Tattooing has been a global practice for thousands of years, likely since the Neolithic era. Archeological evidence of the practice of tattooing, such as preserved skin markings, has been found along with traditional tools. This evidence of the practice of tattooing has been found in many different places including with evidence of preserved markings from Greenland, Alaska, Siberia, Mongolia, western China, Japan, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Europe, the Philippines, and the Andes. Tattoos served different purposes: as spiritual protection, medicinal therapy, the declaration of social status, and tribal affiliation among other things. Across Oceania, tattooing was performed using traditional hand-tapping methods that have remained largely unchanged for over 2,000 years. In parts of East Asia and the Americas, the cultural role of tattooing has varied, at times representing the high status of warriors and religious leaders while at other times being used as a punitive symbol.
Ancient practices
Both ancient art and archaeological finds of possible tattoo tools suggest tattooing was practiced by the Upper Paleolithic period in Europe. However, direct evidence for tattooing human skin extends only to the 4th millennium BCE (between 3370 and 3100 BCE). The earliest direct evidence of tattooing is found on the ancestor known as Ötzi ( 3370–3100 BCE). Examples of tattooed individuals also include Amunet a priestess of Hathor from Deir el-Bahari, as well as the Princess of Ukok from the Altai Mountains. A 2015 scientific re-assessment confirmed Ötzi as the earliest known individual with tattoos. According to ancient stories the semi-mythical philosopher Pythagoras, the seer Zalmoxis and philosopher Epimenides all had tattooed skin. The ancient Greeks viewed tattooing negatively, associating with northern barbarians.Ustinova, Y. (2009). Caves and the ancient Greek mind: Descending underground in the search for ultimate truth. Oxford University Press, pp181 In 2018, the world's oldest figurative tattoos were identified on two individuals from Egypt, dated between 3351 and 3017 BCE. In the Americas, the earliest evidence of the practice is found on a man from the Chinchorro culture in present-day Chile, who bears a delicate, mustache-like dotted line above the upper lip (dated to 2563–1972 BCE). Tattooing was widely practiced among the Austronesian people and Austronesian tattooing tools involving the perpendicular hafting of points and the use of a mallet (commonly known as hand-tapping) were already in use by Pre-Austronesians in Taiwan and coastal South China prior to at least 1500 BCE, before the Austronesian expansion into the islands of the Indo-Pacific. It may have originally been associated with headhunting. Tattooing traditions, including facial tattooing, can be found among all Austronesian subgroups, including Taiwanese Aborigines, Islander Southeast Asians, Micronesians, Polynesians, and the Malagasy people. For the most part Austronesians used characteristic perpendicularly hafted tattooing points that were tapped on the handle with a length of wood (called the "mallet") to drive the tattooing points into the skin. The handle and mallet were generally made of wood while the points, either single, grouped or arranged to form a comb were made of Citrus thorns, fish bone, bone, teeth, and turtle and oyster shells.
Ancient tattooing traditions have also been documented among Papuans and Melanesians, with their use of distinctive obsidian skin piercers. Some archeological sites with these implements are associated with the Austronesian migration into Papua New Guinea and Melanesia. But other sites are older than the Austronesian expansion, being dated to around 1650 to 2000 BCE, suggesting that there was a preexisting tattooing tradition in the region. Among other ethnic groups, tattooing was also traditionally practiced among the Ainu people of Japan; some Austroasians of Indochina; Berber women of Tamazgha (North Africa); the Yoruba, Fulani and Hausa people of Nigeria; Makonde of Kenya, Native Americans of the Pre-Columbian Americas;Evans, Susan, Toby. 2013. Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History. 3rd Edition. the Welsh and Picts of Iron Age Britain; and Paleo-Balkan peoples (Illyrians and Thracians, as well as Daunians in Apulia), a tradition that has been preserved in the western Balkans by Albanians (Albanian traditional tattooing), Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sicanje), and women of some Vlach communities.
Traditional practices by regions The Americas North America
Indigenous peoples of North America have a long history of tattooing. Tattooing was not a simple marking on the skin: it was a process that highlighted cultural connections to Indigenous ways of knowing and viewing the world, as well as connections to family, society, and place. There is no way to determine the actual origin of tattooing for Indigenous people of North America. The oldest known physical evidence of tattooing in North America was made through the discovery of a frozen, mummified, Inuk female on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska who had tattoos on her skin. Through radiocarbon dating of the tissue, scientists estimated that the female came from the 16th century. Until recently, archeologists have not prioritized the classification of tattoo implements when excavating known historic sites. Recent review of materials found from the Mound Q excavation site point towards elements of tattoo bundles that are from pre-colonization times. Scholars explain that the recognition of tattoo implements is significant because it highlights the cultural importance of tattooing for Indigenous People.
