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85-673: The mummified remains of the Ice Maiden, a Scytho -Siberian woman who lived on the Eurasian Steppes in the 5th century BC, were found undisturbed in a subterranean burial chamber. Natalia Polosmak and her team discovered the Ice Maiden during the summer of 1993, when she was a senior research fellow at the Russian Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk. It was Polosmak's fourth season working on

170-521: A pagan practice in AD ;787. These markings can potentially provide a wealth of information about an individual. Simple visual examinations, as well as more advanced digital recognition technologies, are employed to assist in identifying or providing clues about suspects or victims of crimes. Tattoos are sometimes used by forensic pathologists to help them identify burned, putrefied, or mutilated bodies. As tattoo pigment lies encapsulated deep in

255-566: A barbaric practice associated with the Yue peoples of southeastern and southern China. Tattoos were often referred to in literature depicting bandits and folk heroes. As late as the Qing dynasty , it was common practice to tattoo characters such as 囚 ("Prisoner") on convicted criminals' faces. Although relatively rare during most periods of Chinese history, slaves were also sometimes marked to display ownership. However, tattoos seem to have remained

340-545: A keen interest in tattoos with Banks writing about them extensively and Parkinson is believed to have gotten a tattoo himself in Tahiti . Banks was a highly regarded member of the English aristocracy who had acquired his position with Cook by co-financing the expedition with ten thousand pounds, a very large sum at the time. In turn, Cook brought back with him a tattooed Raiatean man, Omai , whom he presented to King George and

425-565: A largely non-commercial enterprise during the convict period in Australia. For example, James Ross in the Hobart Almanac of 1833 describes how the convicts on board ship commonly spent time tattooing themselves with gunpowder. Out of a study of 10,180 convict records that were transported to then Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) between 1823 and 1853 about 37% of all men and about 15% of all women arrived with tattoos, making Australia at

510-456: A look akin to traditional makeup. A growing trend in the US and UK is to place artistic tattoos over the surgical scars of a mastectomy . "More women are choosing not to reconstruct after a mastectomy and tissue instead... The mastectomy tattoo or areola tattoo will become just another option for post cancer patients and a truly personal way of regaining control over post cancer bodies..." However,

595-438: A part of southern culture. Marco Polo wrote of Quanzhou , "Many come hither from Upper India to have their bodies painted with the needle in the way we have elsewhere described, there being many adepts at this craft in the city". At least three of the main characters – Lu Zhishen , Shi Jin (史進), and Yan Ching (燕青) – in the classic novel Water Margin are described as having tattoos covering nearly all of their bodies. Wu Song

680-889: A shared cultural heritage such as the tradition of tattooing. While the Gebelein man was buried in Egypt, most discoveries of tattooed individuals from this region are from Ancient Nubia. In Nubia, the earliest identified human remains with tattoos are dated to the C-Group period, which lasted from 2345-1500 BCE and contemporaneous with the First Intermediate period through the Second Intermediate period in Ancient Egypt. During this C-Group period, only women have been found with tattoos, suggesting that tattooing

765-612: A skin pigmentation disorder. SS blood group tattoos ( German : Blutgruppentätowierung ) were worn by members of the Waffen-SS in Nazi Germany during World War II to identify the individual's blood type . After the war, the tattoo was taken to be prima facie , if not perfect, evidence of being part of the Waffen-SS, leading to potential arrest and prosecution. This led a number of ex-Waffen-SS to shoot themselves through

850-481: A specific meaning to the wearer), pictorial (a depiction of a specific person or item), or textual (words or pictographs from written languages). Many tattoos serve as rites of passage , marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, marks of fertility , pledges of love, amulets and talismans, protection, and as punishment, like the marks of outcasts, slaves and convicts. Extensive decorative tattooing has also been part of

935-538: A stone and wood coffin containing a skeleton, along with three horses. Polosmak believes that this secondary burial was that of an outside group, perhaps of subordinate peoples, who considered it honorable to bury their dead in Pazyryk kurgans. A shaft dug into the kurgan indicated that this later grave had been robbed, another means by which water and snow entered and seeped into the Ice Maiden's hollow burial chamber. The water collected, froze, and formed an ice block within

