Tribal Tattoo Pictures – What It Stands For

Tattoos have become part of our popular culture. The demand for tattoos has grown and today you are more likely to encounter a professional person or a housewife in your local tattoo parlor than a rebel. This acceptance into the mainstream of our culture has resulted in an increasing demand for tattoos, tattoo parlors, skilled artists and tattoo supplies. It is a growth industry!

Business is booming in the world of tattoo art as tattoos are becoming more and more popular both amongst the rich and famous and within the general population as a whole. Around one in every seven adults today sports a tattoo and they have become integrated into our popular culture.

Tribal tattoos depict a lot of symbols and are deeply rooted in history. In some instances they represent cultural expressions of spirits, blessings and status. Others could also mean protection and the relationship of earth to the cycle of life. Considered as one of the first tattoos imprinted by accident, tribal tattoo was first used by primitives by playing around with fire. Perhaps it started when someone got poked with a burnt or charred stick and realized this left a permanent mark upon the body.

It has also been said that the very first tattoo pictures were of the sun or flames in honor of the sun god. These tattoos were actually believed by people to be a symbol and instrument that would foster a closer relationship to god.

Tribal” means a lot more today than it did fifteen years ago. The definition hasn’t expanded any, but people are trying to throw more and more design and black work tattoos into the category of tribal, unsuccessfully. A solid black tattoo isn’t necessarily tribal, in fact, a tribal tattoo doesn’t need to be black at all. And any design isn’t tribal. Any lacework design that is tattooed in black isn’t a tribal tattoo.

A tribal tattoo was a tattoo that actually designated what tribe you were in, or your status in that tribe. Sometimes the design was different for men than women, sometimes only men got it at all. It could be different if you were married than single. The thing is, it meant something that you understood if you were apart of the tribe, of that culture. What we think of as tribal probably comes from a poorly imitated Maori or other tribal community’s symbolic social structure. We take designs from African tribes, Pacific Islander tribes, Hawaiian, etc., and we try to duplicate them on ourselves without any understanding of what it means, or the significance behind it. It would be similar to an Asian country putting random letters of our Alphabet on their body just because it looked good to them.

Tribal tattoos were also combined with scarification in many cultures and tribes. This was because there weren’t needles in many areas of the world in order to place the ink nicely into the skin. The person getting the design would have incisions made into the skin, and ash or soot rubbed into the cuts. This healed leaving a stained black or grey scar, having both texture and color.

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Billy Brown