Tattoo E-Book

Jack Watkins

• Herausgeber: Amber Books Ltd
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Serie: Chinese Bound
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 48

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Tattoos are artistic, rebellious, individual, tribal – and fantastically creative. Once you’ve got the ink bug, there’s no going back. This enticing book explores more than 80 tattoo designs from a wide range of cultures, providing inspiration for anyone thinking of getting a tattoo and revealing the deep meaning and anthropological history behind each one. Cultures featured include Celtic, Japanese (Ainu), Maori, Polynesian and ancient Egyptian tattoos, as well as the best of modern tattoo design. Featuring one tattoo per page, accompanied by a detailed explanation and history, Tattoo is a unique and attractive book which will appeal to men and women alike – anyone who loves tattoos or who harbours a secret desire to get inked.

Leseprobe

This digital edition first published in 2011

Published by Amber Books Ltd United House North Road London N7 9DP United Kingdom

Website: www.amberbooks.co.uk Instagram: amberbooksltd Facebook: amberbooks Twitter: @amberbooks

Copyright © 2011 Amber Books Ltd

ISBN: 978 190 827 374 1

Text: Jack WatkinsProject Editor: James BennettDesign: Rajdip SangheraIllustrations by Mark Franklin

All rights reserved. With the exception of quoting brief passages for thepurpose of review no part of this publication may be reproducedwithout prior written permission from the publisher. The informationin this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge.All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the partof the author or publisher, who also disclaim any liability incurredin connection with the use of this data or specific details.

www.amberbooks.co.uk

Introduction

In western culture, it’s fair to say that tattoos haven’t always received the bestof presses. For many people, they have sleazy overtones. Hoary old seafarersmight be heavily tattooed, and so might those who work in travelling circuses,but ‘respectable’ folk never go near tattoo parlours, readily leaving them toalternative types like bikers and Goths.

That modern tattoo images can be vulgar and crass          doesn’t help much. Neither does the fact that          having one done involves puncturing the skin           and drawing blood. Yet skin art is probably as            old as civilization itself, with evidence of it                       existing in the Paleolithic or Stone Age.

               One of the oldest tattoo images in this              book is of a geometric abstract design,          found at Thebes on the mummified body       of Amunet, an Egyptian priestess of the XI     Dynasty over 2000 years ago. It was evidence   that tattoos were accepted at more elevatedlevels of ancient Egyptian society then had    previously been thought.

Hand of Fatima

The Egyptians are often credited with spreading tattooing to other regions, astheir expanding empire extended lines of communications and trade. Crete,Greece, Persia and Arabia quickly picked up on the techniques, and by 2000BCEthe Ainu nomads of Asia were spreading it further afield to Japan and China.

How was the technique of tattooing was discovered?No-one knows for sure. Perhaps, among early hunter   gatherers, roasting meat on a spit caused a lump of    burning charcoal to fall onto someone’s skin, leaving    a scourge mark that became a symbol of a successfulday’s hunting. Then, as warriors went into battle, they daubed the ends of their spears with charcoal which,   if causing injury, would leave a permanent scar–    proof of one’s valour and bravery in the fight.

Vishnu

For primitive societies, tattoos were loaded with meanings. InPolynesian culture, the tattooritual was a rite of passage,marking the transition

to adulthood for young

tribal members early tattooing techniques causedconsiderable pain, but failure to endure the processbode ominously for a young man’s warriorpotential. Similarly, a young female unable tostand tattooing was deemed unsuitable forchild-bearing.

Among the Aztecs, tattoos indicated membership ofa particular tribe, and one’s status within it. The morebattle-hardened the warrior, the more decorated

Cherry Blossom

in tattoos his body was likely to be. Among the Maoris, tattoos   were also a status symbol – an elaborate Moko (facial tattoo)    was a clear indicator of high social standing.

  Primitives had few doubts about the afterlife – or of the existence of damnation. A young Ainu woman who married   without being properly tattooed would go straight to Hell.  Marital tattoos, however; enabled couples separated at deathto recognize one another and be reunited in the hereafter.

Koru

Animals, both mythical and real, feature heavily in traditional  tattoo art, often as totemic figures signifying ancient beliefs

that humans and animals at one time had been able to mutate and communicatedirectly. Shamans of North America Indian tribes saw many beasts asrepresentatives or messengers of the spirit world, and images of bears, eagles andwhales, as well as thunderbirds, proliferated.

From Japanese and Chinese culture comes a rich heritage of dragons, serpentsand – as strange as any – the Foo Dog, which actually looked like a lion. Throughthe Japanese tend to scorn tattoos today, they carefully recorded its designs, whichis why many traditional tattoo images come from this region today. Less wellknown is the tattoo art of the southern Pacific islands.

When explorers from the ‘Old World’ first voyaged to these islands in the 18th century, they ‘rediscovered’ a skin art that had been forbidden by the Christian church for centuries – although there is evidence of tattooing among the old

Celtic culture, and among medieval crusadersand pilgrims to the East. But missionaries tried tostamp out the practice among Pacific islanders, sotht much knowledge of tribal tattoo art was lost.Genocide pursued against the North AmericanIndians has also meant that much understandingof their tattoo folklore was similarly extinguished.

Tattoos in Europe briefly becamefashionable among the upper crust whentattooed islanders were brought back bymen like Captain James Cook. One tattooed Polynesian called Omai caused asensation in London in 1774. But eventually heavily tattooed people becameconfined to freak shows. Back street tattoo parlours were often located in ports,where sailors might be tattooed to denote the places they had been, or thedistance they had travelled at sea. But in many areas, tattooing was illegal.

Oni

From the 1960s a slow revival began, and when it was adopted by rock stars

and actors, it began to acquire a certain modish credibility.     Alongside tattoo parlours, we now have the more