Tattoo Art and Artwork - Artist Resource

Tattoo Art and Artwork Sub-Categories:

Directory > Body art > Tattoo

Tattoo studios and body art shops

Tattoo art web Rings

In recent years Tribal Tattoos have enjoyed a revival.We specialize in Historical and modern Tribal Tattoos of all styles.

Since the dawn of humanity , Tattoos have been made onto both sexes to decorate, enhance, and modify the skin we inherit at birth. Some (Tattoo art mage Galleries) Tattoos are self-motivated expressions of personal freedom and uniqueness. Most, however, have to do with traditions that mark a person as a member or nonmember of the local group, or express religious, magical, or spiritual beliefs and personal convictions. We all have a undeniable need to belong, this is the most basic Tribal need, and the reason for the Tribal Tattoos renewed power. Tribal Tattoos have a simple appeal : we like the way they look on us, It reinforces a positive feeling about ourselves and connects us some how to an element of mystery and ancient activity. (Articles)

The practice of skin ornamentation is certainly as widespread and as ancient as Man himself. It may well have been one of his first conscious acts involving tools which separated him from the rest of the animal kingdom. (Tattoo Chats, Forums and Body Art Discussions ) It is thought by some that ancient mans first primordial feeling when he found himself without great amounts of body hair was to take a blackened sharp stick from the fire and decorate ( Tattoo ) his body, in this way he became camouflaged or protected as the animals were.



As the origins of art are rooted in early cave paintings, so positive proof of Tattooing is obtained from recent discoveries of ancient frozen mummified remains of early man that are covered in Tattoos. Oldest Tattooed body known to date is that of a Bronze Age man who died over 5000 years ago. He was found frozen intact in an Italian glazier. (Tattoo o rganizations)Researchers where startled at close examination he was found to have both arms, legs and torso covered with elaborate Tattoos representing mythical creatures.
(Tattoo directories) 15000 BC ice age rock carvings show Tattooed figures, 4200 BC  Egyptian mummies wear Tattoos. Archeologically validated works of art showing Tattoos started to appear about 30000 years ago. One must not forget that, with the exemption of mummies, all art on the Human body disappears into the fire or ashes along with its bearer.

(Tattoo and body art directories)
Western culture now has a widespread resurgence and acceptance of the Tribal practice of Tattooing. More and more research on Tribal people, their arts, Tattoos, and lifestyles, and more and more available images of Tattooed people have led to western peoples interest in Tribal Tattoos. Pretechnological designs (i.e.,Black Tribal) give the wearer a link to the origins of all present human society, a past Tribal culture wherein the Tattoo had an inner meaning to the wearer , not just a modern symbol of our present culture such as a Mickey Mouse Tattoo.

Ask any tattooer and they will tell you that photos of tattoos are a nightmare. Not so much because its hard to do, but because of the shock when you see them. You see we get all excited when we finish a new tattoo, were psyched, its the best tattoo ever!!!! So you take pictures of it, wrap em up and out they go.(Tattoo Flash)

Tattoo and Body Art Links

Articles on tattooing, from Tattoos.com.

Body painting websites, a directory from  Google.

Celttic Tattoo Art, a site by Pat Fish.

Dragon Tattoos, UK.

Cheery Creek Flash Tattoos

Tattoing and Body Art

Most native peoples of the Americas practiced tattooing to some extent. It served a variety of purposes depending on location, gender, and the state of intertribal relations. (Tattoo Personal Pages)

A variety of methods were used to create tattoos. Among the Sioux, for example, women would draw a circle or line on a person's skin with clay, punch the design with an awl, and then rub blue clay over it. By the time the clay was dry it had penetrated beneath the awl holes. Among California natives an older woman would scratch the skin of a subject and rub charcoal dust or plant juice into the scratches for color. Following contact with Europeans, the Ojibwas drew on the skin with a stick dipped in gunpowder dissolved in water. The figure was then pricked with needles dipped in vermillion and the skin was seared with punkwood to prevent festering. The area would then be treated with an antiseptic herbal wash. These processes often took a number of days. (Tattoo Removal)

Tattoos held different meanings for different tribes. In the Northwest, from California to Washington, tattoos identified a woman's village. In Alaska certain tattoos indicated that a man had killed an enemy in battle, and among the Yokuts of California tattoos marked the location of a person's supernatural power. As is the case in other parts of the world, Native American tattooing reflected (and reflects) a variety of concerns and attitudes related to the human body.

 

Looking for a tattoo or body piercing shop? Start here! There are specific subcategories for European and Asian shops. Women tattooists and women-owned tattoo shops are denoted with a pair of flowers