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The history of tattoos. The history of the origin of tattoos When did tattoos appear?

It is human nature to decorate our body in one way or another. A tattoo served for decoration, self-expression, and identification of a person.

Historians do not have exact information about where the art of tattooing came from. But they claim that many peoples did not wear clothes. But there were no peoples and tribes in history that did not decorate their bodies with drawings. Light-skinned representatives of humanity applied patterns to their bodies, and scarring was common among blacks.

About the history of tattoos

Ancient finds

The first confirmed finds of bodies with ornaments applied to the skin date back to 2 thousand BC. e. The mummies found in the Giza tomb retained traces of drawings. Recently, a frozen man was found in Antarctica, whose age dates back to 3 thousand BC. e and his body, in all likelihood, is also covered with body patterns.

But the actual application of drawings to the body was practiced back in the Stone Age. Over time, the bodies of brave hunters were covered with scars and abrasions that distinguished him from other members of society. Over time, the tribes grew and a hierarchy emerged. The bearers of tattoos were senior members of the tribe. The tattoo was a symbol of power, commitment to the clan and tribe, and determined the status of the owner.

Use of tattoo

U different nations tattoos had different meanings. Tribal leaders, experienced hunters, and skilled warriors received insignia in the form of tattoos. But at the same time, renegades who were stigmatized by society were also subjected to the procedure of applying special symbols. Most often, such people had signs applied to their faces so that they could not be hidden under clothing.

Among the Japanese Ainu aborigines, patterns were applied to a woman’s face, by which one could find out whether she was married and how many children she had.

Many peoples used tattoos as a symbol of the transition of a young man into a man.

Sacral meanings were also attributed to drawings applied to the skin. Thus, they protected children from the wrath of their parents, protected warriors in battle, and protected the elderly from illness.

Tattoos were also common in Europe. The ancient Greeks applied them to their bodies as a sign of belonging to a higher caste.

There are cases in history when, during the war with Darius, tattoos were used to transmit data to occupied territories. To do this, the slave's hair was shaved off, a design was applied, and after the hair grew back, he was released with a report. He passed through all the barriers without arousing suspicion.

In Russia there is no tattoo art as such. In our country it is more associated with camps or army service. Although archaeologists, during excavations in the Altai Mountains, sewed on the mummy of a Scythian leader, which is covered with tattoos. The burial dates back to the 4th-5th century BC.

Tattoo Tools

Since ancient times, tattoos were applied with sharp objects, such as fragments of pots, fish bones, sharpened sticks, and animal teeth. The procedure was very painful and required endurance and willpower. Therefore, those with tattoos were considered brave and strong. A machine for applying patterns appeared in 1891 in America.

Henna, ocher, coal, and soot were used as dyes. With the invention of gunpowder, a powder mixture was injected under the skin.

Where does the term "tattoo" come from?

The term “tattoo” was brought to Europe by Captain Cook, who brought a tattooed Polynesian from the islands of Tahiti in 1769. The curiosity attracted a lot of attention and caused a tattoo boom.

By the way, it was the sailors who became the main peddlers of tattoos, which they made on long journeys. But their arsenal of pictures was very meager. And the artist’s skill often left much to be desired.

Mainstream religious movements do not encourage painting on the skin. Therefore, in Muslim, Jewish and Christian countries it is still not customary to apply tattoos. But the peoples of Japan and China. Australia, Polynesia, America and other countries have preserved these traditions. Art and history of tattoos in the modern world is experiencing a new wave of revival.

Tattoos appeared by accident. Having noticed that after burns and cuts, into which soot or any paint other than scars accidentally got into, bizarre indelible patterns are formed on the skin, people began to cause damage intentionally.

The art of decorating yourself with tattoos can be considered one of the oldest. The history of tattooing goes back at least 6,000 years. The most ancient tattoos were found during excavations of the Egyptian pyramids. The mummies are about four thousand years old, but the patterns on the dried skin are clearly visible. The ancient Egyptians revered the art of tattooing and, thanks to trade relations, taught the inhabitants of Persia, Greece and Crete to decorate their own bodies.

