On the trail of tattoos

Why do people get tattoos? To mark one’s body with fairly permanent symbols has to be considered odd behaviour.

Tattooing goes back to before recorded history. Often it was associated with religion or spiritual beliefs, or to publicly express that the individual had progressed to a specific age or attainment.

The Romans required all their solders to have a tattoo on their hand so deserters could be easily identified. They also tattooed their slaves on the forehead to make escape more difficult. The Latin for tattoos is stigma, giving rise to the modern word stigmatize.

In more recent times, the Nazi regime tattooed a number on the arm of those they sent off to concentration camps. Ruthless efficiency to identify the many millions they imprisoned and murdered.

The one practical use was the tattoos the sailors had. It gave a method of identification for those poor souls who drowned in shipwrecks. Often, that was the only way their families knew what had happened to them.

In the present, criminals get tattooed. It communicates their gang affiliations. Have you ever seen a hardcore biker without several tattoos? It symbolizes how tough and manly they think they are.

With that perverse and generally negative history, it is surprising it has become fashionable to have one or more tattoos.

It started with the more youthful members of society, but many of those in their mid-life or older have been conned into getting a tattoo.

Along with the tattoo fad came piercing. Women have had their earlobes pierced for decades so they can wear little baubles to enhance their beauty. Over the last decade men have also gone for the pierced earlobe which usually has a small ring or symbol.

Myth has it that sailors often had one or two heavy gold earrings in their earlobes. This was to give them something to bargain with if they were shipwrecked on some foreign shore. One would have to be cautious how much one imbibed at the tavern.

Otherwise they might wake up to find their ears significantly shorter.

Pierced eyebrows with rings stuck in them do nothing to enhance beauty, in fact it does just the opposite. A ring pierced through the lips only completes the transition to ugly.

Then there are those who have pierced their tongues.  There was one young man in a coffee shop in 100 Mile House who clattered loudly as his tongue jewellery rattled off his teeth.  His speech was unintelligible.

The poor waitress could not understand him. Finally he stuck out his tongue and removed the pound or so of metal from the tongue piercing. Not a particularly nice sight while one is having lunch.

There are many reasons we do these sorts of things to ourselves. Most are trying to conform while still trying to be individuals.  A strong motivator is the wish to be part of, and identified with, a group.

Criminal gangs and bikers are the perfect example. There are always ever=changing fashions that are picked up to endeavour to be a part of your group.

The human body is just fine all by itself. If the body is the temple of the soul, then abusing it with tattoos and piercing it is akin to replacing the altar in the temple with a hot tub.