Aquatica Monthly: August 24’ - Tattooing… A Brief History
Welcome to AQUATICA MONTHLY.
A new monthly insight into the ongoings at AQUATICA TATTOO.
Join us each month as we dive into tattoo related topics, share information about our upcoming Guest Artist roster, feature our favourite tattoos as of late, keep you updated on booking availabilities and much more!
Monthly Topic - Tattooing . . . A brief history
Each issue of AQUATICA MONTHLY we will be diving into a new tattoo related topic in an effort to share more information around the world of tattooing.
This month were taking a journey through THE HISTORY OF TATTOOING hoping to shed light on its origins, and significance though-out human existence.
Tattooing, the art of permanently marking the skin with pigment, has a rich and diverse history that spans over 5000 years of global history. From its origins as a ritualistic practice to its modern-day popularity as a form of personal expression, tattooing since its inception has held a deep cultural, spiritual and personal significance.
The earliest example of tattooing dates back to around 3300 B.C.E., with ‘Ötzi the Iceman’, a well-preserved mummy found in the Alps in 1991, bearing tattoo markings. These early tattoos likely held ritualistic or therapeutic significance, serving purposes such as warding off evil spirits or marking one's status within a community.
Our oldest evidence of tattooing in the Americas surfaces roughly around 2300 B.C.E. on the coast straddling the arid Atacama desert in present-day Chile and Peru. The ‘Chinchorro’ civilisation practiced mummification long before their more famous Egyptian counterparts. One well-preserved ‘El Morro’’ mummy has a line of dots tattooed on his upper lip believed to possibly to symbolise his position as a leader. This conclusion was assumed given the markings rarity, out of 96 mummies uncovered it was only the ‘El Morro’ mummy that bore tattoos.
During the First Intermediate period of Ancient Egypt, around 2100 B.C.E. only women who held positions of religious significance were to receive tattoos. The earliest known example is ‘Amunet’, a priestess of the goddess ‘Hathor’, whose mummified body showed that she decorated herself with many dots and dashes, forming abstract geometric patterns on her thighs, arms, breasts, shoulders, and abdomen. Scholars believe that Egyptians were responsible for spreading the practice of tattooing more broadly across Europe and Asia due to their close and frequent contact with civilisations in modern-day Greece, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula.
‘Ukok Princess’
Not soon after this, tattooed mummies thought to date back to 2,000 B.C.E. were discovered in Xinjiang, Western China, and at Pazyryk on the Ukok Plateau. The most intricate of which were present on the ‘Altai Maiden’ depicting several animals and other mythical beasts, markings that were also found present on the Pazyryk chieftain giving life to her other name the ‘Ukok Princess’
In the Phillipines the practice of ‘Batok’ dates back to 1500 B.C.E and possibly beyond with ancient tattoo tools found through excavation as Arku burial site. These tools bare a close resemblance to the tools that would later be seen throughout Polynesia, leading some historians to believe this might also be the time tattooing begun in the region. To this day ‘Whang-Od’ the worlds oldest living tattoo still practices ‘Batok’ in the Philippine Mountains.
Around 1200 B.C.E Tattooing made its way west being embraced by early Celtic culture spanning from Europe and finding its way to the British isle by 500 B.C.E. Tattoos were a fundamental part of the Celtic culture; they were made from a blue dye derived from woad plants. Common motifs in Celtic body art were spirals, knots, and braids. They were meant to symbolise the interconnection of all life.
Despite the people of Greece being aware of Egyptian tattooing far earlier, Textual evidence indicates that tattooing didn’t become common practice within Greek culture till around 600 B.C.E . Unlike the Egyptians, however, Greeks used tattoos as a mark of barbarity and shame. According to the historian Herodotus, Greeks learned the practice from the Persians and used it to identify criminals, defeated enemies, and enslaved people. Tattoos were referred to by the Graeco-Romans as “Stigma” a term that carries the punitive connotation of the practice to modern English. As a result of the social stigma associated with tattoos, we have Greek and Roman physicians to thank for the first methods for tattoo removal.
At the time of the Late Roman Republic and Early Roman Empire around 27 B.C.E. , the practice of tattooing was common and well documented. For example, in Julius Caesar’s “The Gallic War,” he describes the tattoos of the Picts, a tribal people his armies encountered during their campaigns. Also, according to Ephesus, enslaved people exported to Asia during the Early Empire had the phrase “tax paid” tattooed on them.
Most sources estimate that tattooing emerged in the Polynesian cultures of the South Pacific around 2000 years ago, although it’s entirely possible it existed earlier. Tattoos were used during important rites of passage and indicated social rank and affiliation as in other ancient societies. They carried significant personal, social, and spiritual meaning for the Polynesians, who are known for creating some of the most intricate and skill-fully designed tattoos in the ancient world.
