By : Nicolas Diaz Reinoso
Whether it is because of their colors, their designs, or what they represent to the person wearing them, tattoos, beyond being a cry of rebellion, are a way of making art or supporting an ideology through the use of the body. However, this practice is not something recent or related to our time. Where did it come from?
Drawings with henna
Two of the oldest vestiges of the practice of body tattooing are the ancient Egyptian priestess Amunet and a mummy found in a glacier in 1991. The designs they sported were quite simple, based on dots and stripes. Today, body designs are complex works, where the shapes and colors are as infinite as the creativity of each artist.
It is in the old Polynesia where the practice of tattoos with complex designs arose, which have their own meanings depending on each person and how much body area they cover, as they were also considered a shield against evil spirits. For some people, the tattoo that each person carries on their skin is a fingerprint that differentiates them from the rest of their people as much as their name or title.
There is also a strong erotic connotation linked to tattoos, symbols of virility in men and femininity in women. In India, there is a custom of painting the hands of brides with drawings made of henna, which, as well as being an adornment, is also a symbol that the woman is newly married or that she will soon be married.
In the Marquesas Islands, tattoos were considered a physical and spiritual shield, so men usually tattooed their entire body. However, there was a belief that the guardian of Paradise disliked tattoos: in order for a person to enter Heaven, his fellow men had to remove his skin before burying him.
Man from Marquesas Islands
Tattoos were brought to Europe with the conquest of the 17th century. xviii. European sailors arrived in these lands and were fascinated and intrigued at the same time. Not only because of the incredible designs and their great color, but also because the method used on the leather was something they had never seen before.
Nowadays, wearing tattoos is a practice that has lost all its mystical connotations. There is an incredible variety of designs and motifs, in black or bright colors. Animals, plants, names of people, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary... and, of course, the so-called "tribal tattoos", designs that evoke in some way those that were printed on the skin of the Eurasians and Polynesians. Over the years and cultural influences, wearing a tattoo has gone from being a protective distinction to becoming an ostentatious distinction (in some cases more than others, of course). It has reached such a point that even films have been made about tattoos, such as the delirious film aptly named "The Tattoo of the Dead".Remembrance” (Remembrance) of Christopher Nolan which presents a subject with no short-term memory, incapable of creating lasting memories. To compensate for this deficiency, he uses photographs and a rather curious mnemonic method: tattooing what he wants to remember.
Everyone, regardless of age and, in certain cases, medical condition, can get tattoos. The important thing is to find an appropriate place to do it (that is, a place that, at the very least, looks like it won't infect us with diseases), and to be aware that, although there are supposed to be permanent removal methods, a tattoo is a mark that will stay with us throughout our lives from the moment the tattoo artist lifts the needle from our skin, finishing his work.
EN 
ES_ES