A Look at the Tattoo from the Late Eighteenth Century to Contemporary Times in the Western World.

Tattooing is a process by which the skin is pierced and a dye of some kind is inserted below the surface. So really, tattooing is a form of piercing. Is it because a tattoo is so enmeshed with the body, and so visibly permanent, that it is seen as a different process with different connotations to say piercing one's ears? Westerners tend to see the body as a reflection of one's outer and inner morals, …

…tattoos, representing criminality, unbalanced mind, disorder, primitivism and marginal groups is still strongly interlaced within conceptions of tattoos today. Along with negative perceptions and regrets from a minority of past tattoo bearers, the tattooed and observers alike are generally and gradually coming to see the tattoo as something that can not be readily defined and boxed into one particular category of meaning. Ultimately it is the permanency of the tattoo that is its defining characteristic.