Member of the Internet Link Exchange
The neolithic "Iceman" had tattoos behind his knees. A four-thousand-year-old Egyptian mummy had a tattoo on her stomach. Anglo - Saxon kings had them. According to myth, Japan's first emperor had them. Eleventh - century crusaders returned from Jerusalem bearing tattoos. In the nine- teenth century the Prince of Wales returned from a journey to the Middle East with one. After the opening of Japan in the 1850s, Prince George and Prince Albert, grandsons of Queen Victoria, were tattooed there, and so was the Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, Princess Waldemar of Denmark, and King George of Greece all had tattoos. Winston Chuchill and his mother, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt had them as well. The present Prince of Wales has a tattoo, as do Barry Goldwater and John F. Kennedy Jr.
One story holds that the first tattoos were accidental. A cave- man rolled in his sleep onto a pile of smoldering coals that burned into his skin, leaving indelible marks. He liked the result, strove to duplicate it by pricking the skin and inserting lique- fied coal ash or soot, and voila, tat- tooing was born. Not only were his designs decorative, they were hard- earned, and the cave man was proud of the pain he had endured.
The oldest mummified human being ever found, frozen fifty-three hundred years ago in an Alpine glacier, is also the oldest known tattooed man. Discovered in 1991 in the Italian Alps, the neolithic "Iceman" was fully clothed and carried tools with him -- all of which were well preserved . On his back and behind his knees were found several simple tattoos, composed of mere lines.
The oldest female with a tattoo was a woman from Egypt named Amunet, possibly a priestess of the goddess Hathor. Her mummified body dates from the Eleventh Dynasty, which places her somewhere between 2160 and 1994 B.C. One simple elliptical design, made of dots and dashes, was still intact on her stomach. The priestess also had other miscellaneous marks on her arms and thighs. At least two other female Egyptian mummies with tattoos, from roughly the same period as Amunet, have been discovered as well.
Rock stars are a kind of modern-day aris- tocracy like movie stars and all you have to do is switch on MTV to find out how prevalent is their desire to be covered with tattoos. Rock stars, like movie stars, are at once insiders and outsiders. Tattoos lend themselves very well to this double message, for througout their history they have appealed to the extremes of society : from the drawing room aristocracy to the carnival sideshow audience. The hippie movement of the 1960s, that outburst of countercultural activity, marks the first strong connection between tattoos and rock 'n' roll music. Janis Joplin and Joan Baez were two early customers of the tat- tooist Lyle Tuttle, who is credited with sparking the current interest in tattoos. The popularity of punk rock and adornment are another big part of today's tattoo craze. Contemporary musicians from heavy metal bands to Hispanic rappers have all gotten in to the act. Tattoos are in voque.
Tracing the ins and outs of tattooing
|
The word "tattoo" may be derived from the Tahitian word tatu, mean- ing "to make a mark."
A tattoo is a permanent coloration
Groups of needles are inserted in
Fine or bold lines, perspective and
The pain varies, depending on the
Customers may bring in their own |
