traditonal tattoos

Bless Up Family

InI don't judge others who have chosen to adorn themselves with tattoos as tattooing has such a long and complex history. Here are some facts regarding tattooing from all over the world that InI attempt to remember when discussing the tattooing issue. Hope it assist the Ies here who are seeking a better overstanding... Many Ethiopian Orthodox women are adorned with tattoos. The tattoos are specifically of a Christian nature, ranging from crosses to various patterns of shapes, worn on the face, collar bone, and hands. Ethiopian women with tattoos would not have them if they weren't Orthodox, it's a part of their culture that they're very proud of. This is not an attempt to advocate tattoos, but in treating their body as a temple it seems that it would be wrong to deface the temple, however, one might choose to adorn their temple with what is beautiful and holds sacred meaning to them; Qedamawit Negest Menen, in all her beauty has tattoos onher right hand. If nothing else, this would suggest that H.I.M.either choose to marry a woman with tattoos, or accepted His wife's choice to tattoo herself after their marriage.
In many parts of the world a tattoo of different strong animals is said to allow the person who wears it the strength of the majestic beasts.

Tatoos and Circumcision are NOTHING IN THEMSELVES, they are simply meant to symbolize a certain vow with oneself and/or the universe. There is really no right nor wrong to it, as it doesn’t cause a rift between ones and nature nor the relationship with Jah. Indigenous peoples and their cultures, showed that though they were of many diverse cultures, their tatoos represented something of nature/cosmos and were unique to each tribe.

Africa

Body decoration has a very long and strong tradition for the african people dating back almost 6000 years to the pharaohs of egypt and many of the body painting and tatauing rituals have still survived over the centuries. On the one hand it survived in some regions because the natives were, and still are, making their living serving tourists as photo models. On the other hand because civilization didn't advanced to many parts of third world countries yet, especially in the southern regions. In those from civilization untouched regions it survived because the natives, bushmen and pygmies are still carrying out their rituals like their forefathers did thousands of years ago. In some tribes of norther africa the art of tatauing is still left from mothers to their daughters. The images on the skin, climbing work of points, straight lines, crosses and triangles, work as amulet. They illustrate the fertility of a woman, enure her health, wealth and repel transcendental forces. And because the natives believe those forces are entering the body through it's holes, the women mostly apply the patterns on their face and parts on the body that can not constantly protected with clothes.

The Scar tatau has survived until today with some tribes of black africa, the so called ethiopic race.

Adorning scars also characterize a certain age class. In some places the first incisions are already made after birth and more scars follow in continuous intervals. At women, for instance, scars are applied after the first menstruation, after child birth or after the breastfeeding period. At the same time the scarifications are considered as a beautification since they ensure success with the other sex. The scars show overcome diseases, physical qualities and awards of personal achievements and you only become a real men or women with the scars.

Scar designs also simply characterize a tribal designation. A simple sign of local and related groups but no matter which tribe or which region, people without any scars are treated as misfits and cowards.

To get an overview of the art of the body painting in africa is an almost impossible venture. Each region had, and sometimes still has, their own motives which could vary from family to tribe. In the Republic of Niger, for instance, the man used to painted themselves for hours for the groom exhibition. In southern Ethiopia again, tribes would use body paintings as a designation of ancestry and affiliation when going to battle. In neighboring Kenya the men painted themselves according to their age group and in Tanzania young men painted themselves to enhance their health and abilities for the transition into adults. On the contrary in Sudan body paintings were applied for big, social occasions and in Zaire, to display the social elite of a tribe, especially red colors were used.

Ainu

The earliest records of the colonization Japans are ceramic findings from the Jomon culture from about 4.500 before christ. They obviously derive from the Ainu who are considered the natives of Japan. The Ainu exclusively decorated their bodies, preferably the faces of the women by performing something called "Nuye" or "Sinuye", the Ainu synonym for tatauing. The body jewelry was less an expression of religious feelings but more a status symbol of grown-up and married women. According to a legend a deity descended from heaven and explained to all the women that every women without a tatau who married a man is committing a big sin and she won't find salvation after death. On the contrary, as a punishment she would be tataued in hell in just one treatment.

From there on earthly tataus were indispensible for Ainu women. The procedure was conducted by specialists over years and was done by rubbing in charcoal dust in the with sharp little knives carved skin giving young girls a black-blue looking, sideways pointed line, similar to a mustache, tataued around their mouth called "Anci-Pini". The picture was supplemented with sinuous lines in faces around the eyebrows and extensive ornaments on arms and forearms. The women also received a tomb stone as a magic mark in their armpit which helped averting the crisis she will face in the age of 19, 33 and 37.