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1020-452: A stone dish that may have been provided for the Maiden's medicinal use. The excavation of the Ice Maiden was carried out with great care, although methods used to melt the ice and remove the artifacts and body from the coffin were subject to criticism. The mummy also suffered deterioration during her refrigerated transport from the site to the lab, as the preservation efforts could not prevent

1105-489: A substance such as asphalt or gunpowder is rubbed into a wound as the result of some kind of accident or trauma. When this involves carbon , dermatologists may call the mark a carbon stain instead of a tattoo. Coal miners could develop characteristic marks owing to coal dust getting into wounds. These are particularly difficult to remove as they tend to be spread across several layers of skin, and scarring or permanent discoloration can be almost unavoidable depending on

1190-508: A tattoo. In September 2006, the Pew Research Center conducted a telephone survey that found that 36% of Americans ages 18–25, 40% of those 26–40 and 10% of those 41–64 had a tattoo. They concluded that Generation X and Millennials express themselves through their appearance, and tattoos are a popular form of self-expression. In January 2008, a survey conducted online by Harris Interactive estimated that 14% of all adults in

1275-663: A total of 61 tattoos, which may have been a form of acupuncture used to relieve pain. Radiological examination of Ötzi's bones showed "age-conditioned or strain-induced degeneration" corresponding to many tattooed areas, including osteochondrosis and slight spondylosis in the lumbar spine and wear-and-tear degeneration in the knee and especially in the ankle joints. If so, this is at least 2,000 years before acupuncture's previously known earliest use in China ( c.  100 BCE ). Preserved tattoos on ancient mummified human remains reveal that tattooing has been practiced throughout

1360-648: A wide variety of images, such as abstract chains of “sss” or depictions of gods and goddesses. In Nubia, a female mummy from Aksha dated to the 4th century BCE contains a tattoo of the Egyptian deity Bes on her thigh. Bes , a dwarfed god, is often associated with fertility and childbirth, and was a popular image tattooed onto women both in Egypt and Nubia, as seen in both iconographic examples, such as tomb paintings, and on human remains. No ancient tattoo instruments or tools have been confidently identified at archaeological excavations in either Egypt or Sudan, due to

1445-496: A yellow silk tussah blouse, a crimson-and-white striped wool skirt with a tassel belt, thigh-high white felt leggings, with a marten fur, a small mirror made from polished metal and wood with carved deer figures, and a headdress that stood nearly three feet tall. The size of the headdress necessitated a coffin that was eight feet long. The headdress had a wooden substructure with a molded felt covering and eight carved feline figures covered in gold. There were remains of coriander seeds in

1530-473: Is a legal requirement for all 8.5 million pet dogs in the UK. In Australia, desexed cats and dogs are marked with a tattoo on the inside of the ear . Permanent makeup is the use of tattoos to create long-lasting eyebrows, lips (liner and/or lip blushing), eyes (permanent eyeliner), and even moles definition. Natural colors are used to mimic eyebrows and freckles, while diverse pigments for lips and eyeliner for

1615-617: Is derived from the Scythian endonym Skuδa , meaning lit.   ' archers ' which was derived from the Proto-Indo-European root skewd- , itself meaning lit.   ' shooter, archer ' . This name was semantically similar to the endonym of the Sauromatians, *Saᵘrumata , meaning "armed with throwing darts and arrows." From this earlier term Skuδa was derived: The Urartian name for

1700-422: Is often performed without anesthesia, but is different from tattooing as no ink or dye is inserted during the process, the mark instead being caused by permanent scarring of the skin. Pet dogs and cats are sometimes tattooed with a serial number (usually in the ear, or on the inner thigh) via which their owners can be identified. However, the use of a microchip has become an increasingly popular choice and since 2016

1785-585: Is preferred by Scythologists such as Askold Ivantchik . Within this broad use, the Scythians proper who lived in the Pontic Steppes are sometimes referred to as Pontic Scythians . Modern-day anthropologists instead prefer using the term "Scytho-Siberians" to denote this larger cultural grouping of nomadic peoples living in the Eurasian steppe and forest steppe extending from Central Europe to

