History of Tattoos

I, myself don’t have any tattoos but I am part of a tattooed family and I absolutely love them. My favourite tattooist is Dani Green as she does very colourful tattoos, with a white outline to make her work pop. I like some are very curious about how tattoos have become more acceptable in society and how people view them. But before I get to my findings I wanted to look into the history of them.

Tattoos have always had an important role in ritual and tradition; they have served many purposes indicating a certain skill. Some believed that if you had a tattoo on your wrists or fingers it warded away illnesses. They were also used to indicate what clan/gang people belonged to, similar to today to show what people like such as bands especially in the 80’s.

In Japan tattoos were used to mark criminals, first offence marked a line on the forehead, second crime marked with adding an arch and the third and final crime would be another line, together they form the character for ‘dog’. The original “three strikes you’re out” law.

Tattooing had lost a great deal of credibility, tattooists worked the sleazier sections of town, heavily tattooed people travelled with circuses and “freak shows” ended up being stars of the show.

Wives were used as human advertising being tattooed by their husbands to show off their best works.

With WW1 the flash art images changed to those of bravery and wartime icons, tattoos were known as a travel marker so you can tell where a person had been by their ink.

1961 there was an outbreak of hepatitis and tattooing was sent reeling on its heels, though most parlours had sterilised its machines. Newspapers released stories of blood poisoning and other diseases, the general population held tattoo parlours in disrepute. NYC government gave tattoo parlours an opportunity to form an association and self-regulate themselves, but they couldn't. As a result there was a health code violation went into effect and some places shut down. Few people wanted a tattoo as a result. In the late 60’s people’s attitude to tattooing changed. A guy ended up tattooing celebrities especially women, which ended up getting the media’s attention.

Today tattooing is making a strong comeback, being much more accepted than ever. All social classes have them, a rise in popularity placed tattooist in the category of “fine artist”. Tattooists combine the tradition of tattooing with their own personal style creating unique and phenomenal body art big or small.

Tattoos have so many meanings and come in many forms, personal with meaning or just out of films as many fandoms have very popular symbols or quotes which everyone will remember but each person taking their own spin on it.