Tribal Tattoos - Designs With Meaning

Tribal Tattoos - Designs With Meaning

Tribal tattoos are hugely popular and have been practiced for thousands of years. These days people still get them done for reasons which could be described as neo-tribal in their quest to belong to a modern 'tribe' even if they do it on a subconcious level.

Others simply get tribal tattoos because of their striking appearance. These include reptiles, wolves and tigers, abstract designs like suns and flames and many angular styles such as black knives appearing to be coming out of the skin in all directions.

Getting tattooed was once seen as a rite of passage into adulthood. A belief goes that if a girl could not take the pain of tattooing, she was deemed un-marriageable, because she would be unable to deal with the pain of child birth. If a boy could not deal with the pain he was considered to be a bad risk as a warrior and could become isolated from the tribe.

Some primitive tribes use tattooing as a rite of social status. The Maori, of New Zealand use tattooing primarily for this purpose. To the Maori, a person's Moko designs enhanced their prestige and show transition from one social status to another. At its highest level, Moko designs proclaimed the sacredness of chieftanship.

The Hawaiians are prominent among people who have specific tattoo gods. In Hawaii, the images of the tattoo gods are kept in the temples of tattoo priests. Each tattoo session begins with a prayer to the tattoo gods that the operation might not cause death, that the wounds might heal soon, and that the designs might be handsome. Many modern American tattooist will tell you, "When you should get a tattoo, the tattoo god will tell you that it is time."

In the 1970's, American tattooing discovered primitive, tribal tattoos. People wanted simple designs with meaning and they began copying designs, primarily from the islands of the South Pacific. In the past few decades, people of European stock began looking for tribal tattoos of their own origins and created a new form of tattoo commonly known as neo-tribal tattoos.