According to researchers, tattoos appeared in the era of primitive society. It served not only as decoration, but also as a sign of a tribe, clan, totem, indicated the social affiliation of its owner, served as camouflage during a hunt, and was also endowed with magical powers. Initially, the design was applied to the body with paints. However, the images were short-lived, so there was a need for more durable patterns.

Mentions of the body marks of ancient peoples (Gauls, Thracians, Greeks, Germans) are found in the works of Herodotus, Hippocrates, Xenophon and other ancient authors. Some peoples only made cuts on the skin of people of noble birth. Others had their backs and fronts painted by rich people. The tattoo was even used for secret correspondence. To do this, the slave's head was shaved and a letter was applied to the skin. When the hair grew back, the slave went to the appointed place.

There is a lot of information about the customs of tattooing and scarring among the peoples of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. It was customary for the noble Altai Scythians to paint images of animals on their bodies - birds of prey, deer, rams, fish, etc., as well as scenes from legends and myths.

However, tattooing has been used for many centuries, it was used to brand slaves and criminals. So, for example, in Europe, sharpers were given a sign in the form of a hexagon, poachers - in the form of horns, those sentenced to galleys - the inscription "GAL", those sentenced to lifelong correctional labor - "TFP". In Russia, slaves were branded; those exiled to Siberia were marked with the letters “KT”.

Representatives high society They made body drawings in the form of symbols of power and family coats of arms. The common people made do with simple love pictures. Tattoos were most popular among sailors: most often they applied the names and images of their favorite girls and crucifixes on their bodies, which were considered a talisman against misfortune.

In other countries of the world, particularly in America, India, Polynesia and Japan, tattooing was widespread. Residents of these states generously decorated their bodies with tattoos, while the rich or those with a high social position had the most luxurious body designs. Tattoo culture flourished most in Japan. Tattoos were worn by samurai and geisha (they were forbidden to show naked bodies, so they made tattoos that imitated clothing, without applying the ornament only to the face, palms and feet). Japanese masters were the first to offer three-dimensional images. Instead of ornaments and flat figures they began to depict three-dimensional and colorful mythical animals.

The art of tattooing most likely “sailed” to North America through the Bering Strait along with the Chukchi. The Chukchi were friends with the North American Indians, and they transferred the art of tattooing to Central and South America.

Great importance had color, location, as well as the design itself. For example, among the Maori, complex tattoos were given only to noble tribesmen of noble birth. The tattoos of this people were distinguished not only by their beauty, but also by their complexity. The ornaments formed complex plots, but were located strictly symmetrically on the body. Some American tribes painted corresponding images during the war with neighboring tribes.

Residents of the Polynesian islands made body paintings in the form of animals, which were the totem of the clan. Tattooing is a ritual, the violation of which deprives this process of its magical meaning, so it was performed in secret by specially dedicated people. Did you know that a tattoo is also your guide to another world, a spotlight illuminating the road to another world? However, over time, the original meaning of many images was lost. Decorative tattoos began to be made more and more often. With the help of a tattoo, a person seeks to stand out from his surroundings and express his inner self.

It is difficult to say exactly when a person first applied a pattern to his skin. But it is known for certain that the history of tattooing goes back at least 60,000 years. The most ancient tattoos were found during excavations of the Egyptian pyramids. The mummies are about four thousand years old, but the patterns on the dried skin are clearly visible.

However, tattooing appeared much earlier - during the primitive communal system. It served not only as decoration, but also as a sign of a tribe, clan, totem, indicated the social affiliation of its owner, and in addition, was endowed with a certain magical power. The reasons for the appearance of a regular tattoo are also not entirely clear. According to one theory, this is a logical progression from natural skin damage accidentally received by Stone Age people. Wounds and bruises merged into bizarre scars that distinguished their bearer from his fellow tribesmen in an advantageous way, as a brave warrior and a successful hunter. Over time, primitive families grew, united into small organized communities, and marks were specially applied to the skin, having a specific meaning within a certain social group. This happened at the end of the Ice Age...

The historical roots are deep, and the tattoo geography is no less impressive. Various types of tattoos were practiced among fair-skinned peoples around the world, and were replaced by scarring among dark-skinned people. Everyone got tattoos - different tribes of Europe and Asia, Indians of North and South America and, of course, the inhabitants of Oceania.

It is the Indian tribes of Indonesia and Polynesia, where the practice of tattooing is continuously passed down from generation to generation, that serve as the best anthropological evidence of the social significance of tattoos. Almost all aspects of the lives of these people are connected with tattoos - from birth to death - and, of course, there is no part of the body that a local artist would not work on.

Tattoos among different peoples of the world were a symbol of slavery, chosenness, protected and carried encrypted information. So, on Egyptian mummies, archaeologists found examples of the most ancient tattoo. They date back to approximately 2000 BC. The Egyptians tattooed only their pharaohs and the most powerful priests. The island peoples used tattoos to approach their gods. Ancient peoples used tattoos in religious rituals, as an amulet and as decoration. For example, the Greeks tattooed their spies with encrypted tattoos, and the Romans branded criminals and slaves. Moreover, the Roman Emperor Caligula liked it when wealthy, impeccable citizens received slave tattoos for entertainment.

The face is always visible. Therefore, it is the face that is decorated first. The Majori tribes of New Zealand wear mask-like tattoos on their faces - Moko. These amazing intricacies of patterns serve both as permanent war paint and as an indicator of the valor and social status of their owners. According to local customs, if a dead warrior had a Moko mask on his face, he was awarded the highest honor - his head was cut off and kept as a tribal relic. And the corpses of unpainted warriors were left to be torn to pieces by wild animals. Moko patterns are so individual that they were often used as personal signatures or fingerprints. At the beginning of the last century, having sold their lands to English missionaries, Majori, when signing the “bill of sale,” carefully depicted an exact copy of their Moko mask.

Almost all tribes of North America use tattoos: the more tattooed a person is, the more courageous and valiant he is considered among his fellow tribesmen. Our ancestors also loved to decorate their bodies with fancy images of animals, which, according to their beliefs, were supposed to ward off troubles from the family. The ancient Indians used tattoos to mark the number of enemies they defeated on their bodies.

In New Zealand and Polynesia, people who got a tattoo were revered as saints. The unbearable pain they experienced during the tattooing process elevated them to the rank of martyrs. The design was hollowed out on the face, arms and legs with hammers and needles over several hours. Anyone who could not stand it to the end was considered damned along with the whole family. In Japan, only the most respected teachers of martial arts schools were allowed to tattoo themselves. In the Middle Ages, the Christian Church tried to destroy the tradition of tattooing, considering it a barbaric heritage. In enlightened Europe, tattooing originated from the mark of a medieval executioner who marked thieves and murderers. For a long time in Soviet Russia, tattoos were considered an attribute of prison.

Japanese Ainu women used tattoos on their faces to indicate their marital status. By the patterns on the lips, cheeks and eyelids, one could determine whether a woman was married and how many children she had. Likewise, among other peoples, the abundance of patterns on a woman’s body symbolized her endurance and fertility. And in some places, the situation with women’s tattoos reached extremes: on Nukuro Atoll, children born to non-tattooed women were killed at birth.

Tattooing is also associated with so-called “transitional” rites, be it the initiation of a young man into a mature man or the migration from this life to the afterlife. For example, the Diak tribes from the island of Borneo believed that in the local paradise - Apo Kesio - everything acquires new qualities, opposite to those on earth: light becomes dark, sweet becomes bitter, etc., so the inventive and prudent Diak people tattooed themselves in the darkest shades .

Having changed after death, the tattoos became light and shining, and this light was enough to safely guide their owner through the dark abyss between the earth and Apo-Kesio. In addition, among different peoples, tattoos were endowed with a wide variety of magical properties: children were protected from parental wrath, adults were protected in battle and hunting, the elderly were kept from illness. However, the magic of tattoos was used not only by “savages”.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, British sailors painted huge crucifixes on their backs in the hope that this would protect them from corporal punishment, which was widely practiced in the English fleet. Among the Arabs, a tattoo with quotations from the Koran was considered the most reliable protective talisman. In all the examples given, the tattoo, one way or another, increased the social status of its owner. But in some cases it also served as punishment. In the Japanese province of Chukuzen of the Edo period (1603-1867), as punishment for the first crime, robbers were given a horizontal line across the forehead, for the second - an arched line, and for the third - another one. The result was a composition that made up the hieroglyph INU - “dog”.