These tattoos were not chosen by the person getting tattooed but rather by a tattoo master with extensive knowledge of both the technical and artistic aspects of tattooing. They would customise each design according to the recipient’s specific attributes, personality, status, and achievements. Though tattoo designs and locations varied between Polynesian groups, the tattooing techniques and motifs were similar throughout the South Pacific. These designs included linear, curvilinear, and geometrical patterns incorporating triangles and circles. Other shapes were common, as were basic representations of natural and manmade objects.
In Samoa, men received tattoos called ‘Pe’a’ to signify their passage into manhood and their commitment to serving their extended familial clan. Pe’a were large — covering the thighs, buttocks, lower back, and lower abdomen — and a prerequisite for any man who wished to receive the title of chief, ‘Matai’. Samoan women were also ritually tattooed with less extensive geometrical designs, typically applied to the hands, thighs, and legs.
The art of tattooing that originated in Samoa spread to New Zealand, Hawaii, and other South Pacific regions. The Maori of New Zealand developed their own tattooing tradition called ‘Moko'. Unlike other Polynesian tattoos, ‘Moko’ were often created using woodcarving techniques. Artists used tattooing chisels, called ‘Uhi’, to cut designs into the skin up to one-eighth of an inch, then applied pigment by rubbing it over the wounds or using a serrated ‘Uhi’.
‘Moko’ — especially full-face ‘Moko’ — was so personalised that they allowed their wearers to communicate their lineage, regional or tribal affiliation, social rank, achievements, and even occupation. It could be placed anywhere on the body but was most common on men’s lower bodies and faces, while women generally got them on their arms, abdomen, and thighs.
Tattooing in Hawaii was the least ritualised and regimented of any of the Polynesian cultures. The Hawaiian tradition of tattooing is called ‘Kakau’. Hawaiians wore tattoos to show distinction, decoration, and both physical and spiritual well-being. Men most often adorned their faces, torsos, arms, and legs, whereas women were most often tattooed with natural designs from their wrists to their fingers and occasionally even on their tongues.
The first direct evidence of tattooing in Japan comes from a complied Chinese dynastic history. By 297 C.E It states that the Japanese admired tattoos primarily for their beauty rather than their spiritual, medical, or magical properties. Japanese tattoo artists, called ‘Hori', were absolute masters of their craft. In addition to their use of beautiful colours, their creative designs and technical approaches made them unique to other known tattooing traditions.
Over the course of hundreds of years, tattoos, like ancient Greece and Rome, became a punishment for criminals. By the 1600s, criminal gangs called Yakuza had embraced the association, often covering their entire bodies with tattoos that permanently marked them as outlaws.
Following his conversion to Christianity, roughly 312 C.E. , Roman Emperor Constantine rescinded the Roman state’s official prohibition on Christianity and banned tattooing based on a passage from Leviticus: “Ye shall not make any cuttings on your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.” Christians believed that humans were created in God’s image, so Constantine viewed tattooing as a desecration and forbade the practice, aside from marking enslaved people. However, by this time, tattooing had become commonplace in the Roman military, meaning the prohibition stigmatised many soldiers and veterans.
In 2005, archaeologists unearthed a burial chamber in Peru containing the mummified remains of a Moche woman now known as the “Lady of Cao,” who died around 450 C.E. She bore many stylised animal tattoos on her arms, including spiders, crabs, cats, and snakes.
With the rise of Islam in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula during the life of the Prophet Muhammad, proceeding his first revelation in 610 C.E. attitudes about tattooing began to change. Although the Qur’an doesn’t explicitly forbid tattooing, strict interpretations of the text view it as unholy. As in Christianity, some Islamic scholars believed that tattooing was a vain and unholy desecration of God’s creation. Despite these interpretations, evidence indicates that tattooing endured in many Islamic communities across the region, particularly in North Africa.
Near 500 years later The Chimú people who lived in modern-day Peru around 1100 C.E. , were among some of the most elaborately tattooed populations in South America. Carrying on the mummification traditions of the earlier Chinchorro. The Chimú mummies preserved evidence of their intricate, elaborately crafted tattoos, which featured stylised plant and animal designs, anthropomorphic beings, hunting tools, and weapons, and complex geometric patterns.
While archaeological evidence indicates tattooing among China’s ethnic minorities existed long before 1254 C.E, It was during the height of the Mongol Empire that during Marco Polo’s journey to Quanzhou that we get the first details reports of a highly developed tattoo culture within China. Polo stated the from Northern India and beyond would travel to Quanzhou to be marked by the regions skilled an reputable artists.
Beginning 1768 C.E. Captain James Cook and his crew explored the South Pacific on three expeditions, landing on Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti, Kiribati, Fiji, and Easter Island. Thanks to their encounters with tattooed people in this region from their word ‘Tatau’, the word “Tattoo” came into the English language.
For nearly 100 years, European sailors had been collecting tattoos like souvenirs from their travels. However, in 1861 C.E. Maurice Berchon, a French Navy surgeon, published a study outlining the dangers and complications of tattooing. As a result of this study, the French Navy and Army banned tattoos amongst all soldiers and officers.
