Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice at least since Neolithic times. Otzi the Iceman, dating from the fourth to fifth millennium BCE, was found in the Ötz valley in the Alps and had approximately 57 carbon tattoos consisting of simple dots and lines on his lower spine, behind his left knee, and on his right ankle. Other mummies bearing tattoos and dating from the end of the second millennium BCE have been discovered at Pazyryk Tattooed...
Ötzi the Iceman ( pronounced ˈœtsi ' ), Frozen Fritz , and Similaun Man are modern nicknames of a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC (53 centuries ago), found in 1991 in the Schnalstal glacier in the Ötztal Alps , near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy . The nickname comes from Ötztal , the region in which he was discovered. He is Europe's oldest natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented...
The Pazyryk ( Russian : Пазарык ) is the name of an ancient nomadic people who lived in the Altai Mountains lying in Siberian Russia south of the modern city of Novosibirsk , near the borders of China , Kazakhstan and Mongolia . In this part of the Ukok Plateau , many ancient Bronze Age barrow -like tomb mounds of larch logs covered over by large cairns of boulders and stones have been found. These spectacular burials of the Pazyryk culture...
The history of tattooing in Africa dates back thousands of years. Until the recent discovery of Otzi the Iceman, the oldest known tattoos belonged to the mummy of Amunet, a priestess of the goddess Hathor somewhere between 2160 BC -1994 BC. With her simple parallel lines on her arms, legs, and an elliptical pattern below her navel, Amunet was the oldest glimpse we know had into tattooing in Africa, and the world. The designs found on her...
Mentawai tattoo Mythology
The Mentawai people are the indiginous inhabitants of the Mentawai Islands - a chain of about seventy islands and islets off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia . In Mentawai mythology, a young boy transformed himself into the first Sago tree so that his people would never run out of food. This Sago tree is one of the most revered symbols of Mentawai people's religion, Jarayak, and this tree image is tattooed...
Geographically, and oversimply, Polynesia may be described as a triangle with its corners at Hawaii , New Zealand and Easter Island . The other main island groups located within the Polynesian triangle are Samoa , Tonga , the various island chains that form the Cook Islands and French Polynesia . Niue is a rare solitary island state near the centre of Polynesia. The practise of tattooing in ancient Polynesian society was used to denote...
Maori Tattoos
Tā moko is the permanent body and face marking by Māori , the indigenous people of New Zealand . It is distinct from tattoo and tatau in that the skin was carved by uhi (chisels) rather than punctured. This left the skin with grooves, rather than a smooth surface.
It was brought by Māori from their Eastern Polynesian Tribal Tattoos|Polynesian homeland, and the implements and methods employed were similar to those used...
The history of tattooing belongs to a great many peoples, and as the art travelled across the globe, the styles, methods and meanings were adapted to the various tribes which used the practise of tattooing within their culture. Presently, the art of the Maori Tribal Tattoos|Maori, Polynesian Tribal Tattoos|Polynesian, Samoan Tattoos|Samoans and mesoamerican peoples such as the Aztec are popular and are referred to as 'tribal' in the West, but...