IN ancient China One of the Five Classic Punishments was also a tattoo on the face. Slaves and prisoners of war were also marked, making it difficult for them to escape and making them easier to identify. Both the Greeks and Romans used tattoos for similar purposes, and the Spanish conquistadors continued the practice in Mexico and Nicaragua. Already in our century, during the First World War, in Britain deserters were marked with a “D” tattoo, in Germany they stamped numbers on victims of concentration camps, and what to hide, in our Union the same thing was practiced in regime camps.

But in ancient Europe, tattoos were in general use among the Greeks and Gauls, Britons and Thracians, Germans and Slavs. The Proto-Slavs, our ancestors, used clay stamps or seals - pintaderas - to apply tattoos. These unique presses with ornamental elements made it possible to cover the entire body with a continuous diamond-meander carpet pattern, which was extremely necessary in the magical rituals of the ancient cult of fertility. Unfortunately, with the spread of Christianity, the custom of tattooing began to be mercilessly eradicated, as an integral part of pagan rituals, and practically died out. Moreover, in Old Testament it is clearly said: “For the sake of the deceased, do not make cuts on your body and do not write on yourself.”

Tattooing is the process of applying designs to the body by injecting dyes under the skin. The word "tattoo" is derived from the Tahitian "tatau" and the Marquesan "ta-tu", which means "wound", "mark".

In Europe, they learned about tattoos thanks to the navigator James Cook. In 1769, he brought with him from his travels a Polynesian completely covered with tattoos. According to another version, the art of tattooing came to Europe from Australia, namely from the island of Samoa, becoming honorable and elite among the European nobility. On the Samoan Islands, a tattoo to this day is a sign of a serious position in society and is applied to the body using the same methods as many centuries ago. With the spread of Christianity, attitudes towards tattooing began to change - it was prohibited, considering it sinful. They referred to the Bible. During the era of great geographical discoveries, tattoos in Europe became evidence of human primitiveness.
However, tattooing has been used for many centuries, it was used to brand slaves and criminals. So, for example, in Europe, sharpers were given a sign in the form of a hexagon, poachers - in the form of horns, those sentenced to galleys - the inscription "GAL", those sentenced to lifelong correctional labor - "TFP". In Russia, slaves were branded; those exiled to Siberia were marked with the letters “KT”.

Representatives of high society made body drawings in the form of symbols of power and family coats of arms. The common people made do with simple love pictures. Tattoos were most popular among sailors: most often they applied the names and images of their favorite girls and crucifixes on their bodies, which were considered a talisman against misfortune.

In other countries of the world, particularly in America, India, Polynesia and Japan, tattooing was widespread. Residents of these states generously decorated their bodies with tattoos, while the rich or those with a high social position had the most luxurious body designs. Tattoo culture flourished most in Japan. Tattoos were worn by samurai and geisha (they were forbidden to show naked bodies, so they made tattoos that imitated clothing, without applying the ornament only to the face, palms and feet). Japanese masters were the first to offer three-dimensional images. Instead of ornaments and flat figures, they began to depict three-dimensional and colorful mythical animals.

Color, location, as well as the design itself were of great importance. For example, among the Maori, complex tattoos were given only to noble tribesmen of noble birth. The tattoos of this people were distinguished not only by their beauty, but also by their complexity. The ornaments formed complex plots, but were located strictly symmetrically on the body. Some American tribes painted corresponding images during the war with neighboring tribes. Residents of the Polynesian islands made body paintings in the form of animals, which were the totem of the clan. Tattooing is a ritual, the violation of which deprives this process of its magical meaning, so it was performed in secret by specially dedicated people. Did you know that a tattoo is also your guide to another world, a spotlight illuminating the road to another world? However, over time, the original meaning of many images was lost. Decorative tattoos began to be made more and more often. With the help of a tattoo, a person seeks to stand out from his surroundings and express his inner self.

British biologist and naturalist Charles Darwin once remarked about tattoos: “There is not a single nation on earth that does not know this phenomenon.” Tattoos have been inherent in humanity for a long time, even in the most remote corners of the globe.

