Tattoo Images - History

It has historically been proven that the first tattoos appeared more then six thousand years ago within the primitive system. The tattoos were not just ornaments. They also were tribal, family or totem symbols. Those symbols indicated the social class of the person and moreover, they believed to have some magical powers.

The term ‘tattoo’ appeared in English due to a famous traveler James Cook, who mentioned it in the record of his journey to Polynesia in 1773. In translation from Tahitian dialect, ‘tattoo’ means a picture or an image. Cook was impressed by the tattoo art of Polynesian people. The Polynesian tattoos are the most ancient kind of tattoo designs. The technique and the character of the images were very close to the carved patterns that consisted of various elements and were known for the complexity of their design. Those carved patterns included some spirals, waves, winding ribbons and converging, diverging or straight lines. They refer to ritual, tribal and religious tattoos, that at the first place had totemic or protective meaning.