The Tattoo Process and Significance Of Tattoos

1738 Words4 Pages

Significance of Tattoos

In the past, tattoos were commonly thought of as trashy or bad. One would often relate them to bikers, rock and heavy metal stars, pirates, or gangsters. That has considerably changed over the years. According to Swan, "In 2003 approximately 40 million Americans reported to have at least one tattoo." Today's culture is still fascinated with tattooing. In the 1990s, tattoos were the sixth fastest growing retail behind the Internet, paging services, computer and cell phone services. 28% of adult’s ages 30-39 were tattooed and that number rose to 36 percent in the 25-29 age group. 31% of the gay, lesbian and bisexual population, regardless of age, was inked as well. Tattoos are significant because they represent and symbolize different things to many people.

Erika Aldama. (2007, Febuary 8). The History of Permanent Trend. Retrieved January 13, 2008, from http://media.www.thetraveleronline.com/media/storage/paper688/news/2007/02/08/LifeStyle/Tattoos-2706864-page2.shtml

The word tattoo is said to have two major origins- from the Polynesian word ‘ta’ which means striking something and the Tahitian word ‘tatau’ which means ‘to mark something’. The history of tattoo began over 5000 years ago. Many past cultures included tattoos in their tradition. Tattoos were used for different reasons such as communicating among spies, for criminals and slaves to be marked, culture, religious and ceremonial, or social status.

The first permanent tattoo shop in New York City was settled up in 1846 and began a tradition by tattooing military servicemen from both sides of the civil war. Samuel O'reilly invented the electric tattooing machine in 1891. O'Reilly's machine was based on the rotary technolog...

... middle of paper ...

...ge2.shtml

Designboom. (2007). A Brief History of Tattoos. Retrieved January 14, 2008, from

http://www.designboom.com/history/tattoo_history.html

Karen Hudson. “Choosing Your Tattoo Design and Where to Put It”.2007 http://tattoo.about.com/cs/beginners/a/blwhatwhere.htm (December 14, 2007)

Karen Hudson. “How much do they really hurt?” 2007 http://tattoo.about.com/cs/pafterabvneck/a/090103.htm (December 14, 2007).

Love To Know. (2007). Inking and Skin Infections. Retrieved December 14, 2007 from http://tattoos.lovetoknow.com/Inking_and_Skin_Infections

Tattoo.(2008, January 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 14, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoos

Lyle Tuttle. (2007, June 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 14, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lyle_Tuttle&oldid=140156691

More about The Tattoo Process and Significance Of Tattoos

Open Document