Ink Nation

Statistics say that around one in eight Americans have one or tattoos. Another statistic states that thirty six percent of Americans age eighteen to twenty-five have at least one or more tattoos and these numbers are on the rise. What is the fascination with embedding ink in someone’s skin? Some say it’s the mark of rebellion, others claim it’s about the sheer symbolism of the image and others say it’s a beautiful mark of art. Either way, this art dates back as far as five thousand years ago.

If you were to walk a city block today in any American city chances are you’d see at least one person with a tattoo if not more and according to statistics were going to see a lot more. Many different cultures use the art of tattooing to represent their heritage and culture in many ways. Tattooing was very common among on the island of Japan, in south America, Polynesia and many other places long before the Europeans discovered such symbolism. Ta Moko is an ancient form of tattooing one’s face which is a practice formulated by the Maori (the indigenous population of New Zealand). This practice dates back many centuries and was discovered by Captain cook when he sailed there in 1769.

Tattoos was considered taboo in the sense that your embedding ink within your largest organ for whatever reason and this practice was un heard of and found to be quite odd amongst Europeans. Tattoos were also found amongst the Scandinavian culture along with many barbarian cultures throughout the middle ages and before which also gave this practice even more of a social ban when so called civilized soldiers of either England, France or whatever well dignified empire saw these markings amongst their enemies such as the Vikings, Goths, Saxons or whomever they considered to be wild men or “barbarians”. So whenever you see a film set in that period and everyone bears tattoos, chances are that movie is not entirely historically accurate.

Tattooing became mainly popular amongst Americans after European sailors brought the tradition with them after witnessing the popularity of tattooing in other lands such as New Zealand. Tattooing was basically in a nutshell just stabbing ink into ones skin with a pin until 1891 when the Irish immigrant Samuel O'Reilly patented his machine which was essentially the first tattoo gun which ran off of electricity. The idea of the electric tattoo gun came from Thomas Edison’s electric pen which was used to duplicate written work. Of course Samuel realized you could modify such machinery and he did which brought us a much easier method of tattooing.

Tattoos and crime

Tattoos have come to be highly associated with criminals in the later ages considering it is highly common amongst prisoners in the United States prison system to have ink. It is also a tradition amongst members of the Japanese crime syndicate known as the Yakuza to have full body tattoos. The tattoos which are done in prison are done for a specific reason more or less, and that is simply to intimidate your peers because if you have two men of the same size and features yet one has no tattoos and the other has many, chances are you’d hold more fear and caution to the one with tattoos then the one without.

People, now, have started appreciating the artistic merit of tattooing. Tattoos are frequently used to express personal and religious belief. It is now seen as a part of fashion and young generation is simply crazy about tattooing. The combination of technology, historical awareness and artistic ability has taken the art of tattooing to heights never imagined before. It has been seen that hand tattooing is also making a comeback in the United States again. Tattoo art is growing so fast today that there is hardly any country untouched by this form of art. (IloveIndia 1)

Today in American society tattoos are nothing less of highly common, I myself have one and plan to get more. I myself like the symbolism it represents and it also allows for me and others to express ourselves in such a fashion. Tattooing can even be found at modern art conventions where artists display their work to the viewers. It has become an acceptable art and widespread phenomenon within the last hundred years and it seems the field of body art has much room to expand.