According to Wikipedia, "The origin of the word tattoo is usually traced to the Tahitian tatu or tatau, which means to mark or strike (the latter referring to traditional methods of applying the designs). In Japanese the word used for traditional designs or those that are applied using traditional methods is irezumi ("insertion of ink"), while "tattoo" is used for non-Japanese designs."

History

Almost every civilization has some kind of practice or ritual involving tattooing. Natives from Africa, Borneo, Polynesia, Philippines, and Mesoamerica still use tattoos as either religious or war symbols. Same in Japan and China, where tattoos were in common usage among warriors and shamans.

Perhaps the oldest example of tattooing is "Ötzi the Iceman," a frozen mummy dating from the Neolithic period (around 3300 BC). Found in a glacier of the Ötztaler Alps, between Italy and Austria, Otzi exhibits tattoos that resemble small dashes along the lumbar region and on the legs. Of his 57 tattoos, most are located on what today are considered acupuncture points, leading anthropologists to believe the tattoos were used for medicinal purposes.

Other examples of the ancient use of tattoos are three mummies found in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. All three (two men and a woman) were heavily tattooed with animal designs, and one of the men also sported dots along the spinal column and around the right ankle.

The Gauls, Norseman, Saxons, and even the Greeks used tattoos as symbols of their social or career status, a practice especially common among soldiers and sailors. Banned in the 8th century by Pope Hadrian, the practice of tattooing disappeared from Western culture until the last part of the 18th century, when Captain James Cook introduced the word tattoo (up until then, it had been known as "staining") by describing a practice he had observed on a voyage to Tahiti. Later on, tattoos became almost exclusively associated with criminals and sailors until World War I, when the practice started gaining popularity outside their initial range.