Tattoo Art

Tattoo art has always fascinated the human imagination. Whether it be decorative tribal tattoos as administered by the tribes of Polynesia, or the full back tattoos of Japanese samurais, tattoo art is the catalyst for converting the human body into a canvas worthy of some of the most interesting and visual forms of art ever created.

But often just as interesting as the images of tattoo art themselves are the instruments used to execute them. The history of tattoo supplies, from primitive tattoo needles to the more elegant tattoo guns, is truly the history of human innovation and a desire to express himself/herself.

The earliest example of tattoo art might be the small markings found on the body of ‘Iceman’, a prehistoric man preserved in ice for 5000 years. Most of his ‘tattoos’ are believed to have been therapeutic, as many of them were placed over arthritic joints. But it is in Polynesia that the antecedents of modern tattoo art were born. Tribal tattoo art, with its distinctive use of sharp lines and emotional textures, has flourished in this part of the world for thousands of years and has been used to denote status within a society, as well as provide spiritual protection from evil spirits.

Early tattoo equipment used in Polynesia and other places usually entailed striking the body with a bone-cutting tool that was laced from pigment derived from flowers. The process was long and extremely painful—an important element of the tattoo art initation, and for many years tattoo needles were little more than crude variants of the Polynesian method.

But then in the 1890’s Samuel O’Reilly developed a tattoo machine that revolutionized tattoo art forever. His tattoo gun, with tattoo needle attached to a machine, allowed for a high rate of mechanical vibration that not only made the process of getting tattoo art much less painful, but also allowed for a higher degree of artistic precision.

Ironically modern tattoo equipment is not really all that different from O’Reilly’s tattoo machine. What is different is the acceptance of tattoo art as a mainstream art form. Once relegated to the fringes of society, and kept alive in this country mostly by Navy sailors and circus freaks, today tattoo art is the ultimate in visual expression of an idea, image, or belief---with the wearer of the tattoo being in control of just what their individual tattoo means.