Evolution of Tattoos

They’re what you see on your friends, family and people walking on the streets. This growing debate on tattoos brings me to the point of the evolution of tattoos. Tattoos were once believed to be a risky trend and are now becoming more of the norm. As we know it, tattoos are not as unusual as they once were. Tattooing is a widely practiced method of body decoration in which markings such as signs, symbols, and letters are applied to the body by puncturing the skin’s outer layer and inserting color into it. Whether ancient or modern techniques are used, the skin is punctured with a sharp instrument. Now, we usually use an electric moved needle. In earlier times and other cultures, tattooing required one or more needles fixed to a stick and driven into the skin by slight tapping. Among the Sioux, for example, women would draw a circle or line on a person's skin with clay, punch the design with an awl, and then rub blue clay over it. By the time the clay was dry it had penetrated beneath the awl holes.

Tattooing is something that is becoming more and more common throughout society. It started over a thousand years ago in native tribes. Depending on the design and elements used, these tattoos told stories. Tribal tattoos were also used to differentiate between other tribes and display their social status. The figures and shapes used in these tribal tattoo styles were often representative of animals or other elements of nature and tribal life.

The tattoos of indigenous cultures were typically created using only black ink and were implemented using a hollow needle made from local objects including bamboo, bone, porcupine quill, and other natural materials. Some tattoos are self-motivated expressions of personal freedom and uniqueness. Most, however, have to do with certain traditions that mark a person as a member or nonmember of the local group, Such as express religious, magical, or spiritual beliefs and personal convictions. The oldest tattooed body known to date is that of a Bronze Age man who died over 5000 years ago. He was found frozen and somehow still intact in an Italian glaczier. Researchers were startled when they did a close examination of his body and that he had both arms, legs and torso covered with elaborate Tattoos representing mythical creatures. Back in the 1960’s, 1970’s and even into the 1980’s, tattooing wasn’t exactly fashionable like it is now.

Traditionally, it was favored by specific people of society like those in the army, sailors, or counterculture groups like bikers, or prisoners. Working-class young people of the Punk movement in the late 1970s and 80s used tattoos and piercing as symbols of rebellion. In the 80s and early 90s, it cost $100 an hour to get a tattoo in North America. It then rose to $120 in the 1990s and then to $150 in the 2000s. Americans have made tattooing very popular as television shows like Miami Ink, Ink Master, and Best Ink have become hits across the country. One particular artist who has thrived off of being featured on television for her work is Kat Von D. She has gone on to become one of the top-rated artists in the country. Her client list is extensive, ranging from the likes of Miley Cyrus to Dave Navarro, and her going rate for a tattoo starts at $500.an hour? In conclusion, many people may see tattoos as bad, like we are disrespecting God, but to other people it is a symbol of love and respect. We shouldn’t judge people based on their body art, we should judge them by the person they really are. Some people get tattoos to express themselves or the feelings they have.