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1870-562: Is that branding was used by European authorities for marking criminals throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The practice was also used by British authorities to mark army deserters and military personnel court-martialed in Australia. In nineteenth century Australia tattoos were generally the result of personal rather than official decisions but British authorities started to record tattoos along with scars and other bodily markings to describe and manage convicts assigned for transportation. The practice of tattooing appears to have been

1955-403: Is unknown until 2014, when new research suggested breast cancer, combined with injuries sustained in a fall, as likely culprits. The original researcher Polosmak stated in a 2004 article, "Probably, for the sick woman, constant inhalation of cannabis vapor became a forced necessity (Polosmak, Trunova, 2004) and she was often in a state of altered consciousness." This created the mistaken belief that

2040-457: The Deir el-Bahari site. He speculated that the tattoos and other scarifications observed on the bodies may have served a medicinal or therapeutic purpose: "The examination of these scars, some white, others blue, leaves in no doubt that they are not, in essence, ornament, but an established treatment for a condition of the pelvis, very probably chronic pelvic peritonitis ." Ötzi the iceman had

2125-480: The Malagasy people . Austronesians used the characteristic hafted skin-puncturing technique, using a small mallet and a piercing implement made from Citrus thorns, fish bone, bone, and oyster shells. Ancient tattooing traditions have also been documented among Papuans and Melanesians , with their use of distinctive obsidian skin piercers. Some archeological sites with these implements are associated with

2210-653: The Pontic Scythians , were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia , where they remained established from the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC. Skilled in mounted warfare , the Scythians replaced the Agathyrsi and the Cimmerians as

2295-645: The Republican National Museum in the capital Gorno-Altaysk . Subsequent excavations in the area are forbidden at the request of the Altaian people, though it is believed more artifacts and burial mounds are in the area. An archeologist involved in the excavation expressed fears that the bodies in the mounds, if left unrecovered, will decay due to climate change. DNA research by the Russian Academy of Sciences found clear differences in

2380-600: The Roman Empire , gladiators and slaves were tattooed: exported slaves were tattooed with the words "tax paid", and it was a common practice to tattoo "fugitive" (denoted by the letters "FUG") on the foreheads of runaway slaves. Owing to the Biblical strictures against the practice, Emperor Constantine I banned tattooing the face around AD 330, and the Second Council of Nicaea banned all body markings as

2465-469: The Ukok Plateau where the institute was continuing its research into the early habitation of southern Siberia. Now over two decades later, there are few English language sources available for the important discovery: Polosmak's National Geographic article from October 1994, and a BBC documentary (1997) featuring Polosmak and members of her team are the most informative and accessible. The Ice Maiden

2550-741: The Yoruba , Fulani and Hausa people of Nigeria ; Native Americans of the Pre-Columbian Americas ; people of Rapa Nui ; Picts of Iron Age Britain ; and Paleo-Balkan peoples ( Illyrians and Thracians , as well as Daunians in Apulia ), a tradition that has been preserved in the western Balkans by Albanians ( Albanian traditional tattooing ), Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Sicanje ), and women of some Vlach communities. The earliest figural tattoos were identified on

2635-468: The dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes and techniques , including hand-tapped traditional tattoos and modern tattoo machines . The history of tattooing goes back to Neolithic times, practiced across the globe by many cultures, and the symbolism and impact of tattoos varies in different places and cultures. Tattoos may be decorative (with no specific meaning), symbolic (with

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2720-657: The naturally mummified human remains of a male buried within a shallow grave from Gebelein in upper Egypt , and radiocarbon dated to around 3351-3017 BCE. The male mummy, named the “Gebelein man”, had two overlapping tattoos on his right forearm, one depicting a bovine , and the other depicting another horned animal, perhaps a barbary sheep or another bovine. The Gebelein man was approximately 18-21 years of age when he died, suggesting that he received his tattoos at an early age. The cultures of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Nubia , located in modern day Sudan , while diverse and multifaceted within their own rights, often have roots in

2805-458: The 18th century, is a loanword from the Samoan word tatau , meaning "to strike", from Proto-Oceanic * sau ₃ referring to a wingbone from a flying fox used as an instrument for the tattooing process. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology of tattoo as "In 18th c. tattaow, tattow. From Polynesian (Samoan, Tahitian , Tongan , etc.) tatau. In Marquesan , tatu." Before

