Tattoos in Greece and Rome - Term Paper Example

?Tattoos in Greece and Rome The term used for this is “tattooing.” The earliest traces of tattooing have been found in the ancient Egypt where tattooed clay dolls have been found by the archeologists. Records suggest that people have been sporting tattoos since 4000 B.C. in that region. Along with the Egyptians’ expansion of their empire occurred a spread of the art of tattooing. Tattoos were used by the ancient Briton tribes in their ceremonies while tattoos were used in family crests by the Danes, Saxons and the Norse. Pictures of people who have their noses marked on both sides with the four tattooed historical lines were found on the Aveyron’s and Tarn’s prehistoric stones in France. “Drawings and figurines discovered in a Thracian burial mound near Philippopolis may depict tattooed people, but considering the complexity of the decorations it is more likely that these represent body painting or finely worked figurines” (Tattoo Temple, n.d.). People in Greece and Rome added their own cultural touches as they inherited the art of tattooing, thus taking it to the next level. Archeologists have readily found tattooed mummies from various parts of the world which suggests how common a practice it has been for a long time in history. Tattoos today are an insignia of fashion and style. The contemporary society has endorsed tattoos as a means of styling. The trend of under-skin inking has been around for thousands of years. This paper discusses the history of tattoos in ancient Greece and Rome. The history of tattooing in Europe commences with the ancient historians of Greek and Roman origin. The Greeks inherited the art of tattooing from the Persians, while the Romans gained it from the Greeks. In the early Greek time followed by the early Roman time, tattooing was a practice linked with the barbarians. According to Herodotus, tattoos were voluntarily associated by the Greeks with the barbarians, including the Thracian women known as the Maenads who assassinated Orpheus because of his homosexual concerns with their husbands. “Herodotus was the first to use the root “stig” as in the pejorative “stigma” to refer to tattoos as a mark (estichthai) or a “pricking”” (Random History, 2008). In the ancient times, tattooing was used as a tool to differentiate between the criminals and/or the slaves and the rest of the people of the society. Prisoners and slaves were tattooed the name of Xerxes. Occasionally, tattoos were also used to send secret messages across the lines of enemies. Criminals and slaves were tattooed so that they would have an irremovable mark on their skin to help others identify them as such. This was done intentionally to discourage the criminals and slaves from running away as attempts to escape were common among the two. Later, the Romans used tattoos to pick out deserters as the Roman army was chiefly composed of the mercenaries. The use of tattoos by the early Greek and Romans suggests that their chief use was punishment as has been mentioned by various authors of the Greek and the Roman origin. Tattoos have been discussed in a punitive sense by such Greek authors as Aristophanes, Xenophon, Herodus, Aeschines and Aelius Aristides (Jones, 2000). Plato was of the opinion that a temple robber should be tattooed on the forehead and the hands to have a trace of the offense while Bion of Borysthenes said that his father’s face was more of a document because of intense tattooing because of his status of a slave. The process of tattooing has been recorded by the ancient Roman authors. Aetius is one such Roman physician who described the process of applying and removing a tattoo along with the formula for making the tattoo ink in his famous book; Medicae artis principles. At one point, Plato expressed the opinion that tattoos should be placed on people found guilty of sacrilege and thus, they should be expelled from the Republic. Likewise, “Suetone, a early writer reports that the degenerate and sadistic Roman Emperor, Caligula, amused himself by capriciously ordering members of his court to be tattooed” (vanishingtattoo.com, 2011). Another historian named Zonare said that Theophilus, the emperor of Greece, took two monks to task by tattooing their foreheads with eleven obscene iambic pentameter versus in revenge of the public criticism they had cast on him. In addition to the use of tattoos for the identification of rebels, tattoos have been used for the communication of clan membership, marital status, tribal association, religious affiliation, and the social status. Tattoos have also served in the ancient Greece and Rome as markers of exclusion or inclusion. “The oldest physical body in existence, the so-called Ice Man (ca. 3300-3200 B.C.) is remarkable not only because his 57 tattoos perhaps were used for medicinal purposes, but because this oldest human skin ever found is itself tattooed” (Random History, 2008). As Romans inherited the art of tattooing from the Greek, so did that adopt the punitive use of tattoos. Slaves that were exported in Rome had the phrase “tax paid” tattooed on their foreheads. Paradoxically, the Roman government tattooed the Christians as courageous models and heroes. This did a lot to change the image of tattoo of a sign of punishment into a sign of victory, honor and glory. In addition to that, the use of tattoo saw a transition from punitive to casual as the Roman emperor Caligula started tattooing his court members for the sake of fun. Tattoos became less common with the influence of Jews upon the Roman government. Constantine was the first Christian emperor in Rome who placed a ban upon the practice of tattooing the face owing to the belief that human face is supposedly in the God’s image (Gustafson, 2000). “Vegetius recorded that a recruit to the Roman army "should not be tattooed with the pin-pricks of the official mark as soon as he has been selected, but first be thoroughly tested in exercises so that it may be established whether he is truly fitted for so much effort”” (Lindsay cited in vanishingtattoo.com, 2011). The people of Rome belonged to different parts of the world. It would not be wrong to say that the Roman society represented a diverse community of Europeans, Middle-Easterns and Euro-Asians. Those people spoke different languages and belonged to different religions. Multiculturalism prevailed in ancient Rome. Tattoos were quite popular in different regions of the Roman Empire. Particularly, the Scotts, Irish and other Europeans in Rome liked to endorse tattoos. Since the Roman Empire spans over centuries, the use of tattoos saw a transition from punitive to decorative over the time. With the passage of time, Tattoos became an essential component of the Roman culture. Concluding, Greece and Rome have been some of the oldest origins of the art of tattooing, with the latter having inherited the art from the former. Prime uses of tattoos in these nations included marking the servants and criminals as well as rebels with tattoos to keep them from escaping. Later, tattoos were started to be used for decorative purposes. Today, tattoos are common in use in many cultures, particularly the West. Newer techniques of tattooing have surfaced over the time, that are safer for skin than before. There has been a revolutionary change in the use of tattoos between the ancient Greek and Roman societies and the contemporary society. With the end of slavery around the world, these days the tattoos are primarily used for fashion. Tattoo today is one thing that reminds us of the cultural norms and values of the ancient Greek and Romans. References: Gustafson, M. (2000). “The Tattoo in Later Roman Empire and Beyond.” Written on the Body: The Tattoo in European and American History. Ed. Jane Caplan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press Jones, C. P. (2000). "Stigma and Tattoo." Written on the Body: The Tattoo in European and American History. Ed. Jane Caplan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Random History. (2008, July 26). Socializing Bodies: A History of the Tattoo. Retrieved from http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/07/26_tattoo.html. Tattoo Temple. (n.d.). The history of tattooing. Despite immense popularity, the practice has not left much of an historical record. Retrieved from http://tattootemple.hk/history-of-tattooing. vanishingtattoo.com. (2011). Greek and Roman Tattoos. Retrieved from http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoo_museum/greek_roman_tattoos.html. Read More