The practice of tattoos and tattooing means different things in different cultures. In early years the most common reason for getting tattooed seems be Decoration, which is still the most common reason today.
In some cultures tattoos where used as an Identification of the wearer's status in a group. This is still done today by most tribes in Africa, Australia and the South Seas. In certain cultures you can't get a tattoo just because you want one. You will have to earn it. Boys reaching manhood receive one to mark this special occasion, different styles are applied when men get married and so on. Mokos, Polynesian and Maori facial tattoos, are just applied on Warriors after they did something brave and heroic for the tribe.
The ancient romans for example used to tattoo their slaves and criminals to recognize them easier and it was the same with most of the Jews in WWII. Tahitian tattoos were used to tell the story of the wearer's life and served as Rites Of Passage.
The tattoo culture we have now in the western hemisphere began with sailors traveling to exotic foreign lands collecting tattoos in every harbor they were stationed. The different motives they were carrying showed the different places they were stationed. A dragon, for instance, meant the wearer served on a station in China or Japan. Tattoo parlors started to shoot out of the ground in every port city around the globe.
Tattoos Grouped By Theme:
Alien Tattoos - Alien Tattoo designs and body art on your skin.
Ambigram Tattoos - words tattooed to read upside down and right side up.
Anchor Tattoos - designs of old school, traditional, and modern anchor tattoos.
Angel Tattoos - tattoos of various angels and angel wing tattoo designs.
Animated Tattoos - Cartoon character Tattoos and other animation designs.
Animal Tattoos - An assortment of animal tattoos - bulls deer rhino monkey etc.
Arm Band Tattoos - Tribal, Celtic and other Arm band tattoo pics of all different types
Asian Tattoos - Oriental style - Asian, Chinese, Japanese, Symbols etc.
Aztec Tattoos - Tattoo Pictures of Aztec style and Aztec related tattoos.
Back Tattoos - Lower back tattoos, upper back tattoo, full back pieces.
Barbed Wire Tattoos - tattoo featuring barbed wire around various objects
Bear Tattoos - tattoo pictures of bear tattoos and body art
Bird Tattoos - Birds and butterfly tattoo pictures images pics and designs.
Biker Tattoos - Bad ass biker and motorcycle tattoo pics.
Biomechanical Tattoos - biomech tattoo pictures, biomechanical tattoos.
Black Light Tattoos - invisible tats that only show under black light and UV ink tattoos
Buddhist Tattoos - pictures of religious buddhist tattoos, buddha tattoos, etc.
Bull Tattoos - tattoos and body art images and pictures featuring bulls
Bug Tattoos - tattoos and designs of bugs, insects and other small creatures.
Butterfly Tattoos - Nice little butterflies tattoo pictures and flash.
Car Tattoos - automobile symbols, cars, racing tattoos etc,
Cat Tattoos - a collection of nice little kitty cat tattoos.
Celebrity Tattoos - tattoos on Celebes and famous people.
Celtic Tattoos - Celtic and Irish Tattoo pictures and designs.
Cherry Tattoos - tattoos of cherries, and Cherry Blossom Tattoos.
Chinese Tattoos - Tattoo pictures of Chinese letters, symbols etc.
Clover Tattoos - four leaf clovers, clover tattoo images and flash.
Clown Tattoos - scary clowns, gangster clowns, sad and happy clowns..
Crown Tattoos - king crowns, queen crowns, princess crowns, wow.
Cross Tattoos - religious and non religious cross tattoo pictures.
Dagger Tattoos - pictures of tattoos featuring daggers, knifes, etc.
Death Tattoos - tattoo depicting death, grim reaper tattoo and more.
Demon Tattoos - Demons monsters and scary stuff tattoos.
Dog Tattoos - Celebrate mans best friend with a dog tattoo.
Dragon Tattoos - a sweet collection of dragon tattoo pictures
Dragonfly Tattoos - pictures of tattoo with dragonflies and stuff...
Eagle Tattoos - Check this out. Eagle Tattoo pictures and designs
Egyptian Tattoos - tattoos of Egyptian things, Egyptian style tattoos
Extreme Tattoos - Some of the most outrageous and radical tattoos ever.
