Photo Essay

Photo Essay

Reading Visual Body Art

Historically how we have read visual body art on individuals and cultures.  I thought of this idea as one of our discussion brought up the topic of: are tattoos artist really artist?  When the question was first ask I thought there is no way, as you look around today and see the same butterfly or snowflake tattoos.  Then the comment was made that every stroke the artist shows individuality on that specific piece.    This brought up the question who and why body art began and how we have interpreted the text through history?   

Archaeological evidence from around the globe has confirmed tattooing to be one of the oldest forms of art and self-expression (Chris).  The word “tattoo” originates from the Maori word “tatau,” meaning to mark (Chris).  History has found that the earliest body art tool, a fish-shaped makeup palette dates from Egypt around 3500 B.C (Menkes).  As this was used as a marking tool for many different designs, the way the images came out are the way individuals where being identified. 

 The earliest tattoos can be found in Egypt during the construction of the great pyramids, as their empires grew larger the art of tattooing spread to cultures in Greece, Persia, Arabia (A Brief History of Tattoos).  As the art form changed within every culture, it made its way to China around 2000 BC (A Brief History of Tattoos).

Archaeologists discovered the mummified remains of amunet, a priestess of the goddess Hathor, at thebes who lived sometime between 2160 BC and 1994 BC.   The female mummy displayed several lines and dots tattooed about her body - grouping dots and/or dashes were aligned into abstract geometric patterns. This art form was restricted to women only, and usually these women were associated with ritualistic practice (A Brief History of Tattoos).

Each culture and society used tattooing in different way, but they all used it as some form of identification.  As the Greeks used tattooing in of the neatest ways I think, Greeks would communicate between spies, the markings also helped them identify the spies and show their rank (A Brief History of Tattoos).   In 474 B.C. Greek historian Herodotus, described how Histiaeus of Miletus shaved the head of a slave and tattooed a secret message on his scalp. When the slave's hair grew back, Histiaeus dispatched him to the Greeks, who shaved the slave's head and read the message (Agrawal).

In Borneo, the cultural tradition was to have the women be the tattooists. Borneo women had an important tradition wearing symbols to indicate their particular skill, many symbols indicating a weaver’s skill.  These marking would indicate to the men what they did and was prime marriageable symbol (A Brief History of Tattoos).  Many women tattooed around ones wrist and fingers believing it would ward away illness; they also indicated who she belonged to and what tribe her husband was from (A Brief History of Tattoos).   

As the Ainu people of western Asia used tattooing to show social status.  The women would receive different markings to identify their coming of age to marital status. 

The Ainu later showed the art form of tattooing to Japan where it was first used to mark criminals.  This is where the “Three strikes your out” originated, the first offenses were marked with a line across the forehead, the second one was made by making an arch.  Finally the third line was added making the Japanese character for “dog” (A brief History of Tattoos).     

Around the 1700 tattooing started to become more of an art form in Japan since there existed in Japan strict class codes that dictated dress and ornamentation, many members of the middle class chose to decorate the body with tattoos, so that they too could be elaborately "dressed" (Osborn).  As a result of this, the middle class adorned themselves with elaborate full body tattoos. A highly tattooed person wearing only a loin cloth was considered well dressed, but only in the privacy of their own home (A Brief History of Tattoos). However, according to the social laws of the time, these tattooed individuals had to cover their tattoos with clothing (Osborn).  Developing into a religious and ceremonial expression within the Japanese culture in later years (A Brief History of Tattoos).  

Skin decoration can link people to their ancestors, mark rites of passage and even create a bridge to the supernatural world (Menkes).  In the Polynesian culture tattooing was considered the most intricate and skillful of the ancient world.  The belief that the Polynesian spiritual power or life force, is displayed through their tattoos. The vast majority of what we know today about these ancient arts has been passed down through legends, songs, and ritual ceremonies. Elaborate geometrical designs which were often added to, renewed, and embellished throughout the life of the individual until they covered the entire body (designboom).

    Of all the Polynesian cultures the Maori of New Zealand exhibited one of the most impressive cultures of tattooing; it was referred to as “moko” and showed off their unique artistry. The Maori used their woodcarving skills to carve skin; the full-face moko was a mark of distinction, which communicated their status, lines of descent and tribal affiliations (designboom).   These markings told and reflected war and other great events in the Maori lives.    

