A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes and techniques, including hand-tapped traditional tattoos and modern tattoo machines. The history of tattooing goes back to Neolithic times, practiced across the globe by many cultures, and the symbolism and impact of tattoos varies in different places and cultures. Tattoos may be decorative (with no specific meaning), symbolic (with a specific meaning to the wearer), pictorial (a depiction of a specific person or item), or textual (words or pictographs from written languages). Many tattoos serve as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, marks of fertility, pledges of love, amulets and talismans, protection, and as punishment, like the marks of outcasts, slaves, and convicts. Extensive decorative tattooing has also been part of the work of performance artists such as tattooed ladies. Although tattoo art has existed at least since the first known tattooed person, Ötzi, lived around the year 3330 BCE, the way society perceives tattoos has varied immensely throughout history. In the 20th century, tattoo art throughout most of the world was associated with certain lifestyles, notably sailors and prisoners (see sailor tattoos and prison tattooing). In the 21st century, people choose to be tattooed for artistic, cosmetic, sentimental/memorial, religious, and spiritual reasons, or to symbolize their belonging to or identification with particular groups, including criminal gangs (see criminal tattoos) or a particular ethnic group or law-abiding subculture. Tattoos may show how a person feels about a relative (commonly a parent or child) or about an unrelated person. Tattoos can also be used for functional purposes, such as identification, permanent makeup, and medical purposes.
Terminology The word tattoo, or tattow in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Samoan word tatau, meaning "to strike", from Proto-Oceanic *sau₃ referring to a wingbone from a flying fox used as an instrument for the tattooing process. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology of tattoo as "In 18th c. tattaow, tattow. From Polynesian (Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, etc.) tatau. In Marquesan, tatu." Before the importation of the Polynesian word, the practice of tattooing had been described in the West as painting, scarring, or staining. The etymology of the body modification term is not to be confused with the origins of the word for the military drumbeat or performance. In this case, the English word "tattoo" is derived from the Dutch word taptoe. Ready-made tattoo designs are known as "flash". Flash sheets are prominently displayed in many tattoo parlors to enable customers to select a predrawn image or use them as inspiration for a custom image. Flash may be mass-produced or drawn by tattoo artists who work there. The Japanese word irezumi means "insertion of ink" and can mean tattoos using tebori, the traditional Japanese hand method, a Western-style machine, or any method of tattooing using insertion of ink. Another word used for traditional Japanese tattoo designs is horimono. Japanese may use the Western word tattoo as a loan word meaning any non-Japanese styles of tattooing. British anthropologist Ling Roth in 1900 described four methods of skin marking and suggested they be differentiated under the names "tatu", "moko", "cicatrix", and "keloid". The first is by pricking that leaves the skin smooth as found in places including the Pacific Islands. The second is a tattoo combined with chiseling to leave furrows in the skin as found in places including New Zealand. The third is scarification using a knife or chisel as found in places including West Africa. The fourth and the last is scarification by irritating and reopening a pre-existing wound, and rescarification to form a raised scar as found in places including Tasmania, Australia, Melanesia, and Central Africa.
Types The American Academy of Dermatology distinguishes five types of tattoos: traumatic tattoos that result from injuries, such as asphalt from road injuries or pencil lead; amateur tattoos; professional tattoos, both via traditional methods and modern tattoo machines; cosmetic tattoos, also known as "permanent makeup"; and medical tattoos.
Traumatic tattoos A traumatic tattoo occurs when a substance such as asphalt or gunpowder is rubbed into a wound as the result of some kind of accident or trauma. When this involves carbon, dermatologists may call the mark a carbon stain instead of a tattoo. Coal miners could develop characteristic marks, called collier's stripes, because of coal dust getting into scratches and other small wounds. An amalgam tattoo is when amalgam particles are implanted in to the soft tissues of the mouth, usually the gums, during dental filling placement or removal. Another example of such accidental tattoos is the result of a deliberate or accidental stabbing with a pencil or pen, leaving graphite or ink beneath the skin.
Identification
Forcible tattooing for identification
A well-known example is the Nazi practice of forcibly tattooing concentration camp inmates with identification numbers during the Holocaust as part of the Nazis' identification system, beginning in fall 1941. The SS introduced the practice at Auschwitz concentration camp to identify the bodies of registered prisoners in the concentration camps. During registration, guards would tattoo each prisoner with a number, usually on the left forearm, but sometimes on the chest or stomach. Of the Nazi concentration camps, only Auschwitz put tattoos on inmates. Prisoners found with tattoos in Mauthausen concentration camp and Buchenwald concentration camp upon liberation were presumably transported from Auschwitz by death march. The tattoo was the prisoner's camp number, sometimes with a special symbol added; some Jews had a triangle, and Romani had the letter "Z" (from German Zigeuner for "Gypsy"). In May 1944, Jewish men received the letters "A" or "B" to indicate a particular series of numbers. As early as the Zhou, Chinese authorities employed facial tattoos as a punishment for certain crimes or to mark prisoners or slaves.
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