26 Dec 2009
In this paper we are going to turn to the issues related to such controversial practice – as tattooing. There are various points of view regarding tattoos, some people think this is a kind of art, others state, that a human body should under no conditions be spoilt by any outside marks an so on. With the help of some historical facts, modern statistics and brief explanations of the most widely used tattoo signs we are going to prove, that tattoos can not be viewed unambiguously and thus only negatively or positively, because this is necessary to take into consideration, that tattooing is not simply a way of spoiling or improving the human body, this is also one of the communication means.
Under tattoo we usually understand a type of permanent ink mark, which is done in the skin layers, mostly for decoration purposes. This practice has a long history all over the world. Tattoos are seen as art objects or as religious signs, as types of identification or simply decoration by various peoples.
As for the etymology of the word “tattoo” there are also several versions. The word “tatau” in Samoan meant “open wound”. Other sources inform, that this word came to English from Tahitian with the sailors. Some modern associations of the word are “arts, “ work” ink works” and so on. The practice of tattooing is so much spread nowadays, that it is possible to find real art galleries with huge collections of custom designed and traditional tattoo samples.
Brief historical analysis, we are going to present further, will help us to find some proofs of communication through tattooing as a rather well developed process already. According to historical researches people started to make tattoos on their bodies from the fourth millennium BC already (Gilbert, 13). These were the simple tattoos, which were made of practically dots and lines only. Other examples of early tattoo applications were found on the Egypt mummies, which remained from the second millennium BC. This is difficult to be sure now as for the real purposes of the tattoos of those ancient times, we can only guess, that these used to be some special signs, which were to mean something important for the people of those times and lands.
Germanic and Celtic tribes are known for their heavy tattoos, mostly of dark blue colors. There are later descriptions of these tattoos, which can be found in the manuscripts left by Julius Caesar about Gallic Wars. In some countries tattoos were applied in combinations with cuttings of skin and other wounds. To the Western societies tattooing came from European sailors, who traveled to the Polynesian countries around the eighteenth century (Gilbert, 26).
If not all genuine reasons for tattooing of the ancient times can be traced nowadays, speaking about modern types of tattoos we could for sure point out several of them. The first purpose was already mentioned above, namely as decorative or spiritual application of tattoos. People, living in a society, often want to emphasize their “status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, sexual lures and marks of fertility, pledges of love, punishment, amulets and talismans, protection, or use tattoos as the marks of outcasts, slaves and convicts” (Gilbert, 38). This is evident, that tattoos cannot be seen as simple permanent drawings, they are normally presenting some certain symbols of messages from a person, who has them on his body. This can be also a person’s attitude or feelings expression or something else.
There is a great number of reasons, why people decide to make a tattoo or tattoos, these can be sentimental, religious, magical purposes, or desire to be associated with certain group or clan, ethic groups or even criminal world. Tattoo symbols and their explanations usually vary in different countries and cultures, like for example “Some Māori still choose to wear intricate moko on their faces. In Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, the yantra tattoo is used for protection against evil and to increase luck. In the Philippines certain tribal groups believe that tattoos have magical qualities, and also to their bearers. Most traditional tattooing in the Philippines is related to the bearers Accomplishments in life or rank in the tribe” (Gilbert, 44).
Nowadays, there are still a lot of negative associations with tattoos. Sometimes this is difficult for a person to get the desired job in some certain fields in case he has a tattoo; not all parents are happy, when their children make tattoos and finally there are some medical prohibitions for applying tattoos as well. There are also cultural distinctions, like for example in Japan tattoos are often associated with the yakuza, especially in the cases when tattoos are done all over the body. Some public places in Japan do not allow people with such tattoos even to enter them. In United States most of prisoners identify themselves with some gangs or want to show the details of their criminal behavior and use tattoos for this. Everybody heard, that the tattoo of a tear is a symbol of murder. Here we are not talking about military tattoos, which are usually done as remindings about certain battles or military units.
Such negative associations were changed in a way by the great number of women, having a tattoo. The researches, who studied the data about adolescent risk groups, show, that girls have positive correlations between such changes of the body and their perceptions of the surrounding world and their self-esteem. Sometimes tattoos are also a good way to avoid social alienation for youngsters.
