Infinite Ink
Brief Thoughts on Tattooing
Aoife Gately
Three years ago, my roommate tattooed a heart above my left knee. The ink is solid, buried beneath four layers of skin. Memories, however, seep from their station, abandoning all solidity, leaking from every line and lack thereof. A small gap reflects the moment she dropped the needle, running to embrace a tearful friend. A shaky outline holds the heavy bass that shook her hands and the half-light that dimmed her sight.
It is the smallest of my bodily designs and each clamours with memories and moments, expanding beyond my own experience and holding hidden histories. From sensory systems to ancient rituals, tattoos dance between art, culture, status, and identity. They are a worthy tool for exploring the multiplicity of humanity.
The word tattoo derives from the Polynesian ‘tautau’, an onomatopoeic name mimicking the sound of a specific cultural practice, where a sharp comb dipped in ink taps the tattoo into the skin (1). Through this, we see the ever-present blur of the physical and symbolic, sound and sign. For certain tribal communities, tattoos expand beyond their physical elements, encompassing a complete emotion (2), the process seen less as a conscious decision and more as an inevitable occurrence (3). They denote identity, a connection with one's culture, and are considered a “visual language,” inscribing cultural traits on the owners’ skin (4). They possess religious and spiritual connotations, serving to honour gods or celestial beings. Tattooing can also uphold social hierarchies within cultures or clans, acting as a permanent and visible reminder of social values (5). They exhibit status and position, and the ritual is often celebrated as a transition (for the wearer) from one era to another.
History too, is written in the ink on our skin. Although debates surround the origination of tattoos, the oldest evidence of tattooing comes from the ‘Iceman’ mummy, discovered on the Italian-Austrian border, with tattