›› Tattoos
Most of know that
before tattoos became a 21st-century trend, a medium of artistic and
personal expression, and emblematic of cultural individualism that they
were used in tribal ceremony and ritual, symbolizing rites of passage,
identifying heritage/clanship, and even denoting secular skills of the
individual bearing the mark.
Tattoos were also relegated to specific cross-sections of
humanity—those which oddly differed: bikers, gangs,
prisoners, and military men bore the insignias of pride and
penchants...for Betty Paige, booze, broads….
Now, and along the way in the history of the evolution of humans
permanently marking themselves or others, tattoos have made an
indelible mark on even more disparate groups and individuals.
The Nazis made efficient use of the tattoo, branding (figuratively, for
actual branding is another technique altogether) their six million-plus
captives with a number that coincided with the meticulous
cross-referenced accounting ledgers. The Greeks used tats for
underground communication—for spying and for spies to show
rank. And the Egyptians used tattoos for indicating nobility
and for identification of fertility.
Tattoos feature in literary and filmic media, as well. In Ray
Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man, for example, a central
character is shirted (and pantsed, actually) in tattoos that animate,
tattoos that are living and part of the experience that is the science
fiction story. Maybe influenced by Bradbury’s work,
Christopher Nolan made the movie Memento (2002), wherein the
protagonist, Leonard Shelby, searches for his wife’s
murderer; but since Shelby has anteriograde amnesia (cannot learn new
material) or a combination of this and retrograde amnesia (cannot
remember anything pre-incident), he must follow the only clues he has:
tattoos he makes on himself as reminders and leads. And more
recently, the popular TV series “Prison Break” has
also made tattoos a central element—with inmate Michael
Scofield (played by Wentworth Miller) decoding the tats on his body as
hints for escapes strategies.
While tattooing and its many implications have existed, then, since
around 12,000 BC, cultures today are finding new and different ways to
display and make use of them, whether for identification of artistic
purposes. And since trends have downward turns, included in
the process is regret and removal…in which numerous rueful
tat bearers are now engaging.
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A Healthy Dose of Good Advice