In the Army Medical Services Museum we could find the examples of pure identification tattoos. In this case this was far from person’s wish to be tattooed, this was an order for special reasons. One of the brightest examples of such practice was the special marking of Jews in concentration camps during the terrible times of Holocaust. Identification tattoos however, are not associated purely with some negative practices – there are also other examples. When the first contacts between Maori and European people started to develop, Maori people of higher position used mokos – facial tattoos – as signatures to the documentation. Sometimes tattooing is rather a need than a pleasure, like for example in the case of sailors, who got the tattoos in order to be identified in case of an accident or drowning. Some navies continue the traditions of tattooing even till nowadays.
Permanent makeup is rather a new technology used in the cosmetics industry. Tattooing of permanent makeup allows to substitute other types of cosmetics for a prolonged period of time, usually in order to hide some skin defects or discolorations. This type of tattooing refers to the process of communication in the same way like usual make up, namely is important for self-esteem of a person, for his feeling comfortable in public and certainly positive mood and humor.
However, the most widespread type of tattooing is decorative or artistic. People have always tried to find the ways of become unique, to be prominent and notable among others, making a tattoo allows a person to make his own individual choice what kind of drawing to have and what should be the message of this drawing. There are not often two persons with the same kinds of tattoos in this case and other people always pay attention to the tattoos in the process of communication. Tattoos actually as well as clothes, hairstyle and other elements of the appearance are able to provide additional information about the person, who has them. This is evident, that it is not always possible to understand the real meaning of any tattoo your interlocutor has, but still there are some commonly accepted symbols of tattoos, which can be understood correspondingly. Here we are going to stop at the most widely applied tattoo drawings and their meanings. Almost one third of all tattoos made, as researches show, are the so-called tribal tattoo designs. This is clear, that the tribal theme is rather many-sided and versatile, thus the number and variations of such tattoos are great, starting from traditional ancient tribal tattoos and till the latest modern drawings. Tribal tattoos have a rather long history. There is an assumption, that for the first times they appeared accidentally. People used fire and were often close to it, so this is really likely for somebody to get burnt and to have a kind of scar afterwards. Later on tribal tattoos were very closely related to spiritual life. Tattoos were seen as bridges between people and gods and other magic powers. People believed, that tattooing is done not only on the skin, but on the spiritual body as well due to its integral connection to physical body. From the very beginning tattoos served as a symbol for some certain clan, tribe or family. This didn’t mean, that everybody could simply distinguish the members of his clan among others, there was a theory, that even in afterlife families will be reunited thanks to corresponding tattooing. Partially this tradition continues till nowadays, when members of various gangs, groups or sometimes even families decide to invent special marks for their skin to be distinguished from the others.
Very close to tribal tattoos are marriage tattoos. They also root from ancient times, when people, who got married exchanged not the rings, but made the same tattoos, believing that this will help them to find their souses in the afterlife (Buckland, 318). Modern tradition also suggest making special tattoos in the form of rings or initial or other signs, which would be clear to the couple, when getting married and in order to symbolize their permanent love and fidelity to each other.
Another tradition, coming from our ancestries is related to passage to maturity. There were certain tribal tattoos, which were done for the youngsters, who were reaching the age of adulthood. Young people were to come through the pain of tattooing in order to be accepted as full-fledged adult and for young girls also to prove that they will be able to bear the pain of childbirth and thus become good wives (Caplan, 111). Modern teenagers also often wait till they are eighteen and make a tattoo to mark this transition point.
Star tattoos are very often met in various forms, with different number of points as well as various orientation of these points. Commonly a star is understood as a symbol of truth, spirit and hope, being associated with the light in the darkness and with divine spark inside each human (Buckland, 319). “Among the most well-know of these are the Pentagram (five-pointed star), the Nautical Star (five-pointed star), the Hexagram or Star of David (six-pointed star), all the way to the nonagram (nine-pointed star)” (Caplan, 156).
For the Pentagram star the orientation is vitally important, depending on this Pentagram might mean the sign of the Devil if pointing downwards. In other case Pentagram used to symbolize magicians, protection, balance, even harmonizing nature of yin-yang symbol.
The Hexagram presents the relation between God and humans, it has also received the second name in Judaism – the Star of David. Other names of this star are – the Seal of Solomon and the Creator’s Star.
