Tattoos are an art form that dates back to the origins of man, and although it is not known exactly when this custom originated, it is known for certain that it has had different purposes throughout its history and development, allowing from identifying belonging to a group to even as a resource to improve the technique during hunting, so we are going to study its origin and current use in order to understand to what degree it is a combination between art, fashion and body expression.
The origin of the tattoo
It is very difficult to pinpoint the true origin of tattoos , since, as the years go by, new remnants are discovered that gradually help to better understand their evolution.
The last remains found date back approximately 5300 years, and are a man who was found in 1991 in a glacier in the area between Austria and Italy.
According to research, he was a hunter who belonged to the last phase of the Stone Age, that is, the Neolithic.
This man had tattoos on both his back and knees, becoming to this day the greatest expression of the origin and history of tattoos.
We can also find multiple vestiges from different eras that subsequently developed tattoos in different directions.
In this way, it is clear that historically tattoos were not simply fashion, although they have evidently also been part of it, but rather they were a way through which people and groups defined themselves through images that they captured on their own skin. .
Little by little, it has been observed that these tattoos were acquiring a more artistic representation, expanding the catalog and creating great differences and different periods with particular characteristics that have been supporting the new creations.
In fact, there are many techniques used historically when making tattoos, ranging from the needles used today to sewn tattoos, markings through burns, tattoos making cuts and even the use of the scars themselves by people of different ages. darker skin to create light-colored tattoos without using inks.
Tattoos; fashion, art and body expression
This evolution has been reflected today thanks to the historical monitoring of all the changes that have been known to date, so that today we conceive tattoos as a combination of fashion, art and body expression.
Fashion is inherent in this type of custom, since it is what drives a greater or lesser tendency to get tattoos within a group, civilization, society , etc.
As for art, we must understand that the tattoo has transcended being a mere indication of something, that is, a drawing on the body that indicated your position in society, profession or activities that you carried out, membership in a certain group or scale, belonging to a family, etc., to become a truly artistic element.
Even in past eras such as the Egyptian civilization, we have clear evidence that tattooing was also acquiring an important and outstanding artistic value, and in fact, today it is very relevant worldwide and new ways of creating authentic works are even being studied that we could never have imagined giving birth to on a canvas as personal as the skin itself.
Similarly, it also has a strong component in terms of body expression, since although the artistic element has transcended and encompassed a high percentage of the reasons for getting a tattoo , the truth is that we continue trying to convey something through them, perhaps not so much belonging to a social group, but something more direct and particular such as that which is related to our personality.
As we can see, the concept of tattooing has changed throughout history, and even today we can find a wide variety of reasons why people decide to tattoo parts of their body , ranging from the usual fashion trends to the search for art as well as a prominent, personal and lasting element of body expression.