just some thoughts

some thoughts about tribal tattoos that i posted on some forum site that i was on.

that there were not any posts in here. oddly enough i was thinking about tattoos and meandered into here. so here i am and here are my thoughts.

tribal tattoos... a lot of people have them. please keep in mind that i am not trying to devalue your tattoo if you have a tribal one. i am just expressing an opinion. i am not intentionally trying to make anyone feel bad.

back to tribal tattoos. last semester i wrote my english final on tattoos and i learned a lot about the history of tattooing. BME states that a tribal tattoo is "a style of tattoo work that exploded in popularity in the United States and Europe in the early 1990's and which is largely inspired by the traditional tattoo art of indigenous Pacific Islander cultures such as the Dyak of Borneo, and native Hawaiian, Samoan and Polynesian tattooing." (p.s. visit the site if you never have. it's very informative. http://www.bmezine.com/ )

tribal tattoos started as as something with so much meaning. the tattoos went beyond body decoration and were a part of the culture of those people. the areas that modern day tattooing came are Tahiti, Borneo, South America, Hawaii and many of the Pacific Islands, Africa, and Australia. one was tattoo/modified for many different reasons. in some African tribes boys were branded up their backs and on their faces as a rite of passage into manhood. women were branded on their stomachs once they reached their second trimester while pregnant. this was thought to being good health to the baby and the mother. Polynesian tattoos were used to show status in hierarchy society. no man that was inkless in a Samoan tribe could ever marry.

even the process of getting these modifications was more involved. it was seen as a big part of life, like marriage or childbirth or even death. some cultures would have the participant fast for days before the endeavor. in some areas the entire tribe would celebrate for days. there was so much depth and meaning behind them.

finally i get to my point: do you think that we, as a society, have taken away some of the meaning from tribal tattoos by "modernizing" them? post a response

tina

p.s.- yet again i am not trying to piss off anyone. infact if you have tribal tattoos, i want to hear your opinion even more.

p.s.s- sorry about how unorganized this is. i am not the best person at organizing my thoughts, which is probably why i got a B- on that term paper.