Australia

40.000 years ago the Aborigines, the natives of Australia settled on the Australian continent on which over 500 small tribes lived until the colonization in 1788. With the colonization this amount rapidly dropped due to the bloody seizure of the invaders from Europe. Accordingly the culture, the Aborigines crated over the past thousands of years, was also almost extinct but still kept alive today from the last survivors who mostly live in reservations, tourist camps or in regions of the rain forrest far away from civilization. Body painting and adorning scars were the center points in this culture. The rituals applied to the mythical forefathers who once walked over Australia, forming the landscape and creating life, in this so called "Dream Time". They could change appearance as they please. One time they were human, another time an animal and another time a plant but they could also be natural phenomenons like clouds, rain or fire. One of those primitive times creatures is manifested in a snake.

In this believe lies the symbolism for the colors of the body paintings. Red, black, yellow and white stand for the four elements. Black is the earth and signification for the traces of fire on which the mythical forefathers camped during the dream time. Red is the blood energy and fire. Yellow stands for liquid, water and the markings on the back of the snake creature. White is for heaven and the air and represents all those ancestors who rised to heaven after their work was completed to look down from the skies as stars.

When the aborigines painted themselves and performed their dancing rituals they assured themselves of the favor and support of their ancestors and were anticipating fertility and growth. During the initial celebrations young men are also circumcized, an incisor is removed and the septum of the nose is pierced so they can wear jewelry later on. On the upper part of the boys bodies they are wearing geometric patterns as a connection to their forefathers. The same patterns are also applied to the dead so their soul can reach the goal of the forefathers, heaven.

South America

Similar to the native Indians of north america the natives of south america, the Mayas and Aztecs in Mexico and Guatemala and the Incas in Ecuador, Peru and Chile, also knew about the symbolic power of decorated skin. Therefore they contrived complex patterns which origins were found in nature: cats of prey, birds, turtles, fishes and so on. Due to the paintings the naked skin proved to be the suggested force for everything the symbols stand for and beyond. With a few dots in the face the carrier huddled into the skin of a snake, jaguar coat patterns made him to a dangerous cat of prey and wings in the face made him to a bird of prey. With the certain painting the certain powers of the animal were given to the wearer and with this powers he would be able to achieve anything.

"They tataued their bodies and the more they did it the gutsier and braver they were considered because tatauing was an agony. It happened as follows: The tatauer marked the desired spot with ink and then scratched the images into the skin. Because it caused so much pain the work was done little by little. Afterwards they became sick because the work started to fester and wetted. But still, those who would not let tatau themselves were mocked... They punished theft, even the slightest, by making a slave of the thief... When they caught a criminal they tataued his face from the forehead to the chin as a punishment because this was a big disgrace for them... The Maya women pierced the cartilage that separates the two nostrils and put a piece of ivory trough the whole. This was considered jewelry. They pierced their ears to wear the same ear rings as their husbands. They tataued them from the waist up leaving out their breasts so they could still nurse their children."

Posted on: May 11, 2007, 03:26:45 am

Burma lays between India, Thailand and China. In 1989 Burma wiped off the heritage of the British colonization and renamed itself to "Union Myanmar" according to their traditions. Same like their infrastructure the population, 79% Burmese who once lived as nomads in the Gobi Dessert and Tibet then settling on this swathe of land between India, Thailand and China in the 8th century, has also conserved cultural traditions. So the tatau which descended from the Tai and Shan who immigrated in the 13th century. For more than 250 years the Shan belonged to the most influential population groups and in the 19th century black-blue circular tattoos from the hips down to the knees were common for the burmese male. Today the Shan are an ethnic minority but their tattoos are still connected to the population. Their skin designs have a religious and spiritual symbolism. Holy words as a protections of diseases and evil spirits and figurative motives like the grimaces of mythical man-eating monsters called Ogre as a lucky charm.

Caledonia

Caledonia is the latin name for Northern Scotland. The natives of England, Scotland and Ireland are named Skots and Pikts whereby "picti" was the latin word for "The Painted". The roman history writer Herodian gave them their name and in fact: In the centuries before the formation of the roman empire when the celts spread their culture throughout north western Europe, from the years 200 before Christ until 600 after Christ, they shocked their enemies because it was their tradition to fight naked. Thereby displaying with ink applied tattoos which were simple dark motives, mostly stylized plants or animals but with the victory of the occidental culture the celtic tradition extinct.

