Graffiti or art

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ody graffiti or just pure art?, sexy or darn right ugly? , Like them or loathe them? These are the different views of many people of all ages, and cultures throughout the world. So I ask, “ What are tattoos??” and why in the 21st century has tattooing (or inking as its known to many) become big business? I hope to delve into these questions and more to find out, also I will take a wee look back in time to the history of tattoos and the many cultures that use tattooing, and if that’s not enough I will put to rest the myths of tattooing and give you the hard facts.

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opular to self belief many think that sailors where the first to have and invent tattooing, to a certain point they did bring tattooing to the eyes of many, but in fact tattooing stretches back thousands of years.

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he word ‘TATTOO’ is believed to come from the TAHITIAN word ‘tatau’ which means to mark something. Legend has it that tattooing was discovered by accident, by our fore fathers in the Neolithic times 4th to 5th millennium B.C, and is diverse as the folk that wear them within the many cultures through the world.

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any cultures through out the centuries from the Bronze Age to modern day have embraced themselves with the embellishment of tattooing their bodies, either for status or to ward off evil. In 1991 a frozen body was discovered on a mountain between Austria and Italy. Through carbon dating scientists have put the body to be around 5,000 years old and have named him ‘OTZI’ the iceman. I hear you all ask what has a frozen iceman got to do with tattoos, well my ink fanatics I shall enlighten you, OTZI was well preserved, in fact that well that they found 57 ‘YES’ 57 tattoos all over

his body, some of these marks where found on the left knee, kidney area and the ankles, and simple dots and lines on his lower spine. Scientists believe that these marks where applied for therapeutic reasons, I suppose we will never know, but it does go to prove that tattoos have and will always have a place on the time line of life.

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he first tattoo was probably created by accident, when someone had a small wound and rubbed it with a dirty hand or got ash or soot from the fire on it. Only when the wound healed they saw that the mark stayed permanently.

Procedure of tattooing

This involves the placement of a pigment into the skin of the dermis, (the layer of dermal tissue underlying the epidermis). After injection the pigment is dispersed through out the homogenized damaged layer, down through the epidermis and dermis, in both which presence of a foreign material activates the immune systems phagocytes to engulf the pigment particle. As healing proceeds the damaged epidermis flakes away while deeper in the skin granulation tissue forms, which is later converted to connective tissue by collagen growth. This mends the upper dermis where the pigment remains trapped with fibroblasts, ultimately concentrating in a layer just below the dermis/epidermis boundary making its presence there stable.

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Attoos on mankind is classed as body modification, but on animals it is commonly used for identification purposes. In saying that during the 2nd world war tattoos where forcibly tattooed on prisoners as a mean of identification in the Nazi concentration camps, but believe it or not the Romans used tattooing on their own soldiers and this was at the time required by law in order to make it difficult for them to hide if they deserted.

Since the 90s tattoos have become mainstream in western fashion for both sexes and for all ages between late teens and middle aged, right across the spectrum, the not so well off the high class folk are getting inked. Even toys have jumped onto the tattoo bandwagon. In2010 the makers of BARBIE thought it would be a great idea to release a Barbie doll, which was tattooed, and in 2011 the doll was put on sale and believe it or not was widely accepted. In general the latest research shows that 68% of the human population has at least 1 tattoo. I spoke to several students on the campus that had tattoos and most of them don’t regret getting them. One student Bryan Davidson had said, “ that he got his first tattoo that of a ST. Andrews cross when he was only 15 years old, and was not asked for I.D.” He also said “ I don’t regret getting inked, except for one which I have on my fore arm that for a puma. I have started to wear long sleeves quite often now to hide it, once I have enough cash I will get a cover up done on it”. My own personnal view is that tattoos are great and in a strange way helped me to build confidence within myself. At this present moment in time I have ten and would like more, I don’t regret getting my tats done but I would advise folk to think long and hard about getting one, AS THIS IS A LIFE LONG COMITMENT.

Report complied by Simon Bagley.