Eye Tattoos - eyeball tattoos, third eye, minds eye, eye of horus : lots of eyes.
Tattoo Flash - all free and all worth it. not really.. this section is not very good.
Fairy Tattoos - tattoos of fairies, pixies, sprites, and other little creatures
Family Crest Tattoos - examples of crest, badge, and emblem tattoos.
Fantasy Tattoos - fantasy tattoo pictures...fairy tattoos, fantasy etc.
Fire Tattoos - tattoos of fire, things on fire, flames, and fire related things.
Flag Tattoos - tattoos of flags from America, Canada, England and more countries
Fleur De Lis Tattoos - tattoos of the fleur de lis symbol and some new orleans tats.
Flower Tattoos - selection of flower and plant life tattoos. roses, trees, weed, etc.
Frog Tattoos - tattoo pictures of big frogs, little frogs, ugly frogs, and more.
Gambling Tattoos - gambling related tattoos - dice, cards, Vegas, etc.
Gargoyle Tattoos - some gargoyle and monster tattoo pictures and designs.
Geek Tattoos - the various geeky things people get tattooed on themselves.
Girly Tattoos - a nice selection of cute tattoos for the ladies. OK.....
Hawaiian Tattoos - Hawaiian related and Hawaiian, Maori, and Polynesian style tattoos.
Heart Tattoos - Make your love permanent or your broken heart with a heart tattoo.
Hebrew Tattoo - Hebrew sayings, quotes, words etc. plus some Jewish Star tattoos.
Hibiscus Flower Tattoos - various colors and styles of hibiscus flower tattoo designs.
Hindu Tattoos - Vishnu, Ganesha, Hindu tattoos of Hindi symbols, gods, and more.
Homemade Tattoos - pictures of some terribly ugly amateur homemade tattoos.
Horse Tattoos - tattoo pictures of horses and horse related things.
Horseshoe Tattoos - lucky horseshoe tattoo pictures and more.
Infinity Symbol Tattoos - tattoos of various symbols representing Infinity.
Irish Tattoos - tattoos of Irish symbols, heritage, pride, Gaelic and Celtic.
Japanese Tattoos - Japanese Symbols, Letters, Characters, Demons etc.
Jesus Tattoos - pictures of tattoos featuring the man himself...Jesus..
Kanji Tattoos - pictures of Kanji symbol tattoos and Kanji symbol translations
Knot Tattoos - pictures of tattoos of sailor knots, knot work; Celtic knots, etc.
Koi Fish Tattoos - pictures of Asian koi fish tattoos. some nice ones here.
Lady Bug Tattoos - pictures of tattoos with some nice little lady bugs and stuff.
Latin Tattoos - sayings, quotes, phrases and more tattooed in the Latin language.
Lily Flower Tattoos - various colors and styles of lily flower tattoo designs.
Lion Tattoos - lions tigers cougars jaguars and leopard tattoo pictures
Lizard Tattoos - pictures images and photos of tattoos with lizards in them.
Lotus Tattoos - various forms of popular full color lotus flower tattoos.
Love Tattoos - tattoo pictures of the various ways that people express love.
Memorial Tattoos - in memory of and memorial tattoo pictures with names.
Mermaid Tattoos - beautiful, sexy, and classic mermaid tattoos.
Military Tattoos - pictures of army, navy, air force, marine, armed forces tattoos.
Miscellaneous Tattoos - All the tattoos that wouldn't fit anywhere else.
Movie Tattoos - tattoos of movie characters, scenes, memorabilia etc.
Music Tattoos - tattoos of music notes, music instruments, etc.
Native American Tattoos - Native American, Indians, Aztec tattoos.
Neck Tattoos - Pictures of tattoos located on people necks...neck tattoos
Old School Tattoos - Original and Traditional Tattoos from the "old school".
Orchid Flower Tattoos - various colors and styles of orchid flower tattoos.
Patriotic Tattoos - USA American Patriotic and Military tattoos
Panther Tattoos - tattoos of black panthers, panther tattoo pictures.
