Talk:History of tattooing

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 30 August 2021 and 13 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Emily.Greisman, Franco Cacciuttolo, Ecross12, Sshriyasingh, M estella, Smcc789, Price22.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 22:28, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 6 September 2018 and 13 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ltn2.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 23:40, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

High School Essay?
It looks like someone copy & pasted their high school essay on the history of tattoos into the bottom of this article. It mostly states what was already written and only covers ancient western historical perspectives on tattoos. I'd remove it wholesale. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.142.152.132 (talk) 18:31, 17 September 2008 (UTC) how bad does getting a tattio hurt

Source?
Winston Churchill's mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, not only had a tattoo of a snake around her wrist, which she covered when the need arose with a specially crafted diamond bracelet, but had her nipples pierced as well.

The snake tattoo is well-documented, but the latter looks dubious. It's repeated on a number of blogs and tattoo sites, and I know that 'bosom rings' were in fashion in the 1890s - but it still looks a bit urban mythy, like Prince Albert's alleged Prince Albert. Are there are any reliable sources for this? 86.141.147.92 00:57, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

"Tattooing spread among the upper classes all over Europe in the 19th century, but particularly in Britain where it was estimated in Harmsworth Magazine in 1898 that as many as one in five members of the gentry were tattooed. There, it was not uncommon for members of the social elite to gather in the drawing rooms and libraries of the great country estate homes after dinner and partially disrobe in order to show off their tattoos."

I find this entire claim dubious, as well. Why are the volume and issue numbers of the Harmsworth Magazine not cited? Do any other sources support this claim?

Jewish reaction to tattoos
The article repeats the claim that “some” Jewish cemeteries will not allow the burial of someone who has been tattooed. I’ve heard this claim before, and heard it debunked; if true it requires a reference, if false, deletion. JCSalomon (talk) 14:28, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Wikiproject Body Modification
I'm trying to start a Wikiproject on Body Modification, if anyone wants to join go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Proposals/Body_Modification ScarTissueBloodBlister (talk) 02:41, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Where are any of the sources?
This entire section has a few sources and no in-text citations. Can the authors please include sourcing? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Silvorte (talk • contribs) 23:18, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

Japan
"Tattooing for spiritual and decorative purposes in Japan is thought to extend back to at least the Jōmon or Paleolithic period (approximately 10,000 BCE)" This is either deliberately misleading or simply badly worded - as I understand it, the period in question extended from 10,000-300BCE, which is quite a long time.... nowhere can I find evidence that tattoos were actually being done in Japan as early as 10,000BC. Headbeater (talk) 16:33, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Rome
There are some references in other articles (under the name of "stigma"). --No qwach macken (talk) 06:49, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

"warning banner" in Modern Western Tattooing
Is it OK if i delete the warning banner in the Modern Western Tattooing, since i included a world wide view in the topic "In the Military".Hpacheco1 (talk) 14:43, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

I think this article should be reorganized?
I was trying to find out when tattooing may have been started. At the top of the article it says "since at least neolithic times" and the picture is an artifact from Romania, c. 4900-4750 BC, but that is about all it says on the subject.

Then it has a history of tattooing in ancient cultures, but doesn't really go in depth anywhere. What country did they maybe start in? How did it spread throughout the world? What exactly do we know about the history?

Generally "history of ..." articles have a sort of timeline? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.15.51.174 (talk) 22:16, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Was tattooing reintroduced to Europe or not?
The "Europe" section currently says about the aftermath of Cook's journey to Polynesia: "In the process sailors and seamen re-introduced the practice of tattooing in Europe and it spread rapidly to seaports around the globe." Then later, the "Reintroduction in the Western world" section says: "That tattooing was somehow "reintroduced" to the Western world following European voyages to Polynesia is a myth.[42] Tattooing has been consistently present in Western society from the modern period stretching back to Ancient Greece." These two statements seem to be contradicting each other. The second claim cites two sources, but they are both books, and the page numbers are not mentioned. I can't fact-check them. I find the claim that tattooing was "consistently" present in Europe since ancient times until the 18th century specious, and it seems likely that Cook at least found something novel about what the Polynesians were doing. Either way, the article currently contradicts itself, and it should be fixed. Any suggestions for solutions? --Ornilnas (talk) 19:16, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

History of Tattooing for Indigenous People of North America
Hello,

I've added a subsection under North America to include information about the history of tattooing for Indigenous People. Let me know if you have any questions!!

Ltn2 (talk) 01:49, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Surprisingly, this section doesn't mention any of the tattooing traditions of indigenous peoples of South America. Jarble (talk) 12:49, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

Extremist tattoos
I would like to add a sentence about the Anti-Defamation League's work in helping military recruiters identify extremist tattoos. I thought I could add the sentence to the existing section about the United States Army, after the sentence that says "Additionally, tattoos that are deemed to be sexist, racist, derogatory, or extremist continue to be banned." Here is my proposed sentence: The Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism has helped military recruiters identify extremist tattoos. FYI, I work for ADL. FavoriteIrisFlower (talk) 17:16, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
 * , thanks for taking it to the talk instead of directly COI editing the article. I'm not sure if this is promotional or not, though I'm inclined to WP:AGF and consider it an encyclopedic addition. Again, thanks for following policy and good luck! Firestar464 (talk) 02:30, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

, thank you for the comments. I had looked at COI, which is why I had decided to take it to the talk first. I think I'll hold off for now. I appreciated your feedback.FavoriteIrisFlower (talk) 15:02, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

Dubious Information on Haudenosaunee Tattooing
The section dealing with historical tattooing practices among the Haudenosaunee appears to rely entirely on one source, and makes some claims which seem dubious. For example, the use of the word “manitou” and its cognates is restricted to groups that traditionally spoke Algonquian languages, and does not appear to have been part of the spiritual practices of any of the Haudenosaunee’s constituent nations. The aforementioned source largely derives it’s information from 17th-19th century accounts of the Haudenosaunee and their neighbors written by European settlers, especially the 1851 ethnography by Lewis Morgan. These sources may have some value, but given the documented historical tendency of Euro-American researchers to conflate, generalize, and often misrepresent indigenous peoples, their practices, and their beliefs, these sources should not be taken at face value as factual. As such, I think this section should be augmented with other sources to attempt to represent a more accurate understanding of the history of Haudenosaunee tattooing, or at least modified to frame the information provided within the context of its documentation. If anyone has any suggestions on potential alternate sources or better ways of presenting this information, please let me know, or make edits yourself as you feel is appropriate! Melegvagyok (talk) 23:47, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

"Tattooing in China" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Tattooing in China and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 September 16 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 13:03, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Hist401
— Assignment last updated by AliResen (talk) 05:16, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

Disjointed additions
I had to revert your additions, @HistoryKrymz because they seem disjointed. They were randomly inserted, stating random things that do not fit with the sections, and in some cases made existing sentences nonsensical. I don't exactly understand what you were trying to add. OBSIDIAN †  SOUL  14:38, 20 May 2023 (UTC)


 * This seems to be a problem throughout this article. Random bits of information in irrelevant sections. One example being the 2nd and 3rd lines of the "19th century United States" section talking about Britain and Europe. 67.245.188.114 (talk) 07:13, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

inconsistent era use?
Dates seem to be inconsistent in using BCE/CE or BC/AD, sometimes switching mid paragraph. Shouldn't there be only one or the other used? 173.44.89.178 (talk) 07:23, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

Splitting article?
At present, it looks like this article has about 12,000 words of readable prose, which according to WP:SIZERULE indicates that it may be helpful to split the article into one or more smaller articles. Looking at the article as it is now, I wonder if it might be better to make a separate article for traditional tattooing practices (or even multiple articles, maybe split up by continent/region), since many of these traditions have continued into the modern day, and so that section is less history-based than the rest of the article. ForsythiaJo (talk) 21:23, 23 December 2023 (UTC)