and to show the gods their devotion that they
beard towards them. The tattoo became this way a passport of passing through spiritual
border points towards the afterlife realm.
Other tattoo is that that helped people overpass difficult periods from their life like
puberty, pregnancy, losing a loved one or disease. This kind of tattoo was an extremely
dangerous one, physical pain playing an crucial role in overcoming the spiritual or emotional
pain, reaching even to extremely painful rituals like smashing or amputating fingers, tarring
out the hair, scraping several layers of skin, removing teethes or even burning the face. In
Hawaii for instance they tattooed on the tongue, an extremely painful zone, a series of points
and small lines.
The talisman tattoo also plays an important role in protecting the bearer, gaining this
way apotropaic function. Lets come back again to our hunter. He could have been
considered a better hunter due to his tattoos that he weared because those that surrounded
him in his community in which he lived could consider about them that they also protects
him against predators and other dangerous carnivores, not only that it offers a help hunting.
Furthermore, as we already know the group of warriors evolved from that of hunters, so the
tattoo that helped the hunter developed into one that helped the warrior during fights. We
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have in this way the example of blue tattoos used by the Picts from the present day territory
of Great Britain.
The protective function also helped in case of dangers that were more often like death
by drowning, rheumatism, like the tattoos of Berbers, eye problems and head aches, as like
those from the populations of South Africa, or other diseases. American Indians tattooed their
entire body to protect against sickness. It was believed that if the skin is dented the immune
system would rise up and the risk of infections associated with birth giving would lower.
Tattoos on the body of one of the mummies about which we already talked, tzi is supposed
to have played a similar role of protecting against diseases. The signs were grouped in a
series of short parallel and vertical lines that crossed the spinal zone and also a cross-like
symbol placed behind the right knee and other different signs in the ankle area. With the aid
of a cat scan we now know that he suffered from different degenerative diseases like
osteocondritis or spondylitis which were causing him bone pains. Moreover these diseases
targets exactly the areas in which the tattoos are positioned, letting us pondering over the fact
that they were functioning as a kind of magical painkillers, targeted to some nervous
centres used by acupuncture and pressure puncture practices. What is important to mention
about this type of tattoos is that they were influenced by the territory from which the bearer
originates, a person from Sahara couldnt had a tattoo that protects against drowning
The amulet tattoo is another very important category. This kind of tattoo presumably
offered the holder characteristics and powers that were thought to be magical. It was made up
by national elements, reminding the bravery deeds of a lineage. From this ancestors were
borrowed exactly those characteristics through which they
made themselves remarked.
The last type of tattoo about which we will talk, and
probably the most important one, is the tattoo that serves in an
initiation ritual. It indicates the passing through an infantile
period towards the experienced gained together with the
maturity. The developing from the stage of a boy to that of a
man, from girl to woman and from woman to mother or other
important steps in someones life, either from social or
religious, political or economical point of view.
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On todays Romanian territory there are numerous examples that testifies the
existence of the tattoo in the past. The proofs come from a period that starts with the
Neolithic and passes through the Thracian period also. Probably the most illustrative
testimony in this way is that of the Council of Goddesses2. It constitutes of a series of
anthropomorphically statues (statues being, along mummies, as we remember, the other
source of evidences for ancient tattoos) that comes from the
Cucuteni culture. On the surface of those statues we can find
evident marks of geometrical incisions, showing probably the
fact that people from that era did themselves tattoos.
As a conclusion we would like to say that the tattoo
played an important role over time as a turning table in the
human culture and civilization, moulding itself on the existent
social realities. It was a defining characteristic of spirituality.

Bibliography

(orig.) Soborul Zeielor

SCHIFFMACHER, Henk; RIEMSCHNEIDER, Burkhard, 1000 Tattoos, Kln, Editura

Taschen, 1996
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo

03.02.2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi_the_Iceman

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04:20 AM

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