Tattoo is.........................

A tattoo is a form of body modification, made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of theskin to change the pigment. The first written reference to the word, "tattoo" (or Samoan "Tatau") appears in the journal of Joseph Banks, the naturalist aboard Captain Cook's ship the HMS Endeavour in 1769: "I shall now mention the way they mark themselves indelibly, each of them is so marked by their humor or disposition".

Tattooing has been practiced for centuries in many cultures spread throughout the world. TheAinu, an indigenous people of Japan, traditionally had facial tattoos. Today one can find Berbers ofTamazgha (North Africa), Māori of New Zealand, Hausa people of Northern Nigeria, Arabic peoplein East-Turkey and Atayal of Taiwan with facial tattoos. Tattooing was widespread amongPolynesian peoples and among certain tribal groups in the Taiwan, Philippines, Borneo, Mentawai Islands, Africa, North America, South America, Mesoamerica, Europe, Japan, Cambodia, New Zealand and Micronesia. Indeed, the island of Great Britain takes its name from tattooing, withBritons translating as 'people of the designs' and the Picts, who originally inhabited the northern part of Britain, literally meaning 'the painted people'.^[1] British people remain the most tattooed inEurope.^[1] Despite some taboos surrounding tattooing, the art continues to be popular in many parts of the world.

Since the 1990s, tattoos have become a mainstream part of global and Western fashion, common among both sexes, to all economic classes, and to age groups from the later teen years to middle age. By the 2010s, even the Barbie doll put out a tattooed Barbie in 2011, which was widely accepted, although it did attract some controversy.^[2] In 2010, 25% of Australians under age 30 had tattoos.^[3]

Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice at least since Neolithic times. Ötzi the Iceman, dating from the fourth to fifth millennium BC, was found in the Ötz valley in the Alps and had some 57 carbon tattoos consisting of simple dots and lines on his lower spine, behind his left knee, and on his right ankle. These tattoos were thought to be a form of healing because of their placement which resembles acupuncture.^[19]Other mummies bearing tattoos and dating from the end of the second millennium BC have been discovered, such as the Mummy of Amunet from ancient Egypt and the mummies at Pazyryk on the Ukok Plateau.^[7]

Pre-Christian Germanic, Celtic and other central and northern European tribes were often heavily tattooed, according to surviving accounts. The Picts were famously tattooed (or scarified) with elaborate dark bluewoad (or possibly copper for the blue tone) designs. Julius Caesar described these tattoos in Book V of hisGallic Wars (54 BC).

Various other cultures have had their own tattoo traditions, ranging from rubbing cuts and other wounds with ashes, to hand-pricking the skin to insert dyes.

Tattooing in the Western world today has its origins in Polynesia, and in the discovery of tatau by eighteenth century explorers. The Polynesian practice became popular among European sailors, before spreading to Western societies generally.^[8]