Tattoos & Art

The art of tattooing has been around for a long time. The oldest known example of tattooing is found on famous mummy Otzi the Iceman. He is Europe’s oldest known mummy, believed to be 5300 years old! Otzi was found preserved in a glacier on the border of the Austrian and Italian Alps. Scientists have found 61 different tattoo style markings on his body. However, there is evidence to suggest that the practice of tattooing has been around even prior to Otzi’s time. Artefacts such as bowls holding dried pigmented ink believed to have been used for the practice of ‘marking skin’ have been found that are nearly 12 000 years old!

Historically, many different religious and cultural groups have practiced ‘tattooing’; the Celts, Vikings, Japanese, Maori, and even early Roman soldiers all practiced this style of permanent mark making on their bodies. The term tattoo can be traced back to the Tahitian word ta-tu which means ‘to strike’ or ‘to mark’. This term is believed to have been assimilated into Western terminology by returning sailors after one of Captain Cook’s expeditions to the island.

Between the early twentieth century and the 1960s tattooing declined in popularity as the art form became seen as a practice of the ‘lower’ or deviant classes. Circuses often touted highly tattooed people as ‘freaks’ and tattoos slowly became more and more synonymous with gangs and the criminal element.

However, in the 1960s tattooing experienced a kind of Renaissance period. With the boom of anti-establishment subcultures such as punk, hippy, new age and women’s and gay liberation movements people came to think of their bodies in a different light. Today the prevalence and acceptance of tattooing as a legitimate art form can be witnessed in the quality and quantity of work in the public gallery (the street). Tattooists are celebrated; no longer confined to ‘back-door’ establishments. The trade is more commonly being acknowledged as a highly recognised profession, with people traveling far and wide to get inked by famous tattoo artists. Contemporary art practice has also embraced tattooing as both a medium and a subject. Tattoo is powerful as an art form in that it expresses both the permanent and impermanent aspects of the human condition.