Everything About Tattoos
Posted by GuestW on May 3, 2009 in Tattoo Designs • No commentsTattoo the marking of the skin with punctures into which pigment is rubbed. The word originates from the Tahitian tattau [to mark]. The term is sometimes extended to scarification, which consists of skin incisions into which irritants may be rubbed to produce a permanent raised scar. The modern method of tattooing employs an electric needle. Puncture tattooing reached its most elaborate and artistic development among the Maori of New Zealand and among the Japanese, who perfected the use of color. It was introduced into Europe by sailors. In modern Western cultures, it has been alternately regarded as a somewhat vulgar practice and as a sign of high fashion. It has been used by modern states as an instrument of control, as in the identification of criminals and political prisoners; it is also used to identify race horses.
In medicine, it may be used to remove birthmarks by injecting a pigment of the color of the natural skin. Tattooing has been banned in some areas for health reasons; unclean needles can transmit hepatitis or HIV, the virus leading to AIDS. The Old Testament enjoins the Israelites against the practice, it was forbidden by Muhammad, and a Roman Catholic council condemned it in 787. Tattoos may be removed by a slow, difficult process.
Body-marking painting, tattooing, or scarification (cutting or burning) of the body for ritual, esthetic, medicinal, magic, or religious purposes. Evidence from prehistoric burials, rock carvings, and paintings indicates that body-marking existed in ancient times; ethnographic studies show that it is still practiced today. Markings may indicate religious dedication or alliance with a particular god; they may also serve as protection against some evil such as a disease, as identification with a certain group, such as the tribe, or as evidence of personal rank or status within the group. Among examples of the widespread custom of painting the body are the red ocher found in prehistoric burial sites, the blue woad of the ancient Britons, kohl used in Asia to enhance the beauty of the eyes, the use of henna on the fingernails in the Middle East, and the war paint of some Native Americans. The tattoo is an extension of the practice.
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Scarification was used in ancient times as a property mark for slaves and more recently in Europe and elsewhere, until the latter part of the 19th cent., for the identification of criminals. Besides being employed for magical or ritual purposes, scarification has also been used for its supposed curative powers. The forms used in Africa include stretched lips and earlobes, filed teeth, and flattened skulls.
Body art goes mainstream
DRIVING THROUGH the midtown section of Kansas City, you might not be surprised to see a sign for Whispering Danny’s Exile Tattoo Parlor. After all, it’s a transitional neighborhood where you might expect to see tattoo shops. What might be surprising, however, is that some of Danny Kobsantsev’s clients are middle-aged university professors.
Kobsantsev, who goes by the name Whispering Danny (an acknowledgment of the tracheotomy that gave him his quiet, gravelly voice), says that he is currently “inking” professors in the fields of logic, mathematics, journalism and statistics–hardly the edgy crowd usually associated with tattoos. According to Kobsantsev, there is no usual crowd anymore. His parlor draws clients from all over the city and from all walks of life. People come for tattoos for all kinds of reasons.
Over the eight years that his shop has been in business Kobsantsev has had a steady stream of clients that keep him and the shop’s three other artists busy 10 to 14 hours a day. However, he does acknowledge that tattooing seems to be taking on an unprecedented level of cultural significance. When he opened his shop in the late 1990s, the entire metropolitan area of Kansas City had only three or four tattoo parlors. Now the city claims over 200 such shops, with as many as four or five artists working in each. That kind of growth demonstrates how a once-fringe practice has become mainstream.
A 2003 Harris poll found that 16 percent of Americans have at least one tattoo. A June 2005 survey conducted by the American Society of Dermatological Surgery reported that the number is now as high as 24 percent–roughly one in four. Among Americans age 18 to 29, that number jumps to 36 percent.
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