Tattoo
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Tattoo,
permanent mark or design made on the body by the introduction of pigment through ruptures in the skin. Sometimes the term is also loosely applied to the inducement of scars (cicatrization). Tattooing proper has been practiced in most parts of the world, though it is rare among populations with the darkest skin colour and absent from most of China (at least in recent centuries). Tattooed designs are thought by various peoples to provide magical protection against sickness or misfortune, or they serve to identify the wearer's rank, status, or membership in a group. Decoration is perhaps the most common motive for tattooing.
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If certain marks on the skin of the Iceman, a mummified human body dating from about 3300 BC, are tattoos, then they represent the earliest known evidence of the practice. Tattoos have also been found on Egyptian and Nubian mummies dating from about 2000 BC. Their use is mentioned by classical authors in relation to the Thracians, Greeks, Gauls, ancient Germans, and ancient Britons; the Romans tattooed criminals and slaves. After the advent of Christianity, tattooing was forbidden in Europe, but it persisted in the Middle East and in other parts of the world.
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Tattooing was rediscovered by Europeans when the age of exploration brought them into contact with American Indians and Polynesians. The word tattoo itself was introduced into English and other European languages from Tahiti, where it was first recorded by James Cook's expedition in 1769. Tattooed Indians and Polynesians, and later Europeans tattooed abroad, attracted much interest at exhibits, fairs, and circuses in Europe and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. |
In the 19th century, released U.S. convicts and British army deserters were identified by tattoos, and later the inmates of Siberian prisons and Nazi concentration camps were similarly marked. Members of 20th-century street or motorcycle gangs frequently identify themselves with a tattooed design. During the late 19th century, tattooing had a short vogue among both sexes in the English upper classes. Tattooing has declined in many non-Western cultures, but European, American, and Japanese tattooing underwent a renewal of interest in the 1990s. Tattooing of both men and women became fashionable, along with a revival of body piercing.
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