2890-584: The 21st century, people choose to be tattooed for artistic, cosmetic, sentimental/ memorial , religious , and spiritual reasons, or to symbolize their belonging to or identification with particular groups, including criminal gangs (see criminal tattoos ) or a particular ethnic group or law-abiding subculture. Tattoos may show how a person feels about a relative (commonly a parent or child) or about an unrelated person. Tattoos can also be used for functional purposes, such as identification, permanent makeup , and medical purposes . The word tattoo , or tattow in

2975-540: The 3rd century AD, last remnants of the Scythians were overwhelmed by the Goths , and by the early Middle Ages , the Scythians were assimilated and absorbed by the various successive populations who had moved into the Pontic Steppe. After the Scythians' disappearance, authors of the ancient, mediaeval, and early modern periods used their name to refer to various populations of the steppes unrelated to them. The name

3060-535: The Austronesian migration into Papua New Guinea and Melanesia . But other sites are older than the Austronesian expansion, being dated to around 1650 to 2000 BCE, suggesting that there was a preexisting tattooing tradition in the region. Among other ethnolinguistic groups, tattooing was also practiced among the Ainu people of Japan; some Austroasians of Indochina ; Berber women of Tamazgha (North Africa);

3145-622: The English Court. On subsequent voyages other crew members, from officers, such as American John Ledyard, to ordinary seamen, were tattooed. The first documented professional tattooist in Britain was Sutherland Macdonald , who operated out of a salon in London beginning in 1894. In Britain, tattooing was still largely associated with sailors and the lower or even criminal class, but by the 1870s had become fashionable among some members of

3230-578: The Hellenistic period, authors such as Hecataeus of Miletus however sometimes extended the designation "Scythians" indiscriminately to all steppe nomads and forest steppe populations living in Europe and Asia, and used it to also designate the Saka of Central Asia. Early modern scholars tended to follow the lead of the Hellenistic authors in extending the name "Scythians" into a general catch-all term for

3315-858: The Holocaust as part of the Nazis' identification system , beginning in fall 1941. The SS introduced the practice at Auschwitz concentration camp in order to identify the bodies of registered prisoners in the concentration camps. During registration, guards would tattoo each prisoner with a number, usually on the left forearm, but sometimes on the chest or stomach. Of the Nazi concentration camps, only Auschwitz put tattoos on inmates. Prisoners found with tattoos in Mauthausen concentration camp and Buchenwald concentration camp upon liberation were presumably transported from Auschwitz by death march . The tattoo

3400-477: The Ice Maiden's genetic material and that of modern Altaian communities, which led archaeologists to claim that the mummy was European and that Altaians were recent migrants to the region. This was used as a reason to keep the mummy in Novosibirsk, and in 2004 the archaeologists who had refused to repatriate the Ice Maiden to the Altai because of her supposed European heritage were awarded the prestigious State Prize of

3485-487: The Indigenous peoples of Australia, now only really found in parts of Arnhem Land . Each "deliberately placed scar tells a story of pain, endurance, identity, status, beauty, courage, sorrow or grief." Barramoyokjarlukkugarr walang bolhminy now bolitj. They put it on the wound and then it comes up as an adornment scar. ( Bob Burruwal , Rembarrnga , Arnhem Land) The European history of the use of tattoo in Australia

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3570-567: The Iranic pastoralist nomads who lived in the steppes of Central Asia and East Turkestan in the 1st millennium BC. The Late Babylonian scribes of the Achaemenid Empire used the name "Cimmerians" to designate all the nomad peoples of the steppe, including the Scythians and Saka. Tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink , dyes, and/or pigments , either indelible or temporary, into

3655-2471: The Russian Federation . Claims regarding the Ice Maiden's European or Altaian descent are, however, considered the products of indigenous Altaian cultural identity and political autonomy being undermined by a broad "Russian" nationalism. Scythians West Asia (7th–6th centuries BC) Akkadian (in West Asia) Median (in West Asia) Phrygian (in West Asia) Urartian (in West Asia) Thracian (in Pontic Steppe) Ancient Greek (in Pontic Steppe) Proto-Slavic language (in Pontic Steppe) Ancient Mesopotamian religion (in West Asia) Urartian religion (in West Asia) Phrygian religion (in West Asia) Ancient Iranic religion (in West Asia) Thracian religion (in Pontic Steppe) Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Scythians ( / ˈ s ɪ θ i ə n / or / ˈ s ɪ ð i ə n / ) or Scyths ( / ˈ s ɪ θ / , but note Scytho- ( / ˈ s aɪ θ ʊ / ) in composition) and sometimes also referred to as

