Tattooing in prehistoric times
A tattoo on the right arm of a Scythian chieftain whose mummy was discovered at Pazyryk, Russia. The tattoo was made more

than 2,500 years ago.

Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice since Neolithic times. “Ötzi the Iceman”, dated circa 3300 BC, bearing 57 tattoos: a

cross on the inside of the left knee, six straight lines 15 centimeters long above the kidneys and numerous small parallel

lines along the lumbar, legs and the ankles, exhibiting possible therapeutic tattoos (treatment of arthritis). Tarim Basin

(West China, Xinjiang) revealed several tattooed mummies of a Western (Western Asian/European) physical type. Still

relatively unknown (the only current publications in Western languages are those of J P. Mallory and V H. Mair, The Tarim

Mummies, London, 2000), some of them could date from the end of the 2nd millennium BC.

Three tattooed mummies (c. 300 BC) were extracted from the permafrost of Altaï in the second half of the 20th century (the

Man of Pazyryk, during the 1940s; one female mummy and one male in Ukok plateau, during the 1990s). Their tattooing involved

animal designs carried out in a curvilinear style. The Man of Pazyryk, a Scythian chieftain, is tattooed with an extensive

and detailed range of animals, monsters and a series of dots that lined up along the spinal column (lumbar region) and around

the right ankle (illustrated at right).

Tattooing in the ancient world

[edit] China

Tattooing has also been featured prominently in one of the Four Classic Novels in Chinese literature, Water Margin, in which

at least three of the 108 characters, Lu Zhi chen (???), Shi Jin (??) and Yan Chen (??) are described as having tattoos

covering nearly the whole of their bodies. In addition, Chinese legend has it that the mother of Yue Fei (??), the most

famous general of the Song Dynasty, tattooed the words jing zhong bao guo (????) on his back with her sewing needle before he

left to join the army, reminding him to “repay his country with pure loyalty”.

Main articles: Henna and Mehndi

Henna and Mehndi were popular in ancient India and ancient Egypt and still remain popular today in the Indian subcontinent,

Middle East and North Africa. India also has few tattoo artists in big cities who do the tattooes but compare to US,UK & few

other countries India doesn’t have much tattoo professionals. Most celebrities in bollywood(indian film industry) have

tattoos from popular artists & now tattoos seem to get more attention by other people too.

[edit] Philippines
1908 photo of a Filipino Bontoc warrior bearing a Head hunters ‘Chaklag’ Tattoo

Tattooing has been a part of Filipino tribal life since pre-Hispanic colonisation of the Philippine Islands, When the Spanish

first landed in the Philippine Islands, they where met by the tribal people of the Visayas, who had full body tattooing, the

Spanish dubbed these Islands as “La Isla De Los Pintados” or “The Islands of the Painted Ones”.[1] Tattooing in the

Philippines is a tribal form of rank and accomplishments, some tribes believed that tattoo’s had magical qualities. The more

famous tattooed Filipino Tribes where the tribal peoples of the mountains of North Luzon, especially among the Bontoc Igorot,

Kalinga, and Ifugao peoples, which where infamous for Head-hunting. A tribal member received a tattoo (known as a “Chaklag”)

which meant they have taken the head of an enemy tribe or warrior.[2] There are many very different variations, traditions

and styles of tattooing in the Philippines, most depend on the region and tribe they come from as each vary.[1]

Filipino tattooing was first documented by the European Spanish explorers as they landed among the Islands in the late 16th

century. Before European exploration it was a widespread tradition among the islands. Tattooing was set around mostly Tribal

groups of the Philippines, which tattooing was a sign of Rank and power in the tribal community, many Tattoos could only be

attained by accomplishing a task, or passage of rites.[2] Women in Filipino tribal society also traditionally tattooed

themselves, and tattooing was seen as a form of beauty among women. Notably women of the Luzon mountain tribes received full

arm and chest tattooing, whilst in the Visayas and Mindanao they typically only tattooed their hands and wrists.[1]

Reintroduction in the Western world

It was thought that many of the Anglo-Saxon kings of England were tattooed, but much of this was conjecture.

Sir Martin Frobisher (1535-1595) on May 31, 1577 set out on his second voyage from Harwich, England with 3 ships and about

120 men to find a north west passage to China and the promise of gold ore. Frobisher took prisoner a native Inuit man and a

woman with a child, upon his return to England the woman having tattoos on her chin and forehead was a great attraction at

the court of Elizabeth I. All three died within a month.

In 1691 William Dampier brought to London a native of the western part of New Guinea (now part of Indonesia) who had a

tattooed body and became known as the “Painted Prince”.

Between 1766 and 1779, Captain James Cook made three voyages to the South Pacific, the last trip ending with Cook’s death in

Hawaii in February, 1779. When Cook and his men returned home to Europe from their voyages to Polynesia, they told tales of

the ‘tattooed savages’ they had seen.

Cook’s Science Officer and Expedition Botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, returned to England with a tattoo. Banks was a highly

regarded member of the English aristocracy and had acquired his position with Cook by putting up what was at the time the

princely sum of some ten thousand pounds in the expedition. In turn, Cook brought back with him a tattooed Tahitian chief,

whom he presented to King George and the English Court. Many of Cook’s men, ordinary seamen and sailors, came back with

tattoos, a tradition that would soon become associated with men of the sea in the public’s mind and the press of the day. In

the process sailors and seamen re-introduced the practice of tattooing in Europe and it spread rapidly to seaports around the

globe.

