Tattoos--the Art That Started 100 Years Before

By Author: John leana
Total Articles: 32
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Do you want to ornament your skin? One of the in things that are being done by all fashion conscious individuals is getting tattooed. So, you can also ink yourself and get a marking on your skin for lifetime or just for a temporary time span. There are basically two kinds of tattoos--permanent and temporary ones. However, before going into a detail discussion regarding which body part are meant for tattooing, here we have made you understand in simple language what a tattoo is, its meaning, the tool used for doing it and why people put it.

Tattoo is an ink design on skin done with a needle. It means 'to strike or mark'. The concept of this art was mainly popularized in the West. It gained huge popularity in the year 1991 when some earliest known tattoo designs were discovered on Oetzi (a mummy that dated back to 5300 years of age). Egyptians are also known for the civilization of this art. A lot of mummies have been discovered in different designs of tattoo in 2100 B.C. It is from Egypt that this art of inking spread all over the world.

Tattoos were initially done by scoring the flesh with knives and rubbing in ...
... ash, ink or a dye agent. Body art done in this way were susceptible to infection. Nowadays, it is done with a needle. In fact the introduction of needles made from wood and bone to the tattoo art started about hundreds of years before. The use of this tool for tattooing made for less infection and more precision. It is much less painful than the ones that are still hand-poked with tools like sharpened bamboo, steel or animal bone.

In the year 1876 Thomas Edison invented a printer that paved way for the electric tattoo machine. This device was capable of marking the skin hundred times per minute. The invention of this machine made the art more widespread across the world. Nowadays the machines used for inking are strikingly different than the ones that were invented by Edison. Although it is an electric tattoo designing machine with the same principle like that of Edison's invention but the machines of modern times operate using an electromagnet. When the circuit opens and closes the bar connects to the needle for its movement. The needle can move 80-120 times a second allowing the designer to ink the skin.

Getting tattooed has become a fashion nowadays. You can find a lot of men and women getting inked in their several body parts. There are many reasons for getting tattooed. A lot of individuals in order to identify themselves with a social or religious group get inked. There are even many who design on their skin with the needle to adorn their bodies, cover up their skin discoloration or use it just as a protective symbol or as a social project or an ongoing art. Some individuals like the prisoners and victims of Holocaust have been tattooed forcibly.

Individuals get inked on various parts of the body like chest, neck, arm, shoulder, back, calves, and upper thin and lower back. However, there may come many situations when these individuals may not want other people to see you body art. For this reason, the body parts that normally remain covered are the safest part for tattoos.

To get a detailed idea about tattoos, tattoo designs, tattoo art and the cost of doing it and ways to remove it tattoos log on to http://www.tattoos-malu-art.com/tattoo-designs.html