The history of tattooing goes back thousands of years. It probably started accidentally as people fell or stepped into things like “sharp, charcoaled branches from leftover fireplaces or wooden spears/arrowheads hardened in the fire”. The association between surviving bad wounds and the religious and magical meanings of tattoos is easy to see. The first proven tattooing occurred 4,000 years BC on a traveler found in Italy . The traveler was preserved in the permafrost; his skin displaying a cross behind one knee and a succession of lines above his kidneys. Egyptian and Nubian mummies have also been found bearing tattoos, as have other cultures. The Ainu (western Asian nomads) saw tattooing a religious and magical, and brought tattooing to Japan . The Japanese, however, saw tattooing as graphical and ornamental. Tattoos in Japan were applied with needles placed in a wooden handle, which helped to create intricate multicolored designs covering the body. Tattooing continued to spread across the Pacific. The Maoris and other Pacific Islanders still have strict regulations and ceremonies that go along with tattooing. The Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs also used tattoos in their religious ceremonies. Other cultures, such as the Romans, used tattoos to mark their slaves and criminals. Many warriors and sailors were and continue to be tattooed. Polynesian and Japanese ideas of tattooing parlors, where experts created tattoos on customers, were soon found in port cities all over the world where European and American sailors were tattooed. As time passed US and British army deserters were identified by tattoos, as were Siberian and Nazi concentration camp prisoners. The actual term, originally “tattaw” or “tattawing,” originated in Tahiti and was brought to Europe by Captain James Cook in the 1770s. The electric tattoo machine used today was created using ideas of Thomas Edison’s stenciling machine. Before this machine sharp bones, sticks, sewing needles, etc were used to create tattoos. Different tattoo artists helped to improve the actual machine used today.

Traditionally, in many cultures, tattooing serves as a rite of passage, a symbol of coming of age, or a turning point in ones life.  Tattoos have been particularly important to many subcultures (e.g. armed forces, gangs, etc…), but have not been considered a mainstream activity.  However, tattoos are beginning to move more into mainstream activity in American life.  Tattoos, originally associated solely with men, are gaining more and more popularity with women who, for the most part, are taking more control of their own lives and bodies and ignoring earlier gender stigmas about the art form.  Despite the fact that tattoos are gaining popularity and respect among women, it is still extremely evident that tattoos and gender have a very strong relationship.  It is much more acceptable for men to have multiple large tattoos in visible places such as arms and upper body, whereas women are still very much pressured to stay within the well-defined gender lines by retaining their femininity with tattoos in more private body areas like the ankles and lower back.  They retain this femininity by keeping their tattoos “cute and pretty”, small and hidden.  Society still does not accept tattooing as a “normal” practice.  However, it is acceptable for men to have tattoos (in moderation), and unacceptable for women to have tattoos (of any kind).  Tattooed men were previously viewed as bikers and gang members.  Today men with tattoos are seen as proving their strength and being more masculine.  Tattooed women are still treated as less feminine and rebellious.

People with tattoos have their own views on them that seem to further support the engendering of tattoos.  Men’s reasoning (generally speaking) for getting tattoos consists of increasing masculinity, overcoming pain barriers, and ties of brotherhood.  Women on the other hand get tattoos for reasons such as fashion, demonstration of total equality, and social acceptability.  Women also tend to place more importance on the sexual aspect of tattooing.

Some of the hard to dispel myths about tattoos and those who get them can be addressed by looking at various studies and statistics.  In a two-year study with American suburban students it was found that gang affiliation was low amongst those tattooed and 62% of students with tattoos reported grades of As and Bs.  Studies also showed students had an increasing interest and acceptance of tattoos.  Of these students it was reported that 65% of those tattooed were male and 35% were female; this statistic is important because it makes apparent the social constructions of gender and its impact on the “acceptance” of tattooing.

A second notable study done by the Minnesota Medical Association found that younger (ages 16-35) patients and staff were much more likely to have tattoos than those of other groups.  It also found that smokers were more likely to have tattoos (31% of smokers vs. 13% of non-smokers), and similarly those with tattoos were 63% smoker and 28% non-smokers.  This statistic is likely due in part to the fact that many subcultures are more accepting of tattoos and of those subcultures they tend to be more accepting of smoking as well.

The overall importance of all of these statistics is that the face of body art is changing and cannot be typified or placed into any specific frame of reference as it has been in the past.  Especially notable is that tattoos are becoming more popular while still being associated much more with male gender and ‘masculinity’ than a universal form of expression.

With people crossing these socially constructed gender lines more frequently in today’s society it is not surprising that more women are falling in love with art form as a way of self expression or a mark of identity. Many women see tattoos as a mark of liberation from the control and/or possession of others. For them, it is a way “to challenge the masculine realms of strength or aggression”.

Suggested Readings:
Armstrong, M.L. (1995) Adolescent tattoos: educating and pontificating. Pediatric Nursing, 21(6), 561-564.

“History.” www.tatt2addiction.com/info/history.htm.

“History of Tattooing.” www.cool-tattoo.com/2.htm.

Lawrence, Tony.  “A Tattoo is for Life: A Sociological Study of the Changing Significance of Tattoos.” 

Maloney, Jessica.  “Tattoos as American Material Culture.”  wings.buffalo.edu/anthropology/JWA/V1N3/tatoos-art.html. 

Rooks, J. Kenneth, M.D., David J. Roberts, M.D., and Karen Scheltema, M.A., M.S. “Tattoos: Their Relationship to Trauma, Psychopathology, and Other Myth.” www.mnmed.org/publications/MnMed2000/July/Rooks.cfm

“Tattoos and Body Piercing: Who, Where and Why?”  www.apa.org/releases/sexdrugs.html.