3740-670: The Scythians might have been Išqigulu ( 𒆳𒅖𒆥𒄖𒇻 ). Due to a sound change from /δ/ ( / ð / ) to / l / commonly attested in East Iranic language family to which Scythian belonged, the name Skuδa evolved into Skula , which was recorded in ancient Greek as Skōlotoi ( Σκωλοτοι ), in which the Greek plural-forming suffix -τοι was added to the name. The name of the 5th century BC king Scyles ( Ancient Greek : Σκυλης , romanized :  Skulēs ) represented this later form, Skula . The name "Scythians"

3825-556: The U.S. was established in the early 1870s by a German immigrant, Martin Hildebrandt . He had served as a Union soldier in the Civil War and tattooed many other soldiers. Soon after the Civil War, tattoos became fashionable among upper-class young adults. This trend lasted until the beginning of World War I. The invention of the electric tattoo machine caused popularity of tattoos among the wealthy to drop off. The machine made

3910-539: The U.S.; in 1980, there were more than 5,000 self-proclaimed tattoo artists, appearing in response to sudden demand. Many studies have been done of the tattooed population and society's view of tattoos. In June 2006, the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology published the results of a telephone survey of 2004: it found that 36% of Americans ages 18–29, 24% of those 30–40, and 15% of those 41–51 had

3995-507: The United States have a tattoo, slightly down from 2003, when 16% had a tattoo. Among age groups, 9% of those ages 18–24, 32% of those 25–29, 25% of those 30–39 and 12% of those 40–49 have tattoos, as do 8% of those 50–64. Men are slightly more likely to have a tattoo than women. Since the 1970s, tattoos have become a mainstream part of Western fashion, common both for men and women, and among all economic classes and to age groups from

4080-482: The arm with a gun, removing the tattoo and leaving scars like the ones resulting from pox inoculation, making the removal less obvious. Tattoos were probably also used in ancient medicine as part of the treatment of the patient. In 1898, Daniel Fouquet, a medical doctor, wrote an article on "medical tattooing" practices in Ancient Egypt , in which he describes the tattooed markings on the female mummies found at

4165-562: The chamber which never fully thawed because of the steppe climate, permafrost, and the rocks piled on top of the mound which deflected the sun's rays. The contents of the burial remained frozen for 2400 years, until the time of Polosmak's excavation. Inside the Maiden's tomb chamber was her coffin, which was made of a solid larch wood tree trunk decorated with leather appliqués depicting deer figures. The chamber also contained two small wood tables with tray-shaped tops, which were used to serve food and drink. Horsemeat and mutton had been placed on

4250-584: The city of Antwerp in modern-day Belgium . The mother was tattooed while the child was unmarked. In Antwerp, the two were put on display at a local tavern at least until 1567, with handbills promoting the event being distributed in the city. In 1577, English privateer Martin Frobisher captured two Inuit and brought them back to England for display. One of the Inuit was a tattooed woman from Baffin Island , who

4335-648: The dominant power on the western Eurasian Steppe in the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, the Scythians crossed the Caucasus Mountains and frequently raided West Asia along with the Cimmerians. After being expelled from West Asia by the Medes , the Scythians retreated back into the Pontic Steppe in the 6th century BC, and were later conquered by the Sarmatians in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. By

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4420-482: The fading of her tattoos. A dispute developed between the Russian authorities and the local inhabitants regarding the Ice Maiden, as locals mythologized her as the nomadic progenitor of the Altaian people. Despite efforts by the Russian Federation government to undermine regional political agency and the cultural sovereignty of the Altai, the Ice Maiden became a symbol of Altaian identity. A local journalist described