History of tattoos can be traced around the world: tattoos on the bodies of mummies, preserved for thousands of years, have been discovered in Egypt, Libya, South America, China and Russia. Even the 5,000-year-old corpse of a Neolithic Bigfoot found frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991 had tattoos! First used as camouflage for hunting, tattoos became a cultural norm among tribes in Polynesia, Borneo, the Pacific Islands, and Samoa. The most famous of these are the Moko (face tattoos) of the Maori tribe in New Zealand. China, Russia, India and Japan also have rich history of tattoos.
Word " tattoos a" first appeared in Webster's Dictionary in 1777. Although the origin of the word is not entirely clear, most historians cite Captain James Cook, who brought it to Europe from an expedition to the southern part Pacific Ocean in 1769. He talked about the coloring of some of the tribes of the islands of Tahiti. They called their coloring book the word “ tatau", which translated means "mark" (although Cook originally wrote it clearly as "tattaw").

Most likely, our modern word " tattoo» is happening from it, although the practice of applying it to the body coloring pages has existed for thousands of years - and no doubt has dozens of names in different countries peace. Another word that exists today came to us from Ancient Greece. In Ancient Greece, slaves were given a special sign, similar to a tattoo, called a “brand.” Today, the word “stigma” has negative associations, often associated with physical traits, such as disability, illness, or injury. But sometimes it means... tattoos!

Recent history of tattoos

Until recently, before there was a "boom" tattoos and the surge in their popularity in Western society, many people believed that tattoos were a sign of belonging to the lower classes and social outcasts such as prostitutes, bikers, and ex-cons.

But they probably don't realize that in fact, at the turn of the century, tattoos were a sign of membership royal family(in Britain) and high society. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Queen Victoria's grandchildren (Prince George and Prince Albert), Winston Churchill (and his mother!), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and members of the wealthy Vanderbilt family had tattoos.

Approximately in the mid 1900s tattoos are no longer popular in high society. However, the practice of tattooing survived in the West among sailors, who used them to mark significant achievements in their voyages (for example, after sailing 5,000 nautical miles, a sailor might get a tattoo of a bluebird or sparrow).

Of course, after a long time spent at sea without alcohol or women, sailors arriving in port were looking for where they could “drink, carouse and get tattooed” (see Madame Chinchilla’s book “stewed, screwed, and tattooed”). Without a doubt, such cheeky slogans contributed to the "notoriety" of tattoos that has existed since the late 1940s.
Slowly, public interest to tattoos began to appear within the last 50 years. Early rock stars like Janis Joplin showed that a tattooed person could be both “rebel” and “popular.” Nowadays, tattoos are quite common among rock stars and the Hollywood elite.

Indeed, a 2002 study by Vince Hemingson found that about half of top 100 most sexy women have on the body tattoos. This list includes Britney Spears, Halle Berry, Alyssa Milano, Jessica Alba, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Carmen Electra, Charlize Theron, Christina Aguillera, Lucy Liu, Beyoncé Knowles, Rebecca Romijn, Janet Jackson, Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Mandy Moore, Drew Barrymore, Penelope Cruz, Meg Ryan, Pink, Kate Hudson, Kelly Ripa... and perhaps the most famous woman in the world with tattoos - Angelina Jolie.

What was previously considered rebellious is now becoming widespread. As Durfee says, “Today, people are becoming more interested in tattoos, expressing a desire to pay attention to their body through various forms of body art, the development of skilled designs, and in a spiritual sense, to impart special symbolic meaning through an amazing art form.”

The reasons for the emergence of the custom of tattooing are also not entirely clear. According to one theory, this is a logical progression from natural skin damage accidentally received by Stone Age people. Wounds and bruises merged into bizarre scars that distinguished their bearer from his fellow tribesmen in an advantageous way, as a brave warrior and a successful hunter. Over time, primitive families grew, united into small organized communities, and marks were specially applied to the skin, having a specific meaning within a certain social group. This happened at the end of the Ice Age

Tattooing is also associated with so-called “transitional” rites, be it the initiation of a young man into a mature man or the migration from this life to the afterlife. For example, the Diak tribes from the island of Borneo believed that in the local paradise - Apo Kesio - everything acquires new qualities, opposite to those on earth: light becomes dark, sweet becomes bitter, etc. Therefore, the inventive and prudent Diak people tattooed themselves in the darkest shades. Having changed after death, the tattoos became light and shining, and this light was enough to safely guide their owner through the dark abyss between the earth and Apo-Kesio.