Phoenix Tattoos - tattoo pictures of phoenix fire breathing birds
Pin Up Girl Tattoos - Please don't drool on my pictures of hot girl tattoos.
Praying Hands Tattoos - what the name says - pictures of praying hands tattoos
Prison Tattoos - Incarcerated prisoner tattoo pictures, gang tattoos etc.
Religious Tattoos - faith and spirituality tattoos - crosses, praying hands etc.
Reptile Tattoos - snakes scorpions lizards and more tattoo pictures
Rosary Tattoos - tattoos of rosary beads, praying hands, rosary anklet tattoos.
Rose Tattoos - red, blue, white and many more rose flower tattoo pictures.
Scorpion Tattoos - pictures images and photos of tattoos with scorpions
Skull Tattoos - skulls and bones crossbones and flaming skull tattoos
Sleeve Tattoos - pictures of peoples different full and half arm tattoo sleeves
Snake Tattoos - lots of tattoo pictures of some super scary slithering snakes
Sparrow Bird Tattoos - tattoo pictures of traditional and modern sparrow tattoos.
Star Tattoos - pictures of stars, planets, moons and stars, five point stars, etc.
Sun and Moon Tattoos - some very nice sun moon and star tattoo pictures here
Symbol Tattoos - various symbol tattoo pictures - Chinese, zodiac, kanji, etc.
Tiger Tattoos - tiger tattoos - Siberian tigers, Bengal tigers, tiger stripes, cubs...
Traditional Tattoos - old school type tattoo designs and pictures of traditional tattoos
Tribal Tattoos - tribal tattoos pictures: tribal dragons crosses sun art
Turtle Tattoos - pictures of aquatic turtle and turtle related tattoo pics.
Vine Tattoos - pictures of vine tattoos, winding vines, thorn vines, plants etc.
Viking Tattoos - Viking and warrior tattoo designs and tattoo pictures
Water Animal Tattoos - fish and aquatic tattoos pictures and designs
White Ink Tattoos - unique tattoos using exotic looking white ink.
Wing Tattoos - tattoos of wings, winged figures, angel wings, bird wings, butterfly wings ...
Wolf Tattoos - wolves - lone wolf, tribal head wolf paw tattoo pictures.
Word and Lettering Tattoos - word tattoos and various word tattoo lettering designs.
Yin Yang Tattoos - pictures of various yin-yang symbol tattoos.
Zodiac Tattoos - tattoo pictures of the zodiac and astrological signs.
The tribal designs widely used and applied nowadays go back to the black, silhouette like and geometric tatau ornaments of the polynesians. It was also tribal tattoos the sailors brought home to Europe, from their first journeys to Tahiti, before the influences of the sailors with maritime designs, the today called traditional tattoos, replaced the native motives.
The release of Tattoo Time, a tattoo magazine founded in 1982 by the american innovator Don Ed Hardy and Leo Zulueta started an amazing tribal tattoo boom. The title of the first issue was "New Tribalism" and it features native tattoos from Samoa and Borneo. From there on the tattoo scene re-discovered tribal designs as a tattoo style. Not only that, the black and gently swinging style of tribal weakened the negative associations made with tattoos in the years before. Only after half a year the black designs were among the most popular motive choices and tribal is still one of the most popular tattoo styles today.
There are a lot of tattoo artists who refuse to tattoo simple tribal because of the widely spread believe a tribal is not very challenging for the artist. This is not true. Tribal patterns should always be applied correctly, along the musculature and single muscle parts of the body and should come across as a grown part of the body. The colouring should also be very even and this is not the easiest to do.
Believe it or not but most scientist believe the origins of tattoos date back to about 3300 B.C. They believe that certain marks found on the skin of the "?TZI", a mummified body of an iceman found in the italian alps, were considered tattoos back in his days. If their acceptance is true, these marks on his body represent the earliest known evidence for tattoos in history. All we know for sure up until now is, there are tattoos found on Egyptian and Nubian mummies dating from about 2000 B.C. Classical authors also mention the use of tattoos in ancient societies like the old Greeks, Germans, Britons, Romans and Gauls.