4505-691: The importation of the Polynesian word, the practice of tattooing had been described in the West as painting, scarring, or staining. The etymology of the body modification term is not to be confused with the origins of the word for the military drumbeat or performance. In this case, the English word tattoo is derived from the Dutch word taptoe . Copyrighted tattoo designs that are mass-produced and sent to tattoo artists are known as " flash ". Flash sheets are prominently displayed in many tattoo parlors for

4590-528: The intention to make money, he continued to exploit his "friend" by exhibiting him in a human zoo, where Jeoly died three months later. Jeoly's dead body was afterwards skinned, and his skinless body was disposed, while the tattooed skin was sold and displayed at Oxford. It is commonly held that the modern popularity of tattooing stems from Captain James Cook 's three voyages to the South Pacific in

4675-401: The issue: Sometimes it is difficult to openly talk about politics, so we use her [the Ice Maiden] as a metaphor to discuss the difficult position of Altaians in Russia. Claiming her is claiming our land. For some 19 years following her discovery, she was preserved at a scientific institute in Novosibirsk. In September 2012, the mummy was returned to the Altai where she is kept in a mausoleum at

4760-406: The late 18th century. Certainly, Cook's voyages and the dissemination of the texts and images from them brought more awareness about tattooing (and, as noted above, imported the word "tattow" into Western languages). On Cook's first voyage in 1768, his science officer and expedition botanist, Sir Joseph Banks , as well as artist Sydney Parkinson and many others of the crew, returned to England with

4845-425: The later teen years to middle age. For many young Americans, the tattoo has taken on a decidedly different meaning than for previous generations. The tattoo has undergone "dramatic redefinition" and has shifted from a form of deviance to an acceptable form of expression. As of 1 November 2006, Oklahoma became the last state to legalize tattooing, having banned it since 1963. Scarring was practised widely amongst

4930-519: The limits of the Chinese Zhou Empire, and of which the Pontic Scythians proper were only one section. These various peoples shared the use of the "Scythian triad," that is of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses and the "Animal Style" art. The term "Scytho-Siberian" has itself in turn also been criticised since it is sometimes used broadly to include all Iron Age equestrian nomads, including those who were not part of any Scythian or Saka. The scholars Nicola Di Cosmo and Andrzej Rozwadowski instead prefer

5015-468: The location. An amalgam tattoo is when amalgam particles are implanted in to the soft tissues of the mouth, usually the gums, during dental filling placement or removal. Another example of such accidental tattoos is the result of a deliberate or accidental stabbing with a pencil or pen, leaving graphite or ink beneath the skin. A well-known example is the Nazi practice of forcibly tattooing concentration camp inmates with identification numbers during

5100-437: The logs of her chamber was analyzed by a dendrochronologist , and samples of organic matter from the horses’ stomachs were examined as well, indicating that the Ice Maiden was buried in the spring, at some point during the 5th century BC. Before Polosmak and her crew reached the Ice Maiden's chamber, they hit upon a second later burial in the same kurgan positioned on top of the Maiden's wooden tomb chamber. The contents included

5185-411: The mound covered a tomb chamber, which contained a burial inside a log coffin, with accompanying grave goods. Such burial chambers were built from notched wood logs to form a small cabin, which may have resembled the semi-nomads’ winter shelters. The Ice Maiden's tomb chamber was constructed in this way, and the wood and other organic materials present have allowed her burial to be dated. A core sample from

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5270-578: The perishable nature of the tools and their possibility for misidentification. However, tattoos during this period were created with metal needles or awls, tools typically associated with the work of domestic women. Cemeteries throughout the Tarim Basin ( Xinjiang of western China) including the sites of Qäwrighul , Yanghai , Shengjindian , Zaghunluq, and Qizilchoqa have revealed several tattooed mummies with Western Asian/Indo-European physical traits and cultural materials. These date from between 2100 and 550 BC. In ancient China, tattoos were considered

5355-410: The plateau during winter, as fierce wind blows snow off the grass providing grazing land for the animals even in freezing temperatures. Polosmak and her team were guided by a border guard, Lt. Mikhail Chepanov, to a group of kurgans located in a strip of territory disputed between Russia and China. A kurgan is a burial mound filled in with smaller sediment and covered with a pile of rocks; typically,