Egypt

Designs on figures made of stone dating back to 4.000 before christ proof in Egypt, which highly affected the european spirit world through the symbiosis of their own genius with greeks, the art of tatauing was very common. Mainly high ranked executives, priests and of course the pharaohs were decorated this way. During the middle empire, from about 2040 - 1710 B.C., prick drawings were a popular ritual like two egyptian mummies proof which derive from the time around 2160 to 1994 B.C. The motives, lent by the Nubians, were an assembly of abstract points and lines in blue-black color and should assure the dead fertility in the beyond and birds on the temples or on the eyebrows should save the wearer from the evil gaze.

The 4.000 year old mummy of the egyptian priest Amunet shows tataus proclaiming her special spiritual connection with the beyond. With the tataus, so the believe of the egyptians, the strengths of the diseased could be brought back to life and the openings in the skin enabled the access to the soul of the tataued. The body of the nearly 5.000 years old mummy of the royal harem woman Ament, which is kept in the egyptian museum in Kairo, also possesses images on the skin and the wife of Ramses II, who ruled from 1.300 to 1.237 B.C., was wearing marks on her forearms. In the january of 1923 the interest on Tutenchamuns tomb was displaced by the discovery of a tataued princess in a crypt near Luxor. The royal lady was one of the beauties of the eleventh dynasty which was blooming 2.000 B.C.
Eskimos

The northern part of the american continent, the entire arctic coasts from western Alaska to eastern Greenland and the most islands of the arctic archipelago, the so called Arctic Tundra, is still populated by the Inuit today. In addition there is also a small group of asian Eskimos, the Yuit, who live of the coast of the Tschukts peninsula and on the islands of the Bering Street area between Alaska and Siberia. Despite the huge distance between Siberia and eastern Greenland of over 5.000 kilometers, the Eskimos possess a very unitary culture and language.

For centuries the culture also included tatauing, especially for the women.
Skin decoration first gained acceptance in England with the return of world circumnavigator James Cook who brought Omai in 1774, a Tahitian native who was had skin decorations all over his body, and introduced him to civilized society. A major part of Cooks sailors had also gotten excited about the complex tatauings and had the natives tatau them as a memory of the journey. The reason for it simply was because it looked good. Finally a name was born for this kind of art, Tattoo, a mutation of the Polynesian expression "tatau". Some of the British sailors even deserted and settled on the islands because they were so taken with the skin art. They also got tattooed on their whole body like the natives to be assimilated into the tribes.

Of course tattoos themselves have long and strong tradition in Japan too. Supposingly already during the Jomon Period, the Early Stone Age which was about 5.000 to 300 before Christ, tattoos where applied as a cultic ritual but no proof was ever found. The earliest proof that was found was from the Yayou Period (300 B.C. - 300) in which men were decorated with rank tattooings. The Ainu, the natives to Japan, who had no ethic relations to the japanese, tattooed their woman according to religion and social status and a completed tattoo counted as a status symbol for a grown up, married woman.

These complex facial tattoos were done by engraving lines and spirals into the skin with a very fine, serrated, chisel like instrument which was used by the tohunga-ta-moko, the honored masters of this technique. Typical for the moko facial art were the swung, radially lines and the one, and sometimes even two times rolled spirals called koru. The pattern and ornaments found their role models in nature. In unfolding leaves of the native fern trees which symbolized the strength and resistance against the inhospitable climate of the country.

During times of war the moko was used as camouflage and it also gave the warrior a threatening and intimidating appearance. It also symbolized the virtue of perseverance and showed the warriors ability to stand pain and it increased the attention of the enemy. If disliked tribes met up, they started their dispute with a war dance called Haka. Staring at each other with wide open eyes, their tongues stuck out, representing their unprotected bodies, thereby searching for a potential opponent. A very special effect had the interaction between the facial expressions and the tataued face.
Russia

In the middle of the 1950's mummies with tattoos were discovered in Russia which show how highly developed the art of tattooing was in Russia. At the Ukuk Plateau, in the north of Russia, the 2.400 year old corpse was found and on her arms and shoulders she was decorated with artful tattoos of birds, deer and other mythical animals. She is still the oldest tattooed woman known. The tattoos were applied by pricking grime in the skin with a needle made of a bone. She probably was a warrior or a teller of tribal stories and was probably very well distinguished in her tribe called the Pazyryker. The most extensive illustrations had a Pazyryker chieftain. With fable creatures and animals he clarified his position within a clan.

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Sistah Vee

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