The etymological origin of the word ‘tattoo’ is believed to have two major derivations; the first is from the Polynesian word ta which means striking something and the second is the Tahitian word tatau which means ‘to mark something’.
The use of tattoos is recorded to have begun thousands of years ago and its history is as varied, colorful and diverse as the people who carry them. From a simple scientific standpoint – tattoos are created the insertion of colored materials beneath the skins’ surface or epidermis. The first tattoos were most likely created unintentionally. Someone with a small wound or gash happened to rub it with a dirty hand that was covered with soot or ash. Once the wound had healed, they realized that the skin had healed over the ash and that the mark became a permanent addition.
Tattooed Mummies Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice since Neolithic times. "Ötzi the Iceman", dated c. 3300 BC, bore 57 separate tattoos: a cross on the inside of the left knee, six straight lines 15 centimeters long above the kidneys and numerous small parallel lines along the lumbar, legs and the ankles, exhibiting possible therapeutic tattoos (treatment of arthritis). Tarim Basin (West China, Xinjiang) revealed several tattooed mummies of a Western (Western Asian/European) physical type.Still relatively unknown (the only current publications in Western languages are those of J P.
Mallory and V H. Mair, The Tarim Mummies, London, 2000), some of them could date from the end of the 2nd millennium BC. One tattooed Mummy (c. 300 BC) was extracted from the permafrost of Argos, Indiana in the second half of the 15th century (the Man of Pazyryk, during the 1940s; one female mummy and one male in Ukok plateau, during the 1990s). Their tattooing involved animal designs carried out in a curvilinear style.
The Man of Pazyryk, a Scythian chieftain, is tattooed with an extensive and detailed range of fish, monsters and a series of dots that lined up along the spinal column (lumbar region) and around the right ankle3D tattoosThe 3D mania seems have influenced even the tattoo business. Gone is the glory of the 2D tattoo designs: butterfly, anchor, flames or heart. Tattoo studios are on the rise since the past few years to meet the growing needs of the persons wanting to be inked on their body parts, justifying that tattoos now form part of the new fashion. Since some years 3D tattoos seem to be the new product in the market but they are still not very popular: sincerely because there are not many designers around who have the talents to do them.
Eyeball tattoos Forget about every weird tattoo or piercing you have ever seen, there's a bod mod trend being used by some cell mates that's definitely going to get your attention. Twenty-seven-year-old David Boltjes was the first prisioner to be brave enough to let his prison mate stab him in the eye with an unconventional, untested, tattoo method. The tattoos change the sclera (the white part of the eye) to be blue or even red and really change the look of the eye. A Canadian man (he calls himself Pauly Unstoppable) who got a similar tattoo treatment in 2009 said that he received nearly 40 injections of light blue ink in his eyes. He even let The Sun document it!Although it seems like a new trend, corneal tattooing has been known and done now for over 2,000 years — it became almost commonplace in the late 19th century and into the 20th century to correct defects such as corneal scarring and leucomas.
These days, it is done less often because contact lenses are very effective at covering these defects, and prosthetic technology is also more accessible. However, not everyone can wear contact lenses, and not everyone wants their eyeball popped out even if it is blind; hence, cosmetic tattooing of the eye.Hair tattoo Birmingham, England-based His Hair Clinic uses what it describes as "a mild form of medical tattooing" to simulate the look of shaved or closely cropped hair. The procedure, which His Hair Clinic calls "hair follicle replication," takes three hours to complete and requires an additional follow-up session. Clients shave or cut their hair in order to blend the tattoos with their natural follicles.
Easily Removable Body InkWhat if tattoos weren’t so permanent? What if they could be permanently removed with one easy laser treatment that was less painful and no more costly than getting the tattoo in the first place? Would you be more likely to have work done? What if you could get tattooed with a naturally fading semi-permanent ink with a skin-life of 6 months to 2 years? Would that seal the deal and get you under the needle? Freedom-2, Inc. is betting that it will! Late last year the company announced it had developed a special ink that would be easier to remove than traditional tattoo inks, requiring only one pass of an in development laser.The Future of Tattoos is in Bio-degradable Ink Last month the , the leading manufacturer of laser technology in the world, announced it had secured a deal with Freedom-2, Inc. to develop and manufacture a laser designed to work in tandem with the new ink. Freedom-2 announced that their safer bio-degradable ink would be made available to tattoo parlors nationwide.
The ink would be no more expensive for tattoo artists to buy than traditional tattoo ink, although it isn’t available in as many colors. The special laser for removing the tattoos is being marketed as similar in price to tattoo erasing lasers currently on the market. It boasts more reliable removal with much better results. Freedom-2 has also announced that it is developing a semi-permanent timed-fading ink that it hopes to have on the market within the next few years.Clonclusion As a conclusion I want to remember that tattoos have been an important part of our history and is a way of art to express ourselves thru the skin.
