Kayla McCurry April 9, 2014 Professor Presnell English 1102 Tattoos are a Beautiful Thing

Have you ever wondered how tattoos stay in your skin without completely coming off or fading completely? This may be a question that you have asked yourself before because I know I have. Once I got my first tattoo I began thinking how did people figure out about tattoos. Well, ever since tattoos first began people never really knew much about tattoos. From what I have heard getting a tattoo was a very painful process and I could not imagine going through the process of getting a tattoo back in the day, I am glad that a lot of things have changed. History of Tattoos As I looked everywhere on the computer, and in the library I found out that no one really knows how they first discovered tattoos. I really wanted to find out how they first discovered tattoos and what made them want to try it out. I could never really find anything except I did find one article called a Brief History of Tattoos, this article states how they think tattoos first started. The article says The first tattoos probably were created by accident. Someone had a small wound, and rubbed it with their hand that was dirty with soot and ashes from the fire. Once the tattoo was healed, they saw that a mark had stayed on the body permanently. Once they figured this out they found out how to actually allow this to keep happening so that people had marks all over their bodies. Other than this author thinking this is what happened there is no real evidence how they discovered tattoos would stay on your body.

Once someone discovered that ink could stay in your skin without coming off so many people picked up on this technique. As stated by Emily W. on the website design boom which talks about tattooing and the history of it, she says the early age tattooing was very long and painful. Some of the first tools that were used were made of bone, stone, or wood. There were mainly two types of tools used in the process of making most tattoos. A small rake-like shaped tool and another plain rod with a flat surface. The rake shaped tool was used to make the design of the tattoo. It would first be dipped into the ink or dye, and then puncture the skin by being tapped by the flat tool. Other processes consisted of scratching the skin and then rubbing in the ink. This process was done even though they did not know all of the infections that could have happened from this. They did not have sanitary laws to keep these objects clean, most of them were very dirty and used on multiple people. Most of the time the blood from the tools were transferred from one person to another person; which probably caused a lot of issues. Even though it is really impossible to trace when and where the first tattoos started and exactly why they started. There are some traces of tattoos that date back 12,000 years ago. The book called Vintage Tattoos says that It is believed that in the Old Stone Age, somewhere around 10,000 B.C, people were inking their skin using grooved needles crafted from bones. According to Carol Clerk who has been an author for over 10 years and has written multiple books about history and tattooing. Tattooing began in other countries before it ever came over to the United States. The earliest example of tattooing was actually recently discovered in 1991 on an Otzi (the Iceman). This guy had been frozen since 3,000 B.C in an Alpine glacier, close to Italy. In 1991, the top half of his body was discovered by a couple of passing tourists. Whenever they took his body in to be inspected they found 57 tattoos on his body. Most of these tattoos

were just simply lines and dots, not really having any meaning, according to Vintage Tattoos: The Book of Old School Art.

Who are tattoos found on? Tattoos have been found on many different types of people and each of them all having different meanings and symbols. From the beginning when tattoos started they have been found on princes, kings, homeless people, criminals, women, and different people in different cultures. Tattoos could stand for high social standing, slavery, a member of a family or tribe, gang or some type of secret organization. They could also be for personal meanings, such as helping to remember something in your like that you have gone through or something that has happened. It could also stand for remembering someone who has recently died that meant a lot to you. Lastly, it could stand for being a rebel, most teenagers/young adults get tattoos because their parents said no and they wanted to be a rebel. Tattoos can mean so many different things. The tattoos I have remind me each and every day that hard times are going to happen but just know that after it all happens you will be doing what you love and will be living out your dreams. Tattoos can also be a way of art, some people draw their own tattoos that they want to have on their body or to just add cool designs to express a way of art. What do tattoos stand for? Most of the designs that people first had usually were symbols, lines or dots. These things were to represent the tribe, culture or family that they were a part of. Most of these symbols, lines or dots are very hard to understand; researchers have done lots of research and still have not found exactly what they mean. In 2,000 B.C the tattoo culture was alive and well in Egypt and in