5440-401: The purpose of providing both inspiration and ready-made tattoo images to customers. The Japanese word irezumi means "insertion of ink" and can mean tattoos using tebori , the traditional Japanese hand method, a Western-style machine or any method of tattooing using insertion of ink. The most common word used for traditional Japanese tattoo designs is horimono . Japanese may use

5525-739: The skin as found in places including New Zealand. The third is scarification using a knife or chisel as found in places including West Africa. The fourth and the last is scarification by irritating and re-opening a preexisting wound, and re-scarification to form a raised scar as found in places including Tasmania, Australia, Melanesia and Central Africa. The American Academy of Dermatology distinguishes five types of tattoos: traumatic tattoos that result from injuries, such as asphalt from road injuries or pencil lead; amateur tattoos; professional tattoos, both via traditional methods and modern tattoo machines; cosmetic tattoos, also known as " permanent makeup "; and medical tattoos . A traumatic tattoo occurs when

5610-423: The skin, tattoos are not easily destroyed even when the skin is burned. Pets, show animals, thoroughbred horses, and livestock are sometimes tattooed with animal identification marks. Ear tattoos are a method of identification for beef cattle . Tattooing with a 'slap mark' on the shoulder or on the ear is the standard identification method in commercial pig farming. Branding is used for similar reasons and

5695-418: The tables. The residue of a dairy product, perhaps yogurt, was found in a wooden vessel with a carved handle and stirrer. An unknown beverage was served in a horn cup to sustain her on her journey. The Ice Maiden and her horses were oriented with their heads toward the east, as was the case in other Pazyryk burials. She was between 20 and 30 years old at the time of her death. The cause of the Ice Maiden's death

5780-541: The tattooing of nipples on reconstructed breasts remains in high demand. Medical tattoos are used to ensure instruments are properly located for repeated application of radiotherapy and for the areola in some forms of breast reconstruction. Tattooing has also been used to convey medical information about the wearer (e.g., blood group, medical condition, etc.). Alzheimer patients may be tattooed with their names, so they may be easily identified if they go missing. Additionally, tattoos are used in skin tones to cover vitiligo ,

5865-448: The tattooing procedure both much easier and cheaper, thus, eliminating the status symbol tattoos previously held, as they were now affordable for all socioeconomic classes. The status symbol of a tattoo shifted from a representation of wealth to a mark typically seen on rebels and criminals. Despite this change, tattoos remained popular among military servicemen, a tradition that continues today. In 1975, there were only 40 tattoo artists in

5950-426: The term "Scythian" has however been criticised for lumping together various heterogeneous populations belonging to different cultures, and therefore leading to several errors in the coverage of the various warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe. Therefore, the narrow use of the term "Scythian" as denoting specifically the people who dominated the Pontic Steppe between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC

6035-414: The time of the American Revolution , tattoos were already common among American sailors (see sailor tattoos ). Tattoos were listed in protection papers , an identity certificate issued to prevent impressment into the British Royal Navy . Because protection papers were proof of American citizenship, Black sailors used them to show that they were freemen. The first recorded professional tattoo shop in

6120-564: The upper classes, including royalty, and in its upmarket form it could be an expensive and sometimes painful process. A marked class division on the acceptability of the practice continued for some time in Britain. Many Indigenous peoples of North America practice tattooing. European explorers and traders who met Native Americans noticed these tattoos and wrote about them, and a few Europeans chose to be tattooed by Native Americans. See history of tattooing in North America . By

6205-557: The use of the term "Early Nomadic" for the broad designation of the Iron Age horse-riding nomads. While the ancient Persians used the name Saka to designate all the steppe nomads and specifically referred to the Pontic Scythians as Sakā tayaiy paradraya ( 𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹 ; lit.   ' the Saka who dwell beyond the (Black) Sea ' ), the name "Saka" is used in modern scholarship to designate

6290-491: The various equestrian warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe following the discovery in the 1930s in the eastern parts of the Eurasian steppe of items forming the "Scythian triad," consisting of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses, and objects decorated in the "Animal Style" art, which had until then been considered to be markers of the Scythians proper. This broad use of

