Believe it or not, some scientists say that certain marks on the skin of the Iceman, a mummified human body dating from about 3300 B.C., are tattoos. If that's true, these markings represent the earliest known evidence of the practice.

More widely recognized are tattoos found on Egyptian and Nubian mummies dating from about 2000 B.C. Classical authors mention the use of tattoos in connection with Greeks, ancient Germans, Gauls, Thracians and ancient Britons. But with the growth of Christianity, tattooing was forbidden in Europe. The practice continued in the Middle East and other parts of the world. (Interestingly, tattoos seemed to be missing among populations with the darkest skin color and in most of China until more recent centuries.)

Tattooing was rediscovered by Europeans when exploration brought them into contact with Polynesians and American Indians. The word, tattoo, comes from the Tahitian word tattau, which means "to mark" and was first mentioned in explorer James Cook's records from his 1769 expedition to the South Pacific. Because tattoos were considered so exotic in European and U.S. societies, tattooed Indians and Polynesians drew crowds at circuses and fairs during the 18th and 19th centuries.
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What Is a Tattoo?

Tattoos are created by injecting ink into the skin. Injection is done by a needle attached to a hand-held tool. The tool moves the needle up and down at a rate of several hundred vibrations per minute and penetrates the skin by about one millimeter.

What you see when you look at a tattoo is the ink that's left in the skin after the tattooing. The ink is not in the epidermis, which is the layer of skin that we see and the skin that gets replaced constantly, but instead intermingles with cells in the dermis and shows through the epidermis. The cells of the dermis are remarkably stable so the tattoo's ink will last, with minor fading and dispersion, for your entire life!

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Pinhead,Pindead,PinM&M, PinMoney, Pinocchio Pincushion, Pinwheel, Pinochle

[This message has been edited by Pinhead (edited 05-02-2000).]