Body Art History
Body Art History The History of Body Art and Modification By Sarah Freeland The existence of body art, AKA tattoos, is not one that has come to the fore in recent times. Quite to the contrary the actual existence of the process of tattooing and body art, though various in its' origins, can be traced back for several millenniums. The word itself has many supposed origins, the most credible ones being that of the Chinese term, "Ta" which translates into "To strike something" and, more likely, that of the word "Tatau" which means "to Mark." The oldest definite example of body art came to surface recently upon a mountaintop between Italy and Austria, as in late 1991 the frozen remains of a five thousand year old male was found. This Bronze Age corpse was marked from the waist down with almost 60 tattoos. However, this particular region could not lay claim on the only evidence of ancient body art. In 1948 in a region between China and Russi...