Jerusalem under the skin pilgrim tattoos (original) (raw)

Tattoos in Prehistory Ritual and Religion with a wide Dispersal of Cultures and Places

Face tattoos, especially, lines on the chin, of generally women, are similarly seen on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, showing the loosely related culture ideas they share. Ancient Tattoos Ancient Siberians (Time???) 2,500 years old Ice Maiden, a Scytho-Siberian woman “In Siberian nomadic society, such as the Scythians and Pazyryks, both likely used tattoos. In such cultures of Siberia tattoos were the ultimate status symbol. For these culturs had tattoos that let everyone know just how tough and important they were. Warriors would get inked to show off their battle victories or their loyalty to a particular tribe/clan. It was like wearing your resume on your skin, but with way more flair. These tattoos weren’t just for art. They were like walking talismans—meant to guide and protect the nomads through both life and the afterlife. Some might even say these tattoos were the original multi-purpose accessory: part fashion statement, part spiritual armor.” Ancient Egypt Patterns of lines and dots on female Egyptian Predynastic figurines dating to around 6022 years ago are reminiscent of tattoo patterns found on preserved mummies from slightly later periods. Mesopotamia 5522-4362 years ago Cuneiform list tattooed slaves Ancient Italy Ötzi Ice-Man 5,250 years ago Nubians North Africa West Africa Nigeria Central Africa Ancient Inuit Arctic and subarctic regions of North America, USA and Canada, including Greenland North Americas Alaska Arctic Alaskan Yupiit (“real people”) and Inupiat (“real people”) replace an old term “Eskimo” peoples. 3,500-year-old ivory marketed art from the Dorset culture representing the oldest known human portrait from the Arctic of tattooed linres that cover the face of the woman. Utah 2000-year-old artifact at Turkey Pen site a well-known Anasazi ruin in Grand Gulch Washington Oregon California South Americans Peru and northern Chile at least 4,000 years and among cultures including the Chinchorro, Moche, Chimú, and Chancay Peru not used by Incas but the Chimu people who preceded them did. Chimú culture succeeding the Moche culture, and later conquered by the Inca Brazil Ancient Greeks Picts of Iron Age Britain Ancient-Balkan peoples and later limited to the western Balkans Ancient India China Tarim mummies 4,100 – 3,700 years ago Proto-Austronesians in Taiwan and coastal South China before/at least 3,500 years ago Japan Philippines Borneo Polynesians Rapa Nui/Easter Island Papua New Guinea Australia Tasmania Melanesia Micronesians New Zealand Face tattoos, especially, lines on the chin, of generally women, are similarly seen on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, showing the loosely related culture ideas they share. Tattoos in Prehistory Ritual and Religion with a wide Dispersal of Cultures and Places “The Worldwide History of Tattoos: Ancient ink exhibited religious faith, relieved pain, protected wearers and indicated class. Humans have been marking their skin for thousands of years. Around the world, across cultures, tattoos have held countless different significances. Ancient Siberian nomads, Indigenous Polynesians, Nubians, Native South Americans and Greeks all used tattoos—and for a variety of reasons: such as to protect from evil; signify status or religious beliefs.” “A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. The history of tattooing goes back to at least Neolithic times, practiced across the globe by many cultures, and the symbolism and impact of tattoos varies in different places and cultures. 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.” “Modifying the natural body, whether temporarily or permanently, is a universal behavior among human societies of the past and present, and archaeological evidence shows that tattooing has existed in societies all across the globe for at least the past 5,000 years. the greatest concentration of preserved ancient tattoos identified to date is found in the Pacific coastal deserts of Peru and northern Chile. In that region, tattooing took place over at least 4,000 years among cultures including the Chinchorro, Moche, Chimú, and Chancay.”

What about Decorative Tattoos?: The Human Body in Heaven

Irish Theological Quarterly, 2023

The issue of the exact shape and form of the resurrected human body has been highly controversial and has concerned Christian theology throughout the ages. However, although deliberate body modification practices, such as tattooing, have been playing an important role for civilizations since ancient years, their place in heavenly life has hardly been discussed. In addition, decorative tattooing has a very interesting and also ethically controversial background through time, as one could say that it is both an act of embellishment and an act of mutilation, moving between two contrasted parallels, beauty and deformity. Examining, therefore, the specific questions of whether the risen flesh of the blessed will be perfectly beautiful and freed of any earthly deformities as well as whether it will resemble the resurrected 'wounded' body of Christ or not, this paper deals with the issue of the preservation of decorative tattoos in the Kingdom of Heaven.

One Mark at a Time: Ethnographic Notes on Tattooing

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Body Modification, 2024

For millennia tattooing practices, the embodied process of inserting indelible pigments beneath the skin, have been commonplace among many Indigenous peoples. As a visual system of knowledge transmission, these enduring cultural expressions were invented to communicate where human groups came from, what territory they belonged to, and who their ancestors were. Tattooing also conveyed personal and ontological information regarding social status, achievement, medicine, and relationships with nonhuman beings. Based on ethnographic records spanning the mid-nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries and fieldwork conducted over the past two decades, this chapter offers a primer on Indigenous tattooing practices, reviewing their significance and meanings. Methods, tools, tattoo products, practitioners, and the religious implications of Indigenous skin marking are addressed to elucidate the meaning behind tattoos, the status of Indigenous tattooists in their respective communities, and the role that nonhuman entities (i.e. spirits, ancestors) played in shaping a tattooed person’s sense of self.

Tattoo Artists as Religious Figures

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2024

If tattoos have a religious function, tattooists play a role in crafting a spiritual object. Hence, we explore the religious function of the tattooist and how tattooists deal with religion in their work. We used a "Lived Religion" approach that focuses on religious practices instead of religious organizations, because neither tattooists nor tattoo parlors are religiously legitimized figures or institutions. We collected data from tattooists from five different countries, with 23 semistructured interviews, 110 photos, and 4 video clips. After doing a content analysis of the interviews, and a denotative analysis of the photos and videos, we found that tattooists are aware of the religious overtones of their work. They understand themselves as figures that perform spiritual tasks. We also verified that tattoo parlors are spaces of religious negotiation, where tattooists, tattooed, and other actors exercise power. Finally, we established that a religious tattoo is the result of the negotiation among the actors involved, and that tattooists play a role as religious authorities.