Tattoos (Part I: History)

Many times we are fascinated of this type of art when we turn our head around and see something unusual on someone's skin. Still, there are a lot of things we don't know about this art: tattooing. There are people who live from this kind of art, unknowing its history or its significances, so I’ve decided to write a couple of rows about these things. Let's begin with a brief history of tattoos. For many years, the scientists thought the Egyptians and the Nubians were the first who used the tattoo art. But in 1991, it was discovered a mummy whose name was "Otzi: the Ice man" and whose day of birth was somewhere around 3300 b.C. This mummy had more sets of tattoos, including a line from the knee till the ankle and back. It was believed that the purpose of those tattoos was bound to the human body healing. During the Egyptian civilization, the most advanced in that Era, the tattoos were spread worldwide.
   The dynasties of those who built the pyramids had connections with other important cultures: Greeks, Persians, Arabs etc. The art of tattooing spread feather South-East Asia through 2200 b.C. Afterwards, this art reached the entire population. Thumb the same period the Japanese became interested in tattooing art, but just for its decorative aspects. The Japanese became some of the greatest artists in this domain. The way they used the colors, the perspective and the imagination they had, gave this practice a new meaning. In the first millennium of our Era, the Japanese adopted the tattoo practices and forms used by the Chinese. In the Balkan Peninsula, Thracians had another use for tattoos. According to Herodotus, they used this art to prove their statute in society. Though the Europeans knew about tattoos, they discovered this art after the Renaissance period. It was the meeting with the Native Americans from North America that brought this fashion in Europe. The English explorer James Cook brought the tattoos fashion from Polynesia in Europe from his explores in Pacific. In that period the bodies marked with signs had the significance that the respective person represented belongings which could be used and sold as any other product.