A tattoo is a marking

made by inserting
indelible ink into the
dermis layer of the
skin to change the
pigment for
decorative or other
reasons.

Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice at least since

around Neolithic times.
tzi the Iceman, dating from the fourth to fifth millennium
BC, was found in the tz valley in the Alps and had
approximately 57 carbon tattoos consisting of simple
dots and lines on his lower spine, behind his left knee,
and on his right ankle. These tattoos were thought to be
a form of healing because of their placement which
resembles acupuncture.

tzi the Iceman while still frozen in the

glacier, photographed by Helmut Simon
upon the discovery of the body in
September 1991

Other mummies bearing tattoos and dating from the end

of the second millennium BC have been discovered, such
as the Mummy of Amunet from Ancient Egypt and the
mummies at Pazyryk on the Ukok Plateau.
Amunets Tattoo

The first written reference to the word, "tattoo" (or Samoan "Tatau") appears in
the journal of Joseph Banks, the naturalist aboard Cook's ship "The Endeavour",
in 1769: "I shall now mention the way they mark themselves indelibly, each of
them is so marked by their humor or disposition".
Tattooing was widespread among Polynesian peoples and among certain tribal
groups in the Taiwan, Philippines, Borneo, Mentawai Islands, Africa, North
America, South America, Mesoamerica, Europe, Japan, Cambodia, New Zealand
and Micronesia.

Polynesias Tattoo ritual

Today one can find Berbers of Tamazgha (North Africa), Mori of New
Zealand, Arabic people in East-Turkey and Atayal of Taiwan with facial
tattoos.

Despite some taboos surrounding tattooing, the art continues

to be popular in many parts of the world.

Today, people choose to be tattooed for

religious, spiritual, decorative, sentimental,
memorial, cosmetic and other reasons.
Tattoos are also used to symbolize the
belonging to or identification with
particular groups, sports teams, including
criminal gangs, as well a particular ethnic
group or law-abiding subculture.

Spiritual uses
Tattoos have served as rites of passage,
marks of 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, and as the marks of outcasts,
slaves and convicts.

Tattooing is a tradition among many of the

indigenous peoples around the world.

Some Maori 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 help to
protect their bearers

A Mori Chief with tattoos

(moko) seen by Cook and his
crew

Decorative Tattoos

Some of these tattoos are quite creative, personal objects of art or

a statement of conviction. But most simply scream:

Sentimental
Tattoos may show how a person
feels about a relative (commonly
mother/father or daughter/son) or
about an unrelated person.
A tattoo as an
expression of love

Memorial
Memorial tattoos usually pay
tribute to deceased persons.

A tattoo of Michael Jackson

Fraternal/Social
Members of college
fraternities and sororities
often voluntarily elect to
have their fraternity or
sorority letters tattooed on
their bodies.

A fraternity

A soccer team

Identification
People have also been forcibly tattooed.
A well-known example is the identification
system for inmates in Nazi concentration
camps during the Holocaust.
A Nazi concentration camp identification tattoo

Tattoos have also been used for identification

in other ways. For example, in the period of
early contact between the Maori and
Europeans, Maori chiefs sometimes drew their
moko (facial tattoo) on documents in place of a
signature.

Cosmetic

When used as a form of cosmetics, tattooing includes permanent makeup and

hiding or neutralizing skin discolorations. Permanent makeup is the use of tattoos
to enhance eyebrows, lips (liner and/or lipstick), eyes (liner), and even moles,
usually with natural colors as the designs are intended to resemble makeup.

Permanent make-up

Medical
A medical tattoo is a tattoo used to show the illnesses
or allergenic reactions one has. Medical tattoos can be
used for a number of reasons:
As a warning that a patient suffers from a chronic
disease that can exacerbate suddenly and that will
require immediate specialist treatment. One example is in
the case of congenital adrenal hyperplasia, in which
patients may need steroid replacement therapy during
ordinary illness.
As an aid in radiotherapy. In order to minimize
damage to surrounding tissues, the radiotherapist
seeks to keep the irradiated field as small as possible.
Marking a number of points on the body with tattoos
can aid radiotherapists in adjusting the beam properly.

 Extensive decorative tattooing is common

among members of traditional freak shows

and by performance artists who follow in
their tradition.

