Where tattooing comes from

There is no single place and date of birth for tattooing. In many independent societies the practice of introducing pigment under the skin to leave a permanent mark developed. The reasons change from culture to culture: belonging to a community, passage of age, protection, status, memory, ornament. That is why it is more accurate to speak of many histories of tattooing than of one.

The oldest traces are linked to preserved bodies.

• Ötzi, the Iceman of the Similaun, found in 1991 in the Alps and who lived about 5,300 years ago, has dozens of small linear marks on his body, often in places such as back, wrists and ankles. One hypothesis is that they had a function linked to pain, but it is a debated interpretation.
• Egyptian mummies of different periods show marks on the skin. The best-known studies concern female figures, and here too interpretations of meaning are still debated.
• Mummies of steppe peoples (for example those of Pazyryk, in Siberia, more than 2,000 years old) preserve tattoos with animal figures.

They are important evidence, but few: tattooing leaves traces only when the skin is preserved.

In Oceania tattooing has a long history and a very strong social role. In Polynesia and in other areas of the Pacific (Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Hawai'i, the Marquesas, New Zealand) each tradition has its own motifs, tools, specialists and meanings, often tied to lineage, community and life passages. The Māori moko and the Samoan pe'a are examples of practices that continue today, with their own rules.

The word tattoo derives from a Polynesian root (tatau) and spread in Europe after the exploration voyages of the eighteenth century. For this reason it is worth remembering that the original practices do not coincide with the "tribal" style born in the West.

In Japan tattooing has a complex history. In certain periods it was used as a punitive mark; in the Edo period a decorative tradition developed, tied also to woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) and to trades such as firefighters and some labourers. What we now call irezumi is a rich tradition, with its own iconography, which in Japan lived for a long time alongside social stigma. Dates of origin are uncertain and sources do not agree.

In Europe tattooing has had alternating phases. In the ancient world marks on the skin were also used to brand people (slaves, convicts), a use that left a negative association. In the medieval and modern period there is evidence of tattoos linked to pilgrimages, for example to Jerusalem. These are traditions documented in a discontinuous way.

With the great voyages of the eighteenth century, travellers encounter the practices of the Pacific. James Cook's voyages (1768-1779) bring the name and the account of tattooing to Europe, and some tattooed people from the Pacific are presented in England: their story is a delicate chapter, in which curiosity and exploitation are mixed. Sailors, who touch at many ports, adopt tattooing and turn it into a language of images (anchors, swallows, compass roses) that will become the basis of the traditional style.

At the end of the nineteenth century the electric tattoo machine is born, adapted from an electric engraving device: it is the passage from hand-poked needles to a tool that allows quicker and more numerous work. In the same period tattooing enters travelling shows, with fully tattooed people exhibited as an attraction.

In the twentieth century tattooing is often associated with sailors, soldiers and the margins of society. The theories of the time, such as those of Cesare Lombroso, linked tattoos to criminality: they are now superseded, but they helped reinforce stigma. Tattooing also becomes, however, an expression of identity for different groups.

From the second half of the twentieth century tattooing regains interest: studios with an artistic proposal appear, influences arrive from different cultures and other arts, and conventions and trade publications become common. The old school style is reinterpreted, realism, fine line, blackwork and many other languages develop, and equipment evolves to cartridges and wireless systems.

Today tattooing is a global practice, with a great variety of styles and approaches. Its history keeps reminding us that behind every style there are traditions, communities and meanings worth knowing.

Most dates, especially the oldest, are approximate and a subject of study.