Cultural Connections: Tattoo’s Aren’t Skin Deep

Meshin Longkumer

Professor Janice Robillard

HUM201

Lesson 9 Writing Assignment

4 November 2017

Cultural Connections: Tattoo’s aren’t skin deep

A brief glance at the history of all major cultures showcases the paramount importance of physical attractiveness across various human cultures. Additionally, it is also easy to see that the treatment of an individual in the society was very dependent on the cultural beauty standards. For example, in many Polynesian cultures, the tattoo on a warrior’s face depicted mana, a spiritual substance that is the manifestation of the gods on earth (Sayre 797). Individuals could also increase their mana my wearing certain items of dress like tattoos (Sayre 797).  

 Tattooing is a word derived from tatau, the Tahitian term for the practice. (Sayre 796). The process of tattooing involves inserting pigments under the skin that results in a permanent mark upon the body. I have always been fascinated with the idea of tattoos. I have woken up in the morning feeling the need to change on several days. I really want to get a tattoo because they encourage you to express yourself. When looking at the chapter on Maori art, there was one thing that stuck out amongst the rest for me- the tattoos. Thus, I really connected to the text on Cook’s encounters in the South Specific, “One of the most distinctive art forms that Cook and his crew encountered in Polynesia was tattooing” (Sayre 796). It was the modern West’s first recorded encounter with the practice we know today as “tattooing”.

A close inspection of the inner yearnings, self-concepts, and spiritual beliefs across cultures reveals that the primitive desire for an exaggerated exterior is not limited to the Maori, as they imported the practice from the Polynesian islands to the North (Sayre 797). Ancient Greeks and Romans also had contact with the practice. While the interpretations of these tattoos may vary across cultures, it is undeniable that these cultures were connected by the art form. Tattooing has a very spiritual significance for the people of the Pacific Islands, and the Maori wasn’t the only ancient peoples to practice the art. In West African nations like Togo and Burkina Faso, the man and woman considered most beautiful in the village were most scarred with tattoos (M.Rapp, 2010). Many Japanese figurines that are from 5000BC have been found to possess decorative tattoo marks, and the first written record dates back to Chinese history in in AD 297 (M.Rapp, 2010). Even the ancient Greek texts have references to tattoos in the form of social stigmas (M.Rapp, 2010).