Despite the conservative social mores of the Victorian Era, the Prince of Wales — eventually King Edward VII — in 1962 C.E. got a cross tattooed on his arm while visiting Jerusalem, setting off a tattooing trend among the English aristocracy. A year later King Edward VII’s Sons, the Duke of Clarence and Duke of York, were tattooed by Japanese master ‘Hori’ Chiyo.
Thomas Edison’s Electric Pen
Fifteen years after Thomas Edison invented the electric pen, in 1891 C.E. another American named Sam O’Reilly adopted his device, adding an ink tube and needle system to create the first rotary tattoo machine. Although his patent wasn’t filed until 1891, there is evidence he had built and used his machine for years prior. Just weeks after O’Reilly received his patent in the U.S., Londoner Thomas Riley completed the first single-coil tattoo machine. These two devices formed the basic structure for all future tattoo machines.
After the successive traumas of two World Wars and the Great Depression, public fascination with tattooing decreased significantly. During the 1950s Once again, tattoos were regarded by many people in mainstream society as deviant, vulgar, and improper. Despite this, tattoos remained popular among soldiers, sailors, and those involved in nascent countercultural movements, which solidified their unseemly associations in the public mind. This period was being lead by the likes of Lyle Tuttle, Cliff Raven, Don Nolan, Zeke Owens, Spider Webb and none other then the forever celebrated Norman Keith Collins aka. ‘Sailor Jerry’.
Tattooing's popularity would be thrust into the modern era throughout the 1970s by a second generation of American tattooers trained by those of the 1950s. Most notable of which being the likes of Don Ed Hardy and Jack Rudy both pivotal in the transition of shifting from ‘Tattooer’ to ‘Tattoo Artist’. The practice of tattooing underwent a dramatic redefinition, shifting form defiance to an acceptable form of expression.
Today, tattooing is not only a viable career but a highly-regarded art form. There are documentaries, museums, and even reality T.V. shows that celebrate the technical skill, artistic expression, and cultural importance of tattoos and tattooing. Nowadays, tattoos are rarely seen as a sign of shame or immorality as they were in the past. They are instead now considered common and acceptable forms of expression, commemoration, and spirituality.
August’s Guest Artists
We are always excited to have the opportunity to work alongside visiting guest artists. Giving us a chance to feature new styles within the studio.
Hana
Hana is a Dot-work, Ornamental and Traditional artist specialising in bold high-contrast designs. Drawing Inspiration from the deep and diverse history of traditional tattoo motifs she produces striking and clean tattoos.
Availability this month
7th - 10th August
Tahli
Tahli is a Fine-line black and grey Realism and Illustrative artist influenced by the natural world. With motifs ranging from Botanical to Asian-inspired of all shapes and size combined with precise line-work and soft shading she brings a a truly unique approach to her designs.
Availability this month
21st - 24th August
Alicia
Alicia specialises in fine-line tattooing focusing heavily on mythical based designs. Inspired by botanicals and whimsical themes combined with precise line-work and delicate dot-work shading she produces some truly beautiful pieces.
Availability this month
28th - 31s August
Fin George DROP. 2
The AQUATICA TATTOO Artist Series is a program designed to showcase the talent of local artists in collaboration with our studio. It empowers artists to shape our brand and exhibit their unique styles.
Fin George is a 25 year old ceramicist living in Tugun on the Gold Coast. He has been exploring clay and sculpting as a medium for the last 3-4 years.
We have a selection of Fin George’s pots available in our store. Each is handmade and handpainted by Fin.
Artist Series VOl. 4: Mental Ben
The AQUATICA TATTOO Artist Series is a program designed to showcase the talent of local artists in collaboration with our studio. It empowers artists to shape our brand and exhibit their unique styles.
Ben Brown's roots run deep in the vibrant coastal town of Manly, where he witnessed the flourishing scenes of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Immersed in the thriving surf, skate, and punk rock culture of his upbringing, Ben's artistic journey is a fusion of these influences.
Ben's work is known for its vivid colours and bold designs, which exude energy and liveliness. While it can occasionally push boundaries and challenge norms with its confrontational nature, the overall vibe remains playful and enjoyable.
A legend in the dynamic illustration universe, Ben Brown's exceptional portfolio has significantly influenced surf, skate, snow, music, and film scenes on a global scale.
With over thirty years of experience, his evolution as an artist mirrors his enduring love for music. Having been part of the local music scene, Ben holds a profound admiration for fellow passionate artists who continue to make a mark in their own unique style.
Upcoming Events
We are always excited to both participate and host events within the tattooing space.
Find all the all the details below on whats in store.
The Irongate Tattoo Convention
We are humbled to announce we will be attending
THE IRONGATE TATTOO CONVENTION
hosted by IRONTEMPER SUPPLIES!
The Iron Gate is Australia’s newest premier tattoo convention, set to be biggest display of both homegrown and international talent.
Being hosted at the Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park, Sydney this November the 1st - 3rd.