TATTOOING. - From the word tatu of the Polynesians of Tahiti, tattooing belongs to the category of artificial deformations (of the nose, ear, neck, etc.) in use among primitive peoples.
In particular, tattooing consists in permanently drawing on the skin of the head, trunk and limbs various symbolic or ornamental figures, either by cutting the skin and then letting the cut heal (scarification), or by causing raised areas of the same (keloids). Sometimes the design is executed by means of a stamp (pintadera).
Tattooing is widespread almost everywhere, especially in Africa and Oceania; it is also found among the peoples of northern Asia and India. It can, however, also have a devotional character, as a perpetual remembrance of a visit to a famous sanctuary. It is also found practiced by criminals to express their particular passions, aspirations and superstitions.
The use of tattooing was known in antiquity as well. Herodotus (V, 6) documents it among the Thracians, Pomponius Mela (II, 1, 10) among the Agathyrsi of European Sarmatia, Pliny the Elder among the Dacians. The origin of tattooing is religious; it is in fact practiced in the initiation ceremonies of young people as a mark of admission to the adult life, both social and sexual, of the tribe; it is also a tribal mark if it reproduces the totemic emblem of the clan's protective animal; it can express the special condition in which a person finds himself; for example, among the Eskimos a stripe from the lower lip to the chin means that a girl is unmarried; two or more that she is married. Finally, it can be used as a simple ornament. - See plate CXXIX.
Bibliography3 works
Nicola Turchi