400 B.C Russian tribes were known to have been tattooing, stated by Carol Clerk who is the author of Vintage Tattoos and has been an author for 10 years. As tattoos became more and more popular, there were many places where tattooed people would meet and go to. In 1772 the worlds first circus was held in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, London. This place became the center for tattoo cultures in Europe, according to the book called Vintage Tattoos. There has always been a major stereotype towards tattoos such as being called trashy, scary, gross, the person is worthless, etc. The stereotypes towards tattoos are usually never good things. During the 1830s a man named James OConnell had the first full body tattoos. In the Pacifics Caroline Islands, the traditional patterns gave him his life and made him human. As he entered the streets of New York, on the other hand, women and children would run away screaming from his presence. Ministers warned people that viewing OConnells tattoos they would transfer marks to any womens unborn baby, according to the book Tattooing the World. For the longest time people believed that if someone got pregnant by someone with tattoos, or if the women had tattoos while she was pregnant that the tattoos would get transferred down to the unborn baby. As people soon discovered this was untrue and was used to just scare people so that they would not get tattoos. Also, if you happened to get a tattoo back in the day that usually meant that you were a criminal or did something bad. As we know now tattoos can really be for any and every one. Nowadays it is really hard to find an individual who does not have a tattoo on their body. The stereotypes have gone from negatives things to positive things ever since more and more people are getting them and more people are beginning to accept them and not look at people so negatively whenever they see someone with a tattoo. Tattoos in the 20th and 21st century

Tattoos have been more popular because a lot of researching has been done, the machines that perform tattoos have changed, it is a lot cleaner to get tattoos, and most tattoo artist are actual artist who know exactly what they are doing. In 1871 Samuel OReilly invented the first tattoo machine and this machine has continued to stay the same. OReilly based this machine off of the autograph printer that Thomas Edison invented. Edison created this machine to engrave hard surfaces. OReilly edited this machine by changing the tube system and enabling the machine to drive the needle stated by Tracy Wilson. This article called How Tattoos Work also talks about how tattoos stay in your skin and also what the machine actually does to let the tattoo stay in your skin. The tattoo artist injects the ink into the skin. They use a powered machine that moves a solid needle up and down to puncture the skin anywhere from 50 to 3,000 times per minute. The needle penetrates the skin by about a millimeter and deposits a drop of insoluble ink into the skin with each puncture. As you look at someones tattoo you are looking at it through the epidermis which is the outer layer of your skin. Whenever the ink is injected into your skin it actually does into the dermis, which is the second layer of your skin. The dermis is very stable which allows the ink to stay in place, with minor fading for a persons entire life. This is how tattoos are performed. I am really glad that they found a less painful was to perform tattoos because for me tattoos are an addiction and I could not imagine going through all of the pain that they use to go through before OReilly invented the machine. I have three tattoos right now and I hope to get a lot more. For me they are a way to remind me of something and to express how I am as person and also as a symbol of art. Since I cannot really draw I love to have the drawings that I picture in my head be put on my body to show to other people. As I have researched about tattoos I have found out a lot of information that I did not know before. Something that was very intriguing was how artists first performed tattoos on

people. I cannot believe people would sit through such a painful experience. I am also very glad that the question I wanted to know about got answered. Even though they do not know the real reason how people discovered how they stay in your skin, they just believe that people put ashes in open wounds and then figured it out from there. I am still glad that I found out all of this information about tattoos. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this paper and I now know the knowledge about tattoos that I should have learned before I even got my first one. The reason I should have learned all of this is before I got my first tattoo is because I should had read about what it does to your body, how painful it is, and I also should have checked out each tattoo shop to make sure that they are really clean. Both of the tattoo shops that I went to were very clean but I definitely should have read about the painful part before I went. Knowing all of this would have been valuable for me because I could have had a little bit of a warning before I got them. Now that I have 3 tattoos I can definitely say that I want more, it is something that I really enjoy getting and the painful part is really not all that bad. I have found out some really awesome information about tattoos and I am really glad that I chose this topic.

Works Citied Caplan, Jane. Written on the Body. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. Print

Clerk, Carol. Vintage Tattoos: The Book of Old Skin Art. New York: Universe Publishing, 2009. Print. Ellis, Juniper. Tattooing the World. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Print. Lobell, Jarrett. Ancient Tattoos. 66. 6. 18 Color Photographs, 2013. 41-46. Web. Wilson, Tracy. "How Tattoos Work." How Stuff Works . Sacred Heart Tattoos. Web. 23 Mar 2014.