Tattoo in ancient times. Tattoo art.

Tattooing is the application of indelible drawings to the body by introducing various dyes under the surface of the skin. Traditional tattooing tools are metal, wood, or bone needles. Modern tattoo artists use special electric machines.

The word “tattoo” appeared in the 17th-18th centuries and comes from the Tahitian word “tatau” – “wound, sign”. However, the art of tattooing is much older than the word for its designation – already primitive people decorated their bodies with drawings. One of the earliest owners of the tattoo is a Bronze Age man named by archaeologists Ozi.

Tattoo in ancient times examples in the photo

The idea of ​​drawing on your body is rooted in the depths of time, and we will never know where and when the tattoo was invented. Most likely, the ancient man was inspired by the bizarre patterns that were obtained from natural scars, cuts, streams of blood that solidified on human skin in a kind of ornament. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that tattooing was widespread throughout the world..

Tattoos in ancient times – everything that could be interesting

Light-skinned tribes made tattoos that resemble modern ones, that is, they used dyes to apply the pattern. Dark-skinned people practiced the scarring method: paints that were invisible on dark skin replaced patterns of light scars..

Initially, our ancestors simply painted themselves with natural dyes, but such drawings were not durable. The method of rubbing paint into damaged skin turned out to be much more effective – the cuts healed, and the drawing remained.

In ancient times, tattoos not only adorned the body of their owner, but also spoke of his social status, as well as clan and tribal affiliation. However, a similar function remained with the tattoo throughout the entire history of its existence. So, the use of a tattoo as a “passport” has survived to this day: in the criminal environment, tattoos serve as a kind of identity card, by which knowledgeable people can determine criminal specialization, article, term, place of serving a sentence and other status characteristics.

What was more important for primitive man: to decorate his body with an elegant color pattern or to indicate his social status and tribal affiliation? Without exaggeration, we can say that this is an insoluble question from the category: which appeared first – a chicken or an egg? So we are unlikely to ever get an answer to it. And does it make sense? In any case, in the further history of mankind, the tattoo performed both functions. Depending on the era and the specific people, it served as an ornament, was an indicator of a person’s social status and was even used to mark slaves and criminals..

In the V millennium BC. NS. in Mesopotamia, women applied so-called eternal pictures to their bodies. The skin was steamed, rubbed, covered with henna, ash or natural dyes. Then, a drawing was scratched through the dye mass with a sharp object on the skin. The rest of the paint was washed off with water, and the tattoo site was washed with an antiseptic solution.

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In Egyptian burials dating back to the 4th millennium BC. e., find mummies whose bodies are decorated with tattoos, which, in terms of variety and elegance of execution, can safely compete with modern ones. For example, on the arms and thighs of the priestess of the god Khet Amuna, who lived around 2160-1994 BC. BC, parallel lines are tattooed, and below the navel – concentric circles.

The Egyptians believed that the class hierarchy that exists in this world is preserved in the afterlife, so the tattoos were designed to tell the gods who is who among the dead. Perhaps for this reason, copies of tattoos were placed on the lids of sarcophagi..

In the III millennium BC. NS. in the era of the Akkadian kingdom, women with the help of tattoos tried to protect themselves from the evil eye, and men – to emphasize the dignity of a warrior, husband, earner, depicting scenes of throwing a spear, shooting a bow, killing an enemy or animals on their right hand.

Tattoos have always been widespread among the wild tribes of Eurasia, as well as among the Indians of the Americas and the inhabitants of Oceania. So, the New Zealand Majori tribes covered their entire face with a tattoo. This type of tattoo is called “Moko Mask”. Their drawing was so individual that the aborigines copied their mask on the merchants when selling land to Europeans. The Moko Mask pattern testified to the valor and merit of its owner. If the face of the fallen warrior was the Mask of Moko, his head was necessarily cut off and kept as a relic of the tribe, which was considered very honorable. The bodies of other warriors were left to be devoured by wild animals.

Women of Indian tribes in northeastern America even covered their tongues with tattoos. There was a brutal custom on the Nukuru atoll: children born to an untattooed woman were killed.

Burials of the 4th century BC were discovered in the Altai mountains. e., in which rested the “leader”, “warrior” and “princess”. Each body was adorned with a characteristic tattoo, testifying to the estate of the deceased. A fairly realistic deer hunting scene was tattooed on the right shoulder of the “warrior”. A much more intricate pattern was applied to the back of the “leader”. Scientists have still not been able to decipher it..

But in Ancient Greece and Rome, the tattoo played a completely opposite role. The Greeks thus “branded” enemy spies, and in Rome they marked slaves and criminals with tattoos. The infamous Emperor Caligula loved this dubious joke: he would get tattoos on citizens with an impeccable reputation..

An interesting case related to tattooing is described by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. Gistia of Susa wanted to call on the ruler of Miletus Aristagoras to revolt against the king, but the roads were teeming with royal agents – the letter could be intercepted. Gistiae found a clever way out. He shaved his most faithful slave’s hair and tattooed a message on his head. When the slave’s hair grew back, he went to Miletus and freely delivered to Aristagoras a letter from his master..

The tattoo was known to many European tribes – Gauls, Britons, Thracians, Germans. The Slavs, for whom it had magical significance and was important for the cult of fertility, did not stand aside either. The drawing was applied with clay pintader – analogs of modern presses and stamps.

Tattooing was also common in the Ancient East, for example, women of the Japanese Ainu tribe applied simple patterns to lips, cheeks and eyelids. From them it was easy to find out if she was married and how many children she had..

It is not entirely clear whether the Japanese borrowed the art of tattooing from China, or whether it originated on the islands on their own, but in the skill of tattooing (or “irezumi”), the representatives of the Land of the Rising Sun reached true heights. Japanese tattoos have always been distinguished by bright colors, integrity of the composition, deep symbolism. Interestingly, geisha, in order to circumvent the ban on showing the naked body, completely covered it with a tattoo, leaving only the face, palms and feet. The Japanese even invented a special type of female tattoo – kakushi-boro, which means “hidden” in translation. They got such a tattoo by rubbing rice powder into the cuts on the body, and it appeared on the body only in a state of excitement or after bathing..

In Japan, the tattoo was also used as a punishment. For the first violation of the law, a horizontal line was punctured on the criminal’s forehead, for the second – a vertical arcuate line crossing the first in the middle, for the third crime, another arched line was mirrored. Together, these lines formed the hieroglyph “INU”, which means “dog”. The same marks were “awarded” to slaves and prisoners of war.