It was in Tahiti aboard the Endeavour, in July of 1769, that Cook first noted his observations about the indigenous body

modification and is the first recorded use of the word tattoo. In the Ship’s Log Cook recorded this entry: “Both sexes paint

their Bodys, Tattow, as it is called in their Language. This is done by inlaying the Colour of Black under their skins, in

such a manner as to be indelible.”

Cook went on to write, “This method of Tattowing I shall now describe…As this is a painful operation, especially the

Tattowing of their Buttocks, it is performed but once in their Lifetimes.”

The British Royal Court must have been fascinated with the Tahitian chief’s tattoos, because the future King George V had

himself inked with the ‘Cross of Jerusalem’ when he traveled to the Middle East in 1892. During a visit to Japan he also

received a dragon on the forearm from the needles of Hori Chiyo, an acclaimed tattoo master. George’s sons, the Dukes of

Clarence and York were also tattooed in Japan while serving in the British Admiralty, solidifying what would become a family

tradition.

Taking their sartorial lead from the British Court, where Edward VII followed George V’s lead in getting tattooed; King

Frederick IX of Denmark, the King of Romania, Kaiser Wilhelm II, King Alexander of Yugoslavia and even Tsar Nicholas II of

Russia, all sported tattoos, many of them elaborate and ornate renditions of the Royal Coat of Arms or the Royal Family

Crest. King Alfonso XIII of modern Spain also had a tattoo.

Tattooing spread among the upper classes all over Europe in the nineteenth century, but particularly in Britain where it was

estimated in Harmsworth Magazine in 1898 that as many as one in five members of the gentry were tattooed. There, it was not

uncommon for members of the social elite to gather in the drawing rooms and libraries of the great country estate homes after

dinner and partially disrobe in order to show off their tattoos. Aside from her consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and

Gotha, there are persistent rumours that Queen Victoria had a small tattoo in an undisclosed ‘intimate’ location; Denmark’s

king Frederick was filmed showing his tattoos taken as a young sailor. Winston Churchill’s mother, Lady Randolph Churchill,

had a tattoo of a snake around her wrist, which she covered when the need arose with a specially crafted diamond bracelet.

Carrying on the family tradition, Winston Churchill had an anchor tattooed on his forearm. In most western countries

tattooing remains a subculture identifier, and is usually performed on less-often exposed parts of the body.

Religious prohibitions

[edit] Jewish Positions

Orthodox Jews, in strict application of Halakha (Jewish Law), believe Leviticus 19:28 prohibits getting tattoos: Do not make

gashes in your skin for the dead. Do not make any marks on your skin. I am God. One reading of Leviticus is to apply it only

to the specific ancient practice of rubbing the ashes of the dead into wounds; but modern tattooing is included in other

religious interpretations. Orthodox/Traditional Jews also point to Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 180:1, that elucidates the

biblical passage above as a prohibition against markings beyond the ancient practice, including tattoos. Maimonides concluded

that regardless of intent, the act of tattooing is prohibited (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Idolatry 12:11).

Conservative Jews point to the next verse of the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 180:2), “If it [the tattoo] was done in the

flesh of another, the one to whom it was done is blameless” – this is used by them to say that tattooing yourself is

different from obtaining a tattoo, and that the latter may be acceptable. Orthodox Jews disagree, and read the text as

referring to forced tattooing—as was done during the Holocaust—which is not considered a violation of Jewish Law on the part

of the victim. In another vein, cutting into the skin to perform surgery and temporary tattooing used for surgical purposes

(eg: to mark the lines of an incision) are permitted in the Shulhan Arukh 180:3.

In most sectors of the religious Jewish community, having a tattoo does not prohibit participation, and one may be buried in

a Jewish cemetery and participate fully in all synagogue ritual. In stricter sectors of the community, however, a community

may have a psak (ruling or responsa with the weight of Halakha) that may forbid one’s burial in a cemetery that comes under

that ruling[dubious – discuss]. Many of these communities, most notably the Modern Orthodox, accept laser removal of the

tattoo as teshuvah (repentance), even when it is removed post-mortem (see Tahara).

Reform Jews and Reconstructionist Jews neither condemn nor condone tattooing.

[edit] Christian Positions

Leviticus 19:28 is often cited by Christians as a verse prohibiting tattoos. According to the King James Version of the

Bible, the verse states, “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the

LORD.” While it may appear that the passage disallows any markings of the flesh, even applying to the modern-day use of

tattoos, it is likely the passage refers specifically to the form of mourning discussed above (see Middle East section).

Christians who believe that the religious doctrines of the Old Testament are superseded by the New Testament may still find

explicit or implicit directives against tattooing in Christian scripture, in ecclesiastical law, or in church-originated

social policy. Others who disapprove or approve of tattoos as a social phenomenon may cite other verses to make their point.

For example, Revelation 14:1, 17:5, and 19:16 are cited as passages in which names are written on foreheads and the thigh of

Christ, respectively. In this case, however, it is possibly metaphorical as the language is prophetic.[3]

[edit] Muslim Positions

Following the Sharia (or Islamic Law), the majority of Sunni Muslims hold that tattooing is religiously forbidden (along with

most other forms of ‘permanent’ physical modification). This view arises from references in the Prophetic Hadith which

denounce those who attempt to change the creation of God (Arabic: Allah), in what is seen as excessive attempts to beautify

that which was already perfected. The human being is seen as having been ennobled by God (Arabic: Allah), the human form

viewed as created beautiful, such that the act of tattooing would be a form of self-mutilation.[4][5]

In contrast, Shi’a Ulema (scholars) such as Ayatollah Sistani and Ayatollah Khamenei have ruled that tattooing is

permissible, since there are no reliable Hadith recognized by the Shia which prohibit the practice.[6]