Early explorers to North America made many ethnographic observations about the Indigenous people they met. Initially, they did not have a word for tattooing and instead described the skin modifications as "pounce, prick, list, mark, and raze" to "stamp, paint, burn, and embroider". In 1585–1586, Thomas Harriot, who was part of the Grenville Expedition, was responsible for making observations about Indigenous People of North America. In A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, Harriot recorded that some Indigenous people had their skin dyed and coloured. John White provided visual representations of Indigenous people in the form of drawings and paintings. Harriot and White also provided information highlighting specific markings seen on Indigenous chiefs during that time. In 1623, Gabriel Sagard was a missionary who described seeing men and women with tattoos on their skin. The Jesuit Relations of 1652 describes tattooing among the Petun and the Neutrals, including a description of the process of using needles or thorns to perforate the skin, such as in the figure of an animal, and apply powdered charcoal to imprint an indelible image. From 1712 to 1717, Joseph François Lafitau, another Jesuit missionary, recorded how Indigenous people were applying tattoos to their skin and developed healing strategies in tattooing the jawline to treat toothaches. Indigenous people had determined that certain nerves that were along the jawline connected to certain teeth, thus by tattooing those nerves, it would stop them from firing signals that led to toothaches. Some of these early ethnographic accounts questioned the actual practice of tattooing and hypothesized that it could make people sick due to unsanitary approaches. Scholars explain that the study of Indigenous tattooing is relatively new as it was initially perceived as behaviour for societies outside of the norm. The process of colonization introduced new views of what acceptable behaviour included, leading to the near erasure of the tattoo tradition for many nations. However, through oral traditions, the information about tattoos and the actual practice of tattooing has persisted to present day. St. Lawrence Iroquoians had used bones as tattooing needles. In addition, turkey bone tattooing tools were discovered at an ancient Fernvale, Tennessee site, dated back to 3500–1600 BCE.
Inuit
The Inuit have a deep history of tattooing. In Inuktitut, the Inuit language of the eastern Canadian Arctic, the word kakiniit translates to the English word for tattoo and the word tunniit means face tattoo. Among the Inuit, some tattooed female faces and parts of the body symbolize a girl transitioning into a woman, coinciding with the start of her first menstrual cycle. A tattoo represented a woman's beauty, strength, and maturity. This was an important practice because some Inuit believed that a woman could not transition into the spirit world without tattoos on her skin. The Inuit have oral traditions that describe how the raven and the loon tattooed each other giving cultural significance to both the act of tattooing and the role of those animals in Inuit culture and history. European missionaries colonized the Inuit in the beginning of the 20th century and associated tattooing as an evil practice, "demonizing" anyone who valued tattoos. Alethea Arnaquq-Baril has helped Inuit women to revitalize the practice of traditional face tattoos through the creation of the documentary Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos, where she interviews elders from different communities asking them to recall their own elders and the history of tattoos. The elders were able to recall the traditional practice of tattooing which often included using a needle and thread and sewing the tattoo into the skin by dipping the thread in soot or seal oil, or through skin poking using a sharp needle point and dipping it into soot or seal oil. Hovak Johnston has worked with the elders in her community to bring the tradition of kakiniit back by learning the traditional ways of tattooing and using her skills to tattoo others.
Osage Nation The Osage people used tattooing for a variety of different reasons. The tattoo designs were based on the belief that people were part of the larger cycle of life and integrated elements of the land, sky, water, and the space in between to symbolize these beliefs. In addition, the Osage People believed in the smaller cycle of life, recognizing the importance of women giving life through childbirth and men removing life through warfare. Osage men were often tattooed after accomplishing major feats in battle, as a visual and physical reminder of their elevated status in their community. Some Osage women were tattooed in public as a form of a prayer, demonstrating strength and dedication to their nation.
Haudenosaunee Confederation The people of the Haudenosaunee Confederation historically used tattooing in connection to war. A tradition for many young men was to go on a journey into the wilderness, fast from eating any food, and discover who their personal manitou was. Scholars explain that this process of discovery likely included dreams and visions that would bring a specific manitou to the forefront for each young man to have. The manitou became an important element of protection during warfare and many boys tattooed their manitou onto their body to symbolize cultural significance of the manitou to their lives. As they showed success in warfare, male warriors had more tattoos, some even keeping score of all the kills they had made. Some warriors had tattoos on their faces that tallied how many people they had scalped in their lifetime.
Central America A Spanish expedition led by Gonzalo de Badajoz in 1515 across what is today Panama ran into a village where prisoners from other tribes had been marked with tattoos.
East Asia China