Sin's Saint's Tattoo Parlour

FRESH ART

 

'TATTOO FACTS'

 

In the west tattooing has long been associated with the armed forces for many years, and particularly with sailors who chose traditional designs of hearts bluebirds and the classic "I Love Mom." Eighteenth-century European sailors were known to tattoo scenes of the crucifixion on their backs to prevent flogging, as it was a crime to deface an image of Christ.

 

In New Zealand some Maori still choose to wear the intricate, traditional Ta Moko tattoos on their bodies and faces as a symbol of cultural bride.

 

Humans have been decorating their bodies with ink for thousands of years. Tattooing has existed since Neolithic times in the West, and Palaeolithic era in Japan. Right accross the world, various cultures have had their own tattoo traditions, ranging from rubbing cuts and other wounds with ashes to hand-prickling the skin to insert dyes. Today's methods are alot less painful and alot more sanitary!

 

Tattoos have served many purposes: rites of passage, marks of status and rank, decorations of bravery,and loyalty, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, sexual lures and marks of fertility, pledges of love, punishment, amulets and talisman, protection, and as marks of outcasts, slaves, and convicts.

 

Today people choose to be tattooed for cosmetic, religious and spiritual reasons, and as a symbol of belonging or identification with particular groups.