TATTOOING. — From the Polynesian Tahitian word *tatu*, tattooing belongs to the category of artificial deformations (of the nose, ear, neck, etc.) used among primitive peoples.
In particular, tattooing consists in permanently drawing on the skin of the head, trunk, limbs, various symbolic or ornamental figures, either by incising the skin and allowing the cut to scar (scarification), or by raising the skin (keloids). Sometimes the design is made by means of a stamp (pintadera).
Tattooing is widespread almost everywhere, especially in Africa and Oceania; it is also found among the populations of northern Asia and India. However, it can also have a devotional character, as a perpetual reminder of a visit to a famous shrine. It is also practiced by criminals to express their particular passions, aspirations, or superstitions.
The use of tattooing was also known in antiquity. Herodotus (V, 6) documents it among the Thracians, Pomponius Mela (II, 1, 10) among the Agathyrsi of European Sarmatia, and 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 badge of admission to adult life, both social and sexual, of the tribe; it is also a tribal badge 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 simply as an ornament. — See pl. CXXIX.