Body Art

Tattoos, body piercing, branding, scarification, dermal anchors and three-dimensional art or body modifications such as beading, are all body art. I know – they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but popular for some. I didn’t even know what scarification was – but the hint is in the first part of the word, it’s to do with symbolic scarring – it can be seen as a ritualistic or tribal thing - or a rite of passage - in some cultures.

I don’t have room here to explore them all, so will concentrate on the most common.

What is the most common body art?

Tattoos are most common, closely followed by piercings, the latter being more popular with women than men. People about to get tattoos are recommended to ‘think before you ink’, and even discounting the infections that can be caused by unhygienic practices, mistakes can be made by not-so-clever artists, so it would be wise to take a look at some of their previous works before committing yourself. I would imagine all forms of body art involve some low-grade pain - at the very least a stinging sensation - and across time and cultures, tattoos have many different forms and meanings.

The Iceman cometh

In October 1991, the 5,000-year-old frozen body of a Bronze Age hunter was found between Austria and Italy and was named Ötzi the Iceman. He was so well preserved that scientists could make out a number of tattoos, including a cross on the inside of his left knee, six straight lines above his kidneys and a series of parallel lines on his ankles. It is thought he was a wounded and possibly a wanted man, who perhaps spent his final days on the move high up in the Alps until he was felled with an arrow to the back. Around 5,300 years later, archaeologists are still trying to unravel the mystery of his death. He was a medical mess - his teeth were rotting, he had a bad stomach bug, and his knees were beginning to degenerate, and it is thought the ‘tats’ served a therapeutic or diagnostic purpose because the tattoo groupings tended to cluster around his lower back and joints.

Anyone can be inked

Early Christians sometimes had the sign of the cross tattooed on their faces or arms, and tattoos have adorned the highest-born royals and the lowliest sailor in Europe for at least 5,000 years. Kings had them - Harold II of England had a number of them, and after his death at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, they were used to identify his body. Many other royals throughout history have been tattooed, including in 1862, Albert, Prince of Wales at the time, had a Jerusalem Cross tattooed on his arm on a visit to the Holy Land, and when his sons, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of York visited Japan in 1882, they both had dragons tattooed on their arms. Among the Russian royal family, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Nicholas II all bore tattoos.

Sailors' tattoos

Sailors were renown for getting tattoos, and a pig tattooed on one foot and a rooster on the other were said to protect a seaman from drowning! Other popular tattoos amongst sailors are also attributed with particular meanings - a full-rigged ship showed the seaman has sailed around Cape Horn, an anchor indicated he has sailed the Atlantic Ocean, a dragon meant he had served on a China station, a shellback turtle shows the sailor has crossed the Equator, and 'hold' tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and 'fast' on the other were said to help increase his grip on the rigging.

Society tats

Winston Churchill's mother had a snake tattooed on her wrist, and it became fashionable in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for aristocrats, including women, to be tattooed. At the time, tattooing was expensive but later, as the costs were reduced, the practice fell out of favour with the social elite.

Body art isn’t a contest, and as long as you love yours, that’s all that matters. If you don’t, removal is usually costlier than the original!

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan