The etymology of the body modification term is not to be confused with the origins of the word for the military drumbeat or performance - see military tattoo. In Marquesan, tatu.' Before the importation of the Polynesian word, the practice of tattooing had been described in the West as painting, scarring, or staining. From Polynesian (Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, etc.) tatau. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology of tattoo as 'In 18th c.

The word tattoo, or tattow in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Samoan word tatau, meaning 'to strike', from Proto-Oceanic * sau₃ referring to a wingbone from a flying fox used as an instrument for the tattooing process. Tattoos can also be used for functional purposes, such as identification, permanent makeup, and medical purposes.Ī Māori chief with tattoos ( moko) seen by Cook and his crew (drawn by Sydney Parkinson 1769), engraved for A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas by Thomas Chambers Tattoos may show how a person feels about a relative (commonly a parent or child) or about an unrelated person. Today, people choose to be tattooed for artistic, cosmetic, sentimental/ memorial, religious, and spiritual reasons, or to symbolize their belonging to or identification with particular groups, including criminal gangs (see criminal tattoos) or a particular ethnic group or law-abiding subculture. Extensive decorative tattooing has also been part of the work of performance artists such as tattooed ladies.

Many tattoos serve as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, marks of fertility, pledges of love, amulets and talismans, protection, and as punishment, like the marks of outcasts, slaves and convicts. Tattoos may be decorative (with no specific meaning), symbolic (with a specific meaning to the wearer), or pictorial (a depiction of a specific person or item). The history of tattooing goes back to Neolithic times, practiced across the globe by many cultures, and the symbolism and impact of tattoos varies in different places and cultures. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes and techniques, including hand-tapped traditional tattoos and modern tattoo machines.

Application of a tattoo to a woman's footĪ tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design.

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