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Essay on The History of Tattoos
People have marked their bodies with tattoos almost everywhere in the world at one time or another. As evidenced by mummified remains discovered in Europe, Egypt, Siberia, and elsewhere, the practice has been around for thousands of years.Tattoos have meant different things to different cultures: For some peoples a tattoo promised invincibility in war, for some tattoos protected against sickness or misfortune, for some they offered safe passage into heaven or the afterworld, and for some they furnished a visible badge of rank or of membership in a certain group. Tattoos have been used to mark prisoners and to brand society's outcasts. They can serve as a way of advertising one's emotional (or philosophical) attachments. Most commonly, however, tattoos have been and still are used for decoration. An estimated 20 million Americans were believed to sport tattoos in 1996.
Pacific Islanders have worn tattoos for hundreds if not thousands of years. (The word "tattoo" comes from the Tahitian tatau) Traditional designs—some just decorative, some with mystical meanings—remain popular today. Definite evidence of the use of tattoos in ancient times has been found in various parts of the world…. Although more refined tools and inks have been developed over the centuries, the technique for applying a tattoo has changed very little: ink is put into the inner, or dermal, layer of the skin by means of a needle or other sharp object.
During the 1700s tattoos were still a taboo but they were once again being accepted and grew in popularity in England when their soldiers started making frequent trips to the orient.
They flourished when King Edward VII took a fancy to them. They were still, however, not a common fashion because of their painstaking procedure.The first electric tattooing machine was patented in 1891 by Irish American Samuel O’Riley......
