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Tattoo history
There are over 3.500 years ago, the tattoo already exist as an personality expression or about individuals in the same tribal community (people union with the same social and religious characteristics).
The primitive men were tattooed to mark facts in their biologic lives: birth, puberty, reproduction and death. Then, to report the facts for the social lives: to become a warrior, priest or king, married,celebrate the life, to identify prisioners, ask for protection to God, ensure spiritual life during and after their material life.
In the Christian era, in hiding, under pagan trial power, the first Christians were recognized for a series of signs tattooed, with crosses, the IHS letters, the fish, the Greek letters. In the modern era, the tattoo crossed for several years in the marginality. Its returns to be a relevant question when start to appear in artists: music, cinema and common people. No longer anymore it is as marginality symbol, but rather an individual form of art expression and body's esthetics. The tattoos are no more coarse as the chains prisioners, but have a thinner drawing and many vibrant colors.
In Brazil, the modern's tattoo precursor was a Danish citizen named Knud Harald Lucky Gegersen, popularly known as Lucky or Mr. Tattoo. He arrived here in 1959, he settled in Santos –SP, using his talents and professional artist and painter techniques.
Lucky was in the news in many different newspapers, and in 1975 in “O globo” journal considered that he was the only professional tattooist in South America. His death was reported in “A tribuna” journal in Santos SP in 18th December 1983.
For a long time, Lucky remained being the only tattooist in South America, until his followers began to appear slowly, they inherited their techniques and the art to make tattoos.
Despite its history, the independence origin concept fits tattoo, because it was invented many times, in different moments and differents parts of the world, in all continents, with more or less purpose variation, techniques and results.
The oldest mummy in the world (Iceman) was found in 1991, in Italy and dated 5.300 B.C, it stood frozen in a ice block and had tattoos in all its backbone, a cross in one thigh and tribal drawings across the leg. Was counted in total about 57 tattoos. The second oldest mummy in the world was a egyptian princess who had a big spiral on the belly, lower abdomen region, that some anthropologist have related to possible fertility rituals. Others mummies had tattoos with magical or medical signs.
In some of them, as the priestess mummy 2.000B.C had some horizontal lines and parallel near the stomach, possibly to protect against pregnancy or diseases. Mummies with the same kind of signs was found in the Nilo river valley. Like experts says, the tattoos in female mummies had an cosmetic effect, to enhance its charms.
In old Herodotus writings called “The father's history”, there are quotes about existence of a very old people in the north of Europe that had a habit of making definitive drawings in their bodies, these people was called ‘Pictus’ by this practice.
The 'Pictus' people didn't used tattoos for vanity. They believed that the tattoos gave them power and strength and the drawings stayed printed in their souls to identify by their ancestors after death. Their warriors received the tattoos after a bravery act. The interlaced lines of these tattoos, very complicated to realize, served to distract the enemy, besides representing the interconnection with all the things in the Earth.
The natives from Polynesia, Philippines , Indonesia and New Zealand (Maori), were tattooed themselves in complex rituals, always linked to religion. The Maori people have excelled by Moko’s creativity , tradicional tattoo made in the face. The Celtics and Vikings people, the Danish, the Normans and Saxons, also developed their own tattoo’s styles.
The technique varied just a little, but the drawings and reasons always were singular in each culture. In America, both indigenous tribes of United States as the Maya and Aztec civilizations were tattoos practitioners. For the Sioux Indians, tattoo their bodies served as a religious and magic expression. They believed that after death, a deity wait their souls arrival and required to see the tattoos to gave the passage to the Paradise.
A little bit closer to the Equator line, Cortez was astonished by the fact that the Mayan practice the Gods stone cult. Moreover, these people had the habit to print their Gods images in themselve. Although the Europeans have developed the tattoo with the Celtic and the Barbarians people, the conquerors had never seen a tattoo before, which helped to qualify the Mayan as “Devil people” and massacred by their gold.
The tattoo was introduced in West in the XVIII century, with the holding that put in touch the Europeans with the Pacific cultures. At that time there were no professional artist for this, but some amateurs would be on board to this ships in big ports.
In the second half of the XIX century, tattoos become fashionable among the European royalty. In the late XIX century, the tattoo fever spread in England as nowhere else in Europe, thanks to the British sailors practice. Many segments of the English society became adepts to this art. But even the royalty being tattooed, the most people insisted to associate the tattoo act for crimes and deliquency.
The father of word “tattoo” was the captain James Cook, who wrote in his diary “tattow”, also known “tatau”, onomatopoeia of the sound made during the tattoo session which was used fine bones as needles, which beat with a little wood hammer to introduce the ink in the skin.
From 1920, the tattoo became more commercial, more popular among Americans and Europeans. Appearing many tattooists that were artistically ambitious. They had many clients in 50th and 60th decade. For a long time, in the United States, tattoos stayed associated to lower socioeconomics classes, the militaries, the sailors, prostitutes and criminals.
The “skin art” as it is called, increasingly lose the marginal stigma that used to characterize and it is in people’s bodies in different ages and social classes. From a simple tribal mark to giant dragons, its left the underground to take the streets for everywhere.
The tattoos, today, in the esthetic world, are very welcomed to restoration eyebrows, eyes and lips design, to coverage blemishes and scars. Slowly, the tattoo also being recognized as an art, thanks to tattoos clubs initiatives in all the world who promove expositions, competitions among the best works and also conventions to upgrade and modernization of asepsis method.
TATTOOS: ODD OR EVEN?
Even those who don’t have a tattoo, already heard about this tattoo legend: Odd or even, there is divided opinions about this legend, while some of them are more mythological and related this number to 666, others prefer to believe in stories told by the artistic's tattoos precursors.
The relationship with the 666 number is because that number be a sequence of three numbers and represent the number of the beast, in the most times somebody who get finished a tattoo, takes care to not be among the disadvantaged and says:”Soon I will do another, because odd tattoos is unlucky”.
The sailors told that, once a pirate ship sank and all those who had odd tattoos died, this caused a great fear among the sea travelers and as they travelled for many nations, spreads this legend.
During the following years, tattoo artists profited a lot in the port’s region, did tattoos in sailors and superstitious who wanted to make a second tattoo to escape for bad lucky of this legend. With the passing of time, new legends were released to say that even's tattoos give unlucky, and then, a new cycle of search was started to do a new tattoo and keep a odd number, confirming that all of this is just a commercial legend very lucrative at time.
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