6375-399: The woman was buried with cannabis on her person. However, she was buried with coriander seeds which were mistaken as cannabis. She may have had the elevated status of a priestess in her community based upon the items found in her chamber. The Ice Maiden's preserved skin has the mark of an animal-style deer tattoo on one of her shoulders, and another on her wrist and thumb. She was buried in

6460-509: The word Western tattoo as a loan word meaning any non-Japanese styles of tattooing. British anthropologist Ling Roth in 1900 described four methods of skin marking and suggested they be differentiated under the names "tatu", " moko ", " cicatrix " and " keloid ". The first is by pricking that leaves the skin smooth as found in places including the Pacific Islands. The second is a tattoo combined with chiseling to leave furrows in

6545-423: The work of performance artists such as tattooed ladies . Although tattoo art has existed at least since the first known tattooed person, Ötzi , lived around the year 3330 BCE, the way society perceives tattoos has varied immensely throughout history. In the 20th century, tattoo art throughout most of the world was associated with a limited selection of specific "rugged" lifestyles, notably sailors and prisoners. In

6630-488: The world for thousands of years. In 2015, scientific re-assessment of the age of the two oldest known tattooed mummies identified Ötzi as the oldest example then known. This body, with 61 tattoos, was found embedded in glacial ice in the Alps , and was dated to 3250 BCE. In 2018, the oldest figurative tattoos in the world were discovered on two mummies from Egypt which are dated between 3351 and 3017 BCE. Ancient tattooing

6715-829: Was a representative of the Pazyryk culture that thrived between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC in the Siberian steppe. The Ice Maiden's tomb was found on the Ukok Plateau near the border of Mongolia, in what is now the Autonomous Republic of Altai . The plateau, part of the Eurasian Steppes, is characterized by a harsh, arid climate. The area is known by the local people as the "second layer of heaven," one step above ordinary people and events. Present day Altai herdsmen still bring their sheep and horses to

6800-500: Was gendered at this time. Tattoos of this period usually consist of dotted patterns and lines, and typically were located on the abdomen, chest, arms, and/or legs. By 500 BCE, there is evidence of tattooing on men in Ancient Nubia, typically on the hands or arms, and rarely on the face. There is also more evidence of figural tattooing around this period, typically found on female human remains. These figural tattoos encompassed

6885-538: Was illustrated by the English cartographer John White . In 1691, William Dampier brought to London a Filipino man named Jeoly or Giolo from the island of Mindanao (Philippines) who had a tattooed body. Dampier exhibited Jeoly in a human zoo to make a fortune and falsely branded him as a "prince" to draw large crowds. At the time of exhibition, Jeoly was still grieving his mother, who Dampier also enslaved and had died at sea during their exploitation to Europe. Dampier claimed that he became friends with Jeoly, but with

6970-554: Was initially used by ancient authors to designate specifically the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic Steppe between the Danube and the Don rivers. In modern archaeology, the term "Scythians" is used in its original narrow sense as a name strictly for the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic and Crimean Steppes, between the Danube and Don rivers, from the 7th to 3rd centuries BC. By

7055-780: Was most widely practiced among the Austronesian people . It was one of the early technologies developed by the Proto-Austronesians in Taiwan and coastal South China prior to at least 1500 BCE, before the Austronesian expansion into the islands of the Indo-Pacific . It may have originally been associated with headhunting . Tattooing traditions, including facial tattooing, can be found among all Austronesian subgroups, including Taiwanese indigenous peoples , Islander Southeast Asians , Micronesians , Polynesians , and

7140-502: Was sentenced to a facial tattoo describing his crime after killing Xi Menqing (西門慶) to avenge his brother. In addition, Chinese legend claimed the mother of Yue Fei (a famous Song general) tattooed the words "Repay the Country with Pure Loyalty" ( 精忠報國 , jing zhong bao guo ) down her son's back before he left to join the army. In 1566, French sailors abducted an Inuit woman and her child in modern-day Labrador and brought her to

7225-470: Was the prisoner's camp number, sometimes with a special symbol added: some Jews had a triangle, and Romani had the letter "Z" (from German Zigeuner for 'Gypsy'). In May 1944, Jewish men received the letters "A" or "B" to indicate a particular series of numbers. As early as the Zhou , Chinese authorities would employ facial tattoos as a punishment for certain crimes or to mark prisoners or slaves. During

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