Once upon a time, in a mythical time long ago known as “the ’90s,” I remember being warned about tattoos. It’s strange how often that came up, but it really seemed to happen a lot. Whether it was my Grandma unfairly equating ink with crime and general thuggish behavior, or my mother warning me about how horrible any given tattoo will look when I am older, it is safe to say that tattoos weren’t considered as acceptable as they are now.
In today’s society, tattoos are celebrated, and rightly so. In the old days, and I mean further back than the ’90s here, more of a 1950s-1960s era thing, tattoos were either given to servicemen or criminals, without much of an in-between. To have a tattoo meant you were opting out of any given promising career and setting yourself up for a life of squalor. If designer clothing and fancy jewelry were a status symbol for the rich, tattoos were seen as a status symbol for the poor and the downtrodden, and those who had them were treated with about as much revelry.
This is just one small facet of tattoo culture though, and tattooing as a form of self-expression dates all the way back to the Neolithic era in 10,200 B.C. They have found tattoos on mummies all over Asia, Egypt, even reaching as far west as Germany, and the Celts in Ireland. In Samoa, the tools used to tattoo have remained virtually the same for 2,000 years. For them, tattooing, or “Tatau,” is a spiritual experience. The needles used are made of sharpened boar’s teeth that are fastened together with a piece of a turtle shell and attached to a wooden handle. To actually tattoo someone is a process that can take weeks to finish, and is never undergone lightly. It’s seen as a spiritual experience. Positioning the needles (of which there are a few different ones, each used for a separate purpose) along the back, the combs are then tapped by a wooden mallet called a “Sausau.” This method of tattooing is a long, painful process, one ingrained into Samoan culture.
The idea of the tattoo as a method of spiritual expression remains intact now more than it ever has before in the United States. We don’t have quite the spiritual attachment to them that Samoans do, but people still carefully choose their design, make sure it means something to them, spend hours in a chair with a needle stabbing into their arm and then cherish it as a mark of themselves.
My own tattoo is a very simple design; the Deathly Hallows symbol on my left wrist. I’ve had a rule for a long time that I wouldn’t get a tattoo unless I had wanted it for five consecutive years. I’ve weeded out many designs through that line of thinking. Finally, last year, I decided to get the one tattoo that had remained a constant wish throughout everything. Harry Potter is one of my favorite book series, and has been since I was a kid. On top of that, a couple of years prior, I had died for a few minutes, and came back. I’d like to think that the next time I meet Death, I will greet him as an old friend, so the symbol seemed fitting. It means something to me.
Maybe that’s the difference between now and then. Maybe having tattoos talked about as a mark of something bad, or as something exclusive helped newer generations see them as the ultimate form of expression of oneself. Whatever the reason, if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that being tattooed no longer marks you as a pariah. Considering how many people have tattoos that stretch far beyond a single piece on the arm, that’s definitely a very good thing.
Tattoos and Modern Culture
Courtesy Photo
Once upon a time, in a mythical time long ago known as “the ’90s,” I remember being warned about tattoos. It’s strange how often that came up, but it really seemed to happen a lot. Whether it was my Grandma unfairly equating ink with crime and general thuggish behavior, or my mother warning me about how horrible any given tattoo will look when I am older, it is safe to say that tattoos weren’t considered as acceptable as they are now.
In today’s society, tattoos are celebrated, and rightly so. In the old days, and I mean further back than the ’90s here, more of a 1950s-1960s era thing, tattoos were either given to servicemen or criminals, without much of an in-between. To have a tattoo meant you were opting out of any given promising career and setting yourself up for a life of squalor. If designer clothing and fancy jewelry were a status symbol for the rich, tattoos were seen as a status symbol for the poor and the downtrodden, and those who had them were treated with about as much revelry.
This is just one small facet of tattoo culture though, and tattooing as a form of self-expression dates all the way back to the Neolithic era in 10,200 B.C. They have found tattoos on mummies all over Asia, Egypt, even reaching as far west as Germany, and the Celts in Ireland. In Samoa, the tools used to tattoo have remained virtually the same for 2,000 years. For them, tattooing, or “Tatau,” is a spiritual experience. The needles used are made of sharpened boar’s teeth that are fastened together with a piece of a turtle shell and attached to a wooden handle. To actually tattoo someone is a process that can take weeks to finish, and is never undergone lightly. It’s seen as a spiritual experience. Positioning the needles (of which there are a few different ones, each used for a separate purpose) along the back, the combs are then tapped by a wooden mallet called a “Sausau.” This method of tattooing is a long, painful process, one ingrained into Samoan culture.
The idea of the tattoo as a method of spiritual expression remains intact now more than it ever has before in the United States. We don’t have quite the spiritual attachment to them that Samoans do, but people still carefully choose their design, make sure it means something to them, spend hours in a chair with a needle stabbing into their arm and then cherish it as a mark of themselves.
My own tattoo is a very simple design; the Deathly Hallows symbol on my left wrist. I’ve had a rule for a long time that I wouldn’t get a tattoo unless I had wanted it for five consecutive years. I’ve weeded out many designs through that line of thinking. Finally, last year, I decided to get the one tattoo that had remained a constant wish throughout everything. Harry Potter is one of my favorite book series, and has been since I was a kid. On top of that, a couple of years prior, I had died for a few minutes, and came back. I’d like to think that the next time I meet Death, I will greet him as an old friend, so the symbol seemed fitting. It means something to me.
Maybe that’s the difference between now and then. Maybe having tattoos talked about as a mark of something bad, or as something exclusive helped newer generations see them as the ultimate form of expression of oneself. Whatever the reason, if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that being tattooed no longer marks you as a pariah. Considering how many people have tattoos that stretch far beyond a single piece on the arm, that’s definitely a very good thing.