The Origins of Tattoos | Why are Tattoos Permanent? | EXPLORE MODE

What do former president Teddy Roosevelt and rapper Lil Wayne have in common?
They both have gotten tatted up.

Surprised? Don’t be. Teddy isn’t the only historical figure to have had his body inked. Winston Churchill, George Orwell, King Harold II, and even Republican congressman Barry Goldwater all had tats.

Granted, Roosevelt’s family crest chest piece is more conservative than the assortment of tattoos Lil Wayne sports on his face, however, it goes to show that tattoos go beyond showing rebellion and status — they’re also a form of artistic expression and remembrance.

The practice of tattooing goes back thousands of years. The over 5,000-year-old mummified body of Otzi The Iceman shows 61 permanent markings that are suspected to be the result of acupuncture treatment.

Now, that’s not to say tattoos originated from communities around the Ötztal Alps, where Otzi was found, or that all tattoos in ancient times were linked to medical procedures. Many civilizations across history had different versions of body modifications that involved inking skin, and each of them attributed different meanings to the practice. But we’ll get more into that later.

So, which civilizations practiced tattooing? How did it spread? And what did people use to get inked before the tattoo gun was invented?

Well, the answer to all these questions are coming up in this video, where we dive into the history and origins of tattoos.
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TIMESTAMPS
01:28 Tattoos on Otzi The Iceman / World's Oldest Tattoos
02:04 Chinchorro Mummy Tattoos
02:32 Egyptian Mummies / World's Oldest Figurative Tattoos
03:41 Austronesian People Tattoos
04:09 Ancient Tattoo Tools
04:40 Whang Od, Kalinga Tattoo Artist
06:56 Why are tattoos permanent? What makes tattoos permanent?
08:54 Sound wave tattoos, explained
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Music:
Digya, Surf Shimmy, and Thief in the night by Kevin MacLeod
(incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Sources:
"10 Historical Titans With Surprising Tattoos"
mentalfloss.com/article/50761/10-historical-titans…

"Scientists Have Mapped All of Ötzi the Iceman’s 61 Tattoos"
blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/01/30/scie…

"What Ötzi the Iceman’s Tattoos Reveal About Copper Age Medical Practices"
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-otzi-iceman…

"The World's Oldest Tattoos"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409…

"Sacred Tattoos Found On Egyptian Mummy"
www.nature.com/news/intricate-animal-and-flower-ta…

PDF
www.nature.com/news/polopoly_fs/1.19864!/menu/main…
" 'Oldest tattoo' found on 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummies "
www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43230202

“What Makes Tattoos Permanent?”
www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-06/fyi-what-ma…

“How Do Tattoo Machines Work?”
   • How Do Tattoo Machines Work?  

"New Technology Makes Tattoos Talk"
   • New Technology Makes Tattoos Talk  


Skin Motion
skinmotion.com/

"New E-tattoo Enables Accurate, Uninterrupted Heart Monitoring For Days"
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/uota-nee06…
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The Origins of Tattoos | Why are tattoos permanent? | EXPLORE MODE
Produced by Sofia K.
Edited by Amanda Lee