The Septagram is related to mystery thanks to the number of seven. There are seven planets in the classical astrology and there are seven Hindu chakras. The start with eight points roots from ancient Egypt, where it was related to eight-fold systems and served as a symbol of regeneration. The Nonogram is associated with correspondingly nine-fold systems or nine psychic centers defined in Taoism.
Very often we see also the tattoos of angels, which are without any doubts related to Divine forces and to transmitting of the God’s word to people. Angels are usually seen as the connection between the spiritual and actual worlds and are supposed to punish or support people fulfilling the wish of God. In tattooing angels symbolize devotion, faith, spirituality. One of the major reasons of a person to make the angel tattoo is his desire to get the protection from the Divine forces.
Cross tattoos are probably the most often met religious symbols in ancient as well as modern times, because cross has always had a very strong spiritual power. Cross – is said to be one of the most popular and used tattoo symbols in all countries. The vertical and horizontal lines of it represent Father and Mother Nature (Caplan, 188). The middle intersection of the two lines is also called the point of synthesis, representing the integration of material and spiritual in this world. Crosses were met practically in all countries in all religions even long before written words.
Certainly all the above-mentioned tattoo symbols are just the most commonly accepted and understood ones, and there is a great number of other tattoo types as well as unique drawings. There is no unified agreement on symbolism of all tattoos. On the one hand very often people make tattoos, wanting to express some certain idea of message, but not all around them can understand this message correctly. On the other hand, we can not argue, that tattoos still belong to the process of communication and thus play their roles in it. Tattoos can not be seen as plain permanent drawings, they all have their messages and reasons, why they were done. Psychologists point out several ways of message transmitting in relation with tattooing. The first one is called – effective communication. This communication takes place under the conditions, that people understand correctly the message, an individual has tried to convey through his tattoo. For example if a tattoo was initially thought to represent some religious beliefs and they are quite clear to others. The second type is called – a communication attempt. This is the case, when the message of the tattoo bearer is not clear to other people around him, at least not the one that he wanted to convey. This doesn’t mean, that the communication attempt failed, but wasn’t successful either. And finally the last way is ascribed communication. This happens, when a person makes a tattoo without any concrete intention or on the contrary, aiming to convey some certain message, but it is understood by other people in a completely different way. For example if somebody has a tattoo of a lion, people might think, that he is admiring the power of this animal, but in reality the tattoo was done because of zodiac sign. This is also not a failure in communication, but still not satisfactory result of it.
From the above-described classification we can conclude, that the main problem of communication of the desired messages through tattooing is related to the fact, that the meaning is not simply in gestures or images, but rather in the minds of people. This means, that, an individual having some message in his brains takes a decision to convey this message to others, using a tattoo symbol. This is evident, that the choice of the symbol is done on his own and is based on the unique connection he builds between this image and the message. In real life there appears only a combination of dots and lines, which doesn’t mean, that everybody around would build the same connection between the initial idea and its imagery representation, excluding the cases, when a person uses commonly accepted and understood symbols with their traditional deciphering. Verbal communication is actually also possible only under the condition, that all people agreed about the notions, which are understood under this or that verbal expression or word. The same situation is with tattooing and this is important for everybody, who takes a decision to make a tattoo to remember, that if this is important, that everybody or most of the people around him understand his tattoo message in the same way like he intended it to convey, he should choose some concrete and commonly accepted symbol. In case this is not so important for him, how other people react or understand his tattoo, and he wants to have it only as his personal sensation, then he is free to choose any design.
Overall, in this paper we made an investigation of the tattoos etymology and history; their relations to cultural phenomena and individual perception of the reality; the role, which tattooing can play in communication, as we came to the conclusion, that tattooing can not be considered simply as skin decoration and usually is supposed to convey some certain message or idea, which proves, that tattooing as well as any other form of writing or art, bears certain functions in communication between individuals. Historically, there were sufficient differences between various cultures in relation to tattooing practice, nowadays however tattoos are mostly used to characterize certain social formal or informal groups and are rather symbolic all over the world.
Works cited:
Buckland, A. W. „On Tattooing“, in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1887/12, p. 318-328
Caplan, J. Written on the Body: The Tattoo in European and American History, Princeton 2000
Gell, A. Wrapping in Images: Tattooing in Polynesia, Oxford – Clarendon Press 1993.
Gilbert, S. G. Tattoo History. A Source Book, New York – Juno Books 2001
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