Chinese Tattoos

Chinese history speaks much about tattoos, this has clearly featured in its Four Classic Novels, Water Margin. It describes the tattoo covering the whole body. It is the unique description of a whole body having tattoos cared, but no where in the world.

In addition, Chinese legend has it that the mother of Yue Fei, the most famous general of the Song Dynasty, tattooed the words on his back with her sewing needle before he left to join the army, reminding him to "repay his country with total loyalty".

Religious tattoo

Today, people commonly choose to be tattooed for cosmetic, religious and magical reasons, as well as as a symbol of belonging to or identification with particular groups. Some Maori males still choose to wear intricate moko on their faces.

Throughout history people have also been forcibly tattooed for a variety of reasons. The best known is the ka-tzetnik identification system for Jews in part of the concentration camps during the Holocaust. European sailors were known to tattoo the crucifixion on their backs to prevent flogging as a punishment.

Tattoos are also placed on animals, though very rarely for decorative reasons. Pets, show animals, thoroughbred horses and livestock are sometimes tattooed with identification marks, and certain of their body parts (for example, noses) have also been tattooed to prevent sunburn. Such tattoos are performed by veterinarians and the animals are anaesthetized to prevent pain.

Tattooing Procedure

In olden days tribes used cut design into their skin and rubbed ink(sometimes ashes or other chemicals) make tattoos in their skin. Majority of them bore the pain for religious believe and sacrifice. Some of them of used more painful process for tattooing in these days.

They injected inks and into the skin by help of sharpened sticks or animal bones. But this was practiced less. Though different part of the world used different procedure to carving tattoo but the all were painful procedure. And still Japanese use the old procedure of hand-made non-electrical sharpened tools to inject ink into the skin.

But lot has been changed in the tattooing procedure. Today's modern electric tattoo machine has lessened the pain to a large extend. In this procedure, ink is inserted into the skin via a group of needles that are soldered onto a bar, which is attached to an oscillating unit. The unit rapidly and repeatedly drives the needles in and out of the skin, usually 50 to 3,000 times a minute.

Prisons in major part of world do not have the modern tattooing procedure. The olden tattooing procedure is still practiced in those places. It is too much painful and risk for body health.

Tattoos for Prisoners

to identify or sometimes as a punishment tattoo were common practices of prisons in olden days. These practices were very coarser as they pierced the ink into the skin with sharpened objects or animal bones. Though many alternatives have been developed to the coarser procedure most of the prisons still practice the old procedure.

This old procedure of tattooing practiced in the prisons are riskful for the the diseases like HIV and Hepatitis. The same needle is used for many inmates. It has been suggested that a majority of prisoners in US prisons have at least one tattoo.

Permanent Cosmetics

Permanent cosmetics are tattoos that enhance eyebrows, lips (liner or lipstick), eyes (shadow, mascara), and even moles, usually with natural colors as the designs are intended to resemble makeup. The prices of cosmetic procedures are higher than design tattoos because most states require permanent makeup artists to be licensed aestheticians.

Temporary Tattoos and Henna

Temporary tattoos have been more common than the permanent tribal tattoos. Because in olden days tattoos were religious sacrifice or tribal believes and it needed to be permanent.

Temporary tattoos are a type of body sticker, like a decal. They are generally applied to the skin using water to transfer the design to the surface of the skin. Temporary tattoos are easily removed with soap and water or oil-based creams, and are intended to last a few days.

The art known as Mehndi, common in Middle Eastern, North African and Asian countries (but particularly associated with India), is the application of intricate patterns and designs on the hands and feet.

The designs are usually hand drawn with henna: powdered henna is mixed with coffee or tea, lemon juice (to release the dye) and sugar (for consistency) into a paste which is then applied. The length of time the design will last depends on how long the paste is left on the skin. Most designs last up to two weeks, fading from a dark brown to a light orange before disappearing.

So-called 'black henna', which is made by adding p-phenylenediamine (PPD) to natural henna, in order to achieve a black color, may cause allergic reactions. PPD is very unhealthy and has been known to cause burns. Mehndi is traditionally applied onto the hands and feet of brides, but there exist traditions in Bangladesh , Kashmir and Sudan where bridegrooms also have Mehndi applied before wedding ceremonies.

Mehndi has also become popular, particularly in the West, as a form of temporary body decoration with no symbolic meaning.