The History of Tattoo – Part 3: The Indians
Originally this was written as a school assignment about Body Art Among the Natives of America. If I’d followed a chronological order this article should have been published in between my previous two articles (you’ll find them both here: http://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/tattoo/), but it simply didn’t cross my mind until afterwards…
From my first article in this series you’ll might remember (or you can look it up) that we, through archeological evidence can trace tattooing in Polynesia back to as early as 2000 BCE. You’ll also remember the stories about Captain James Cook and his crew and how they adopted the Tahitian word “ta-tu” or “tatau” when describing this practice. We also had a look at the early American history of tattoo, but I skipped the earlier part about the American history of tattoo – the one about the Indians (today more politically and geographically correct known as Native Americans).
This is the longest article in this series so far and it’s almost like a long list of cultural features among the different tribes and their tattoo techniques. I had to leave out a lot of information about the different tribes and the customs, but if you’re interested you can find more info in the link section.
As many of you already know I’ve asked readers for submissions of tattoo photos and people have sent me their pictures, but for this article I naturally had to find illustrations online (none of my readers are 1800′s native americans…) In the next couple of articles we’ll be looking at the history of tattoo in modern times and then I’ll use readers photos as illustrations.
The History of Tattoo Part 2: The Americanization (Westernisation) of Tattoo
Here’s the continuation in my series The History of Tattoo, originally written in Norwegian for an international tattoo chain. Did you miss The History of Tattoo Part 1: Polynesia and New Zealand? If so: I recommend that you read Part 1 first because, like most historical lessons, this one is also in chronological order. In the first part we learned about the Maori traditions and how Captain James Cook and other explorers & sailors unknowingly brought “ta-tu” or “tatau” from Polynesia & New Zealand to the Western world. Now we’ll have a look at the cultural appropriation and the growth that took place in these early days of tattoo.
Tattoo in progress (Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands)
“Hands can be instrumental in a photo – they emphasis, they hide, they reveal.
Share a picture that has a HAND in it with everyone!” – WordPress.
Tattoo: work in progress.
Related articles
- The History of Tattoo Part 1: Polynesia & New Zealand (cardinalguzman.wordpress.com)
- Photos of Tattoos Wanted (cardinalguzman.wordpress.com)
- Manicure Hands (cardinalguzman.wordpress.com)
- Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands (perzpective.com)
Photos of Tattoos Wanted
Hello Dear reader/fellow blogger.
I’m writing some articles about the History of Tattoo, and I thought it would be nice to illustrate the series with images from fellow bloggers (or their friends) tattoos. Perhaps you/your friend want your tattoo featured in one of the articles?
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The History of Tattoo Part 1: Polynesia & New Zealand
Originally this was written for a Tattoo chain. Later I will translate and publish the rest of the History of Tattoo. A lot of the material is American, as much of the literature on this subject originates there. The illustrations (except the small one here) are from Wikimedia Commons and they are “Out of Copyright worldwide” (which means anyone, anywhere, can use the illustrations.)
He said/she said: