Tattoo culture

Author Julian Evans revisits the South Pacific for an island-hopping adventure by boat

The origins of ink.

An old newspaper clipping that shows Jesse Knight tattooing a butterfly on a woman's thigh. #firstfemaletattooist #GreatBritain #history #JesseKnight #tattoopioneer

The Mayans were an ancient Mesoamerican civilization that thrived from 2000 BC to 900 AD, primarily in the regions of modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. Their intricate and advanced society was known for its achievements in agriculture, astronomy, mathematics, and art. One of the most notable forms of art found in the Mayan culture

Tattoo Ideas - Print-ready Design

Most tattoo artists know a bad design when they see one. That is why they might offer some slight changes or suggest getting rid of the thing overall. However, some people are determined to get what they want. This leaves the tattooist with one option—trying to make it the best possible terrible tattoo using their skills. Luckily, some of these attempts turn out pretty great and end up on the internet, where they are met with repulsion and praise at once. That is due to the cringy idea, yet…

Sak Yant ~ A monk at the Wat Bang Phra temple outside of Bangkok meditates while tattoos are inked onto a long line of devotees. Sak means "tapping" or "tattooing", and Yant is derived from Yantra, which means "sacred geometrical design”. For hundreds of years Thai and Khmer warriors were renowned and feared for their magical patterns on their skin. These patterns were a mixture of Buddhist psalms and prayers, and shamanistic sayings and magic.

In these images the nameless bodies of criminals act as both a text and mirror, reflecting and preserving the ever-changing folklore of the Russian...

The artful tattoos worn by our ancestors are windows into the spirituality of our people during the period when they are still untouched by colonization.