In addition, among different peoples, tattoos were endowed with a wide variety of magical properties: children were protected from parental wrath, adults were protected in battle and hunting, the elderly were protected from illness. However, the magic of tattoos was used not only by “savages”. In the 18th and 19th centuries, British sailors painted huge crucifixes on their backs in the hope that this would protect them from corporal punishment, which was widely practiced in the English fleet. Among the Arabs, a tattoo with quotations from the Koran was considered the most reliable protective talisman. In all the examples given, the tattoo, one way or another, increased the social status of its owner. But in some cases it also served as punishment.

In the Japanese province of Chukuzen during the Edo period (1603-1867), as punishment for the first crime, robbers were given a horizontal line across the forehead, for the second - an arched line, and for the third - another one. The result was a composition that made up the hieroglyph INU - “dog”. In ancient China, one of the Five Classical Punishments was also a tattoo on the face. Slaves and prisoners of war were also marked, making it difficult for them to escape and making them easier to identify. Both the Greeks and Romans used tattoos for similar purposes, and the Spanish conquistadors continued the practice in Mexico and Nicaragua. Already in our century, during the First World War, in Britain deserters were marked with a “D” tattoo, in Germany they stamped numbers on victims of concentration camps, and what to hide, in our Union in regime camps the same thing was practiced

But in ancient Europe, tattoos were in general use among the Greeks and Gauls, Britons and Thracians, Germans and Slavs.

The Proto-Slavs, our ancestors, used clay stamps or seals - pintaderas - to apply tattoos. These unique presses with ornamental elements made it possible to cover the entire body with a continuous diamond-meander carpet pattern, which was extremely necessary in the magical rituals of the ancient cult of fertility. Unfortunately, with the spread of Christianity, the custom of tattooing began to be mercilessly eradicated, as an integral part of pagan rituals, and practically died out. Moreover, the Old Testament clearly states: “For the sake of the dead, do not make cuts on your body and do not write on yourself.”

The ban was so severe that tattooing was not practiced among Europeans until the 18th century. But, ironically, when Christian missionaries went to distant countries to convert “wild” tribes, the sailors from their ships acquired gorgeous tattoos there as a memory of their travels. The infamous Captain James Cook made the most significant contribution to the revival of tattoos in Europe. Returning from a voyage in 1769, he brought from Tahiti not only the word “tattoo” itself, but also the “Great Omai”, a completely statuette Polynesian who became a sensation - the first living tattoo - gallery. And soon not a single self-respecting performance, fair or traveling circus could do without the participation of a “noble savage”.

TO end of the 19th century century, the fashion for aborigines subsided; instead, Americans and Europeans themselves began to perform at fairs. For example, a certain Lady Viola flaunted portraits of six American presidents, Charlie Chaplin and many other celebrities, causing the delight of crowds already in our century But, although ordinary people loved to look at the decorated circus performers, they themselves were in no hurry to get tattoos. This was the privilege of sailors, miners, foundry workers and other similar “trade unions”, who used the tattoo as a symbol of brotherhood, solidarity, and loyalty to tradition. The modern popularity of tattoos in the West owes a lot to them. At the same time, they are also responsible for the creative stagnation in Western tattooing of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Poor imagination and dubious artistic taste of the main customers led to the limitation of the tattoo “repertoire” to marine themes, vulgar sentimentality and banal aphorisms.

As sad as it may be, the fact remains that civilization has reduced ancient art to the level of cheap consumer goods. The lack of demand for decent products discouraged tattoo artists and deprived them of incentive for creativity and new stylistic developments.

But it was then, in 1891, that the American O'Reilly invented an electric tattoo machine, which replaced all kinds of homemade tools and devices. But even technical progress did not move the matter forward. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, both Europe and America had a standard set of simple popular prints.

And only thanks to the powerful surge of youth culture in the 50s and 60s, a new generation of tattoo artists appeared, whose creative ambitions and bold experiments once again elevated tattooing to the rank of art. They widely borrowed traditional images from other cultures - Far East, Polynesia, American Indians - creating exciting hybrids, new styles, schools and directions. Thus began a new, modern stage of a thousand-year-old tattoo - a story that undoubtedly deserves a separate detailed story.