Tribal Tattooing

I'm going to start off by looking at different types of tribal tattooing. People had tattoos in different tribes for many different reasons. Some tattoos were to denote the rank of the individual within the tribe, men were often tattooed with weapons and women with tools of their trade. There were also some tribes who had specific tattoos which signified the family an individual belonged to and also there were tattoos that signified a certain tribe.  As well as this, there were tattoos to show someones wealth, bravery and strength.

Some think that tattoos used to be used as a medical treatment to cure disease or promote well being. This is because one of the most ancient mummies found frozen in the Italian-Austrian alps was found with 57 tattoos, the majority of them corresponding to acupressure points.

 

Here are a few images of tribal tattooing I have found-

 

Mentawei Tribe
 Taken from http://warisanindonesia.com/en/2011/06/titi-mentawai-peoples-eternal-attire/

 

The Mentawei tribe believe that without this tattooing they will never reach perfection; in the earthly world or in the spirit world. Different parts of the tattoo are added at different times in the Mentawei's life. I don't really like the tattoos as visual art but I do like the meaning behind them; they signify maturity, masculinity for men and femininity for women and also certain skills that the individual might have. I like how this man stands proud as if he is wearing his best clothes, he is showing off who he is and what he has achieved through his tattoos.

 



Tribal face tattoos
Taken from http://www.tattoo22.com/facetattoos8.html



I like this tattoo design as it is more subtle, even though it covers his entire face I think it doesn't take away from the person beneath the tattoos.

 

Apatani Tribe
Taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/61574632@N07/7063758381/

The women of the Apatani Tribe were known for being very beautiful and so they would often get kidnapped by neighbouring tribes. The Apatani women tattooed these markings onto their face to deter the neighbouring tribes from kidnapping them as they would no longer find them beautiful.

 

 

Trials

Here are some examples of some free-hand tattoos that I have tried-

 

 

 

I sketched out my design with an eyeliner pencil and then went over my design in colour, if I were to try and improve on this then next time I would use a lighter pencil so that it doesn't mix in with the colours that I paint over the top of my design.

 

more to come...