                 As many African Americans wanted to show off body art in the same ways it was being performed, it became very difficult to see on dark skin so they developed a new technique.  They would do this by lifting the skin a little, and making a cut with a knife or some other sharp object special sands or ashes were rubbed into make raised scars in patterns on the body, each one is made by local tradition (deignboom).  Many men and women suffer excruciating pain to raise their skin in the effort to express oneself.  

                           

                                             

               Each culture shows its own unique way of expressing and visually reading one’s life through tattoos.  These are the first innovators in society to show what each culture had been through or depicted their lives through body art.   Being able to visually read a person’s life and history on ones flesh with symbols has changed history and tattoos forever.  

    

Work Cited

Chris, Think Before You Ink:  A Man’s Guide to Getting a Tattoo. June 13, 2011, http://artofmanliness.com/2011/06/13/think-before-you-ink-a-mans-guide-to-getting-a-tattoo/

A Brief History of Tattoos,  http://www.powerverbs.com/tattooyou/history.htm

Menkes, Suzy, Body Art: Back to the Beginning, January 4,200

Osborn, Alice, The history of tattoos—a centuries-old fine art tradition, February 2, 2006.  http://www.body-jewelry-useek.com/history-of-tattoos.htm 

Designboom. A Brief History of tattoos. http://www.designboom.com/history/tattoo_history.html

Shapeshiftnation, Body Art 2/7http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LitLDucIABM Accessed 28 June 2012

 Agrawal, Premendra, Terror: Hided messages in Tattoo Scalp to Images of Internet.  http://www.newsanalysisindia.com/230112007.htm

Jerome, Louie, Bukisa, May 15, 2009, http://www.bukisa.com/articles/44901_show-us-your-tattoo-or-is-it-private

Greece & Rome, http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoo_museum/greek_roman_tattoos.html

Historical Thursday: Tattooing Through The Ages http://thereifixedit.failblog.org/2011/05/12/historical-thursday-tattooing-through-the-ages/

  

Anderson video

While reading Gross discussion I was intrigued by the comment "But it's not as if it's entirely the writer setting the tone for the comments. Sometimes, it's the comments setting the tone for the writer."  As we have discussed in early class discussion the tone of one’s text may be easily misinterpreted by others.   This is seen all the time in twitter or facebook as bloggers try to express their feelings or emotion through text but sometimes are misread or misinterpreted.  Leading the discussion to a different perspective, then initially intended for.   The writer makes a comment to express themselves and are setting the tone for the piece.   They wouldn’t be writing something if it didn’t affect them in some way.   

  "I honestly believe that if Redfin were stripped absolutely bare for all the world to see, naked and humiliated in the sunlight, more people would do business with us." Follow me, he urged.   As I read that comment from the Thompson article I felt that the truth can set you free in many corporations.  As consumers just want to hear that they were mistreated or lied to from the corporation itself.  Owning up to wrong doing and being honest is the best way to win your consumers trust and business back.

The YouTube video of Asians and the rebuttal in the library is so disturbing to me.  This just shows how sad our culture has become. 

On the Anderson video I love the idea of every individual has the ability to show their talents and what is desirable to them, being able to share to the world with other enthusiast.   I like how he speaks of one of the many things that needs to happen is not being scared to put your ideas out to the world and share it.  While it might not have the biggest impacts but your sharing with others and showing them that they can do it to. 

Pariser article.  I love that technology is so advanced and right at our finger tips but at the same time it makes us lazy.  When I turn on the news at night, I just listen to what they have to say and never look deeper into story’s to find out more information.  As now we can just Google something to find out the information we need to know for a split second and then forget about it after we use it.  We are not learning anything by doing this and in the long run I feel as if we really aren’t going to be able to protein information as individuals have in the past.  

Slavin, as what I just said from the previous article that we are dependent on technology to get through our daily lives.  We believe everything we look up and what is presented to us that it might come to harm us in the future.   

In McCandless video of data and visualization I was amazed at the difference in the numbers as they are shown visually compared to just hearing them.  It makes such a stronger statement to be able to witness something with your eyes and not just hear it. 

In Eric Berlow video I found it really neat at how he was saying stepping back and looking at all the influences helps solve the problem better than just looking at the same question by itself.  It does help when you step back and look at all the fragments that make up one problem because sometimes we just look at things with one point of view and never come up with a sound solution.