Because
historical and archaeological records of most forms of body art are incomplete, we still don't know where and where tattooing originated.Tattooed mummies provide
earliest concrete evidence of tattoo, and these have been found in various parts of
world, from Nubia to Peru. Probably t he most ancient tattooed man is
"Iceman", a Bronze Age man uncovered after being frozen in a glacier on
Tyrolean Alps since 3000 B.C. A tattooed band of stripes was found on his lower back, a simple cross on
inside of his left knee and more stripes on his right ankle.
There are many examples of tattooing in ancient Egypt,
oldest found on
mummy of Egyptian priestess of
goddess Hathor at Thebes, Amunet, who lived approximately 4000 years ago, she was tattooed with parallel lines of dots. Because of her religious status, some archaeologists have speculated that her body art had spiritual or magical connotations. Others feel
designs were of sexual nature.
Some of
most diverse, ornate, and bizarre body art was found in
mysterious and complex world of Maya between 300 and 900 A.D. For Maya, body modification, whether temporary or permanent, were done for spiritual reasons as well as beautification. Full body tattoos or facial tattoos, were acquired by men and women.
When Captain James Cook set sail in his Endeavor in 1769, he visited many islands of Pacific Ocean, most of which included tattooing as part of their culture. It's Cook who gave us
"tattoo" word based on similar words in Polynesian cultures that were used to describe
practice.
On board
Endeavor was Sir Joseph Banks. Along with cataloging many types of animal and plant life, Banks documented
indigenous cultures at every stop along
way. Included in these notes are many references to tattooing. When Banks returned to England in 1771, he disembarked with a permanent memento of his voyage:
very fist tattoo on a modern Western man!