The most common method of tattooing in modern times is the electric tattoo
machine, which inserts ink into the skin via a group of needles that are soldered
onto a bar, which is attached to an oscillating unit.
The unit rapidly and repeatedly drives the needles in and out of the skin, usually 80
to 150 times a second.

Tattooing involves the placement of pigment into the skin's dermis, the layer of
dermal tissue underlying the epidermis.
After initial injection, pigment is dispersed throughout a homogenized damaged
layer down through the epidermis and upper dermis, in both of which the
presence of foreign material activates the immune systems phagocytes to
engulf the pigment particles.
As healing proceeds, the damaged epidermis flakes away (eliminating surface
pigment) while deeper in the skin granulation tissue forms, which is later converted to
connective tissue by collagen growth.
This mends the upper dermis, where pigment remains trapped
within fibroblasts, ultimately concentrating in a layer just below
the dermis/epidermis boundary.

Its presence there is stable, but in the long

term (decades) the pigment tends to
migrate deeper into the dermis, accounting
for the degraded detail of old tattoos

As the popularity of tattoos continues to grow, so does

the concern about potential risks.
Some risks, such as the spread of infections through
the use of unsterilized needles, have long been known.
A variety of medical issues, though uncommon, can result
from tattooing. Because it requires breaking the skin barrier,
tattooing may carry health risks, including infection and
allergic reactions.

A tattoo is a permanent mark or design made on your skin with

pigments inserted through pricks into the skin's top layer.
The process which is done without anesthetics and may last
up to several hours for a large tattoo causes a small amount
of bleeding and slight to potentially significant pain.

Skin infections

Allergic reactions. Tattoo dyes especially red dye can cause allergic skin
reactions, resulting in an itchy rash at the tattoo site. This may occur even years after
you get the tattoo.

Skin infections. Tattoos can lead to local bacterial infections, characterized

by redness, swelling, pain and a pus-like drainage.
Other skin problems. Sometimes bumps called granulomas form around
tattoo ink especially red ink. Tattooing can also lead to raised areas caused
by an overgrowth of scar tissue (keloids).
Blood borne diseases. If the equipment used to create your tattoo is contaminated
with infected blood, you can contract various blood borne diseases, including hepatitis B,
hepatitis C, tetanus and HIV the virus that causes AIDS.
MRI complications. Rarely, tattoos or permanent makeup may cause swelling or
burning in the affected areas during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams. In some
cases such as when a person with permanent eyeliner has an MRI of the eye
tattoo pigments may interfere with the quality of the image.

 Hepatitis
Syphilis
HIV
Bacterial
Leprosy

Tattoos are considered forbidden in Islam.

According to the book of Sunni traditions, Sahih Bukhari, "The Prophet
Mohammed (Peace be upon him) forbade [...] mutilation (or maiming) of
bodies.
"Allah has cursed those women who practice tattooing and those who get
themselves tattooed, and those who remove their face hairs, and those who
create a space between their teeth artificially to look beautiful, and such women
as change the features created by Allah. Why then should I not curse those
whom the Prophet has cursed? And that is in Allah's Book. i.e. His Saying: 'And
what the Apostle gives you take it and what he forbids you abstain (from it).'
(59.7) (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Dress, Volume 7, Book 72, Number 815)
Sunni Muslims believe tattooing is forbidden and a sin because it involves
changing the creation of Allah (Surah 4 Verse 117-120), and because the
Prophet (Peace be upon him) cursed the one who does tattoos and the one for
whom that is done.

Visible Tattoos Make People Unemployable:

Many tattooed people are being left out of work
due to discrimination by employers.
Negative associations:
People with numerous tattoos may be treated differently
when out in the public eye . Tattoos are strongly associated
with crime organizations .
Tattoo regret :
Tattoos can lose emotional meaning over time, one
may find they regret having it done, either for physical
or emotion reasons or both.

Removal cost:
Tattoos are permanent. Although there are new ways of having
them removed, they are painful and expensive. The expense and
pain of removing tattoos will typically be greater than the expense
and pain of applying them.
Removal is time-consuming, costly, and doesnt always work.
The most common method of tattoo removal is by laser treatment,
which delivers short flashes of light at very high intensities to the
skin to break down the tattoo ink.

Some color inks are harder to remove than others.

Many repeat visits every several weeks may be required to remove
a tattoo, and it may never be entirely gone.

In conclusion, tattooing is not for everyone

and I hope that this presentation has provided
a better understanding of the subject.

Created by Afnan
January 10, 2010