Professional Documents
Culture Documents
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ETC: A Review of
General Semantics
whose
I whose ha veskin bearsskin
always thebears
indelible marking
been the known
strangely as tattoo.
indelible Like clo-
fascinated marking known by the as occasional tattoo. Like person clo-
thing without the benefit of warmth, jewelry or cosmetics without the
option of removability, these images imposed on the flesh bear a rela-
tionship to the wearer quite different from other media of expression.
In our society, the act of being tattooed is most often associated with
the camaraderie of life in the armed services, especially the navy, and
the bravado of adolescence. It is usually interpreted as an unforeseeing
binge of frivolity, the rewards of which soon fade, unlike the design
adopted. But the practice of tattooing is unique neither to our culture
nor to our historic era. Its sphere of incidence stretches from the
dynasties of ancient Egypt, and perhaps the prehistoric peoples that
preceded them, to a great number of the tribes of the New World;
from the Thracians, Picts, Gauls, and other early European tribes to
the throne of the British Empire; from the Hindus of Bengal and
southern India to the head-hunting Maori of New Zealand; from the
ancient Shan of northern Burma to the modern Japanese; from the
Polynesians to the Eskimos.
Among these and other cultures where tattooing has been practiced
it has been the province of varying sectors of society, and has had
many different purposes and meanings. Its functions have ranged
from such magico-religious uses as inducing fertility, insuring passage
to an afterlife, and granting protection from harmful sources, to uses
in defining personal, social, and spiritual identity and status, to appli-
cations which appear to be of a more ornamental nature, as commonly
found in our society.
* Paul Lippert is a New York City based writer and a graduate of the University of
Michigan.
158
This ubiquity
some charact
satisfying so m
tic of these ne
as a solution?
The characteristic which is unique to tattooing (and cicatrization,
which has similar social functions, but is not discussed here) is that it
is the permanent imposition of man-made images on the human body.
This much is simple enough to see. But to proceed in answering the
questions above it is necessary to examine why a person would want to
incorporate an image as a permanent part of himself. The answer to
this sub-question lies, I believe, in how the tattooee feels about the
image adopted, or, for that matter, about images in general.
The history of tattooing in its numerous manifestations the world
over seems to indicate that its practice is associated, in varying de-
grees, with what Cassirer calls "mythical consciousness." Mythical
consciousness, in relation to images, is characterized by the idea that
an image has a greater function than the mere conveyance of informa-
tion; that rather than being a symbol of an entity, it is connected di-
rectly with the entity itself. In Cassirer' s own words:
For mythical thinking . . . the image like the word is endowed with real forces.
It not only represents the thing for the subjective reflection of a third party, an
observer; it is a part of its reality and efficacy. (1)
Magico-Religious Functions
Under this category fall those uses of tattooing in which the person
tattooed holds the overt belief that the tattoo has the power to effect
some physical or spiritual change in some aspect of his being. More
prevalent among these beliefs are those regarding fertility, passage to
an afterlife, protection from disease and malicious forces, the assump-
tion of unusual powers, and membership in a totemic clan. It is in
these uses that mythical consciousness functions unrestrained.
The most significant use of tattooing as a reflection of mythical con-
sciousness is in the inducement of fertility. The tattooing of women at
faces as a char
But these inst
ity are all on
studied by me
evidence whic
rites of the a
tion.
Body markin
changes in th
with the prac
red, like blood
possibly an ag
among prehi
France, Port
showing traces
flints and "nee
of bone, as w
suggests the e
of these figur
The use of red
the civilizatio
world were con
parting life. B
keeping the b
cultural value
from their pr
Another of th
tattooing. The
in time is the
Ballas on the
lennium B.C.
This interpret
discovery of t
B.C., whose st
period were al
kepsut temple,
on figurines
those found b
In nearby Liby
1330 B.C. bear
known by the
First. She was
is sometimes
found tattooe
There he met
image of open
A truly bizarr
power comes f
the power of th
tempt by Jeh
name inscribed
organ to comm
A very signific
In this form of
an alliance wit
qualities are em
Haida of Que
Behring Strait
A tattooing pr
certain Roman
peasantry and
their religious
Tattoos of som
sacred symbol
relationship wi
worshipped. (
On the opposi
meant to bring
ings as a rabbi
and to form a
Identity-Statu
In the uses of
oriented, the p
than the diffe
labeling device
whatever it is t
role which his
emblem is an
Examples of th
rank in primit
mobility in the
what he is than
tion of social fu
tinctions of k
than anything
and perceptual
ties, possessing
finement was
imprisonment
forced labor
"T.P." (41) Im
they represen
ings by which
wearer's idea
with prisons
ior, and devo
An unusual fo
to enhance th
fierceness. Th
warrior were
tattoo slaves t
tooed, as well.
of tattooing o
signs before g
designs origin
States Navy o
which represe
the enemy w
bility." (44)
Yet another type of identity-status marking is that aimed at binding
a social group together, and setting it apart from outsiders. The
clearest example of this is tribal markings, which probably originate in
a society at that stage of development when mother rights and
descent are universal, and children are distinguished solely as group
members, rather than as individuals distinguished by personal
names. (45) In such cultures, the tattoo makes one a member.
Such markings can also have the opposite effect. To maintain group
cohesion and distinction, leaders may seek to prevent group members
from adopting signs associated with other cultures. Such seems to be
the nature of the prohibition for the Jews in Leviticus: "Ye shall not
make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon
you; I am the Lord." (46)
Although this passage is taken as an absolute ban on tattooing
within the Jewish religion, according to Thompson it does not include
markings for God, as opposed to heathen markings. He claims that
Moses made use of some such practice for religious purposes. He
refers to a passage in Exodus: "And thou shall show thy son in that
day, saying, 'This is done because of what the Lord did unto me when
I came forth from Egypt; and it shall be a sign unto thee upon thy
hand, and for a memorial between thy eyes.' " (47) This "sign" and
"memorial" to be handed down to one's son would seem to be aimed at
Ornamental Functions
reacting again
seen as a clutc
The desperation
at the root of
problem is that
of one who h
exuberance and
albatross.
But this youthful, marginal, pack-oriented section of society does
not by any means include everyone who has been tattooed in our cul-
ture, and it is not the only group to suffer from this problem. Around
the turn of the century, being tattooed was quite the rage among
European nobility. The fad being started by two English princes, one
of whom later became King Edward VII, the roster of tattooed royalty
immediately grew to a size too great to be numbered. (Suffice it to say,
it was more than impressive.) On his deathbed, King Charles IV of
Sweden, a known tattoo enthusiast and collector, was asked by his
doctor to roll up his sleeve for an injection. After first refusing, he
agreed on the condition that all persons leave the room, except for the
doctor himself. To the doctor's astonishment, the King's arm bore the
inscription, faded with age, "Mort aux rois." (54)
This inscription may be seen as indicative of more than the former
radicalism of an aging monarch. The phenomenon by which relatively
massive numbers of members of a decaying nobility from all over
Europe adopted a most low class and certainly eccentric custom may
be interpreted as a reaching down to the masses for vitality. (55)
Feudal notions of class distinctions definitely being on the out, the de-
clining nobility sought a new social identity. Tattooing is a technology
which well reflects this desire for identity change.
★ ★ ★
Throughout humanity,
desires. They constitute
the things they represe
ages seem to be as real
their effect on our perc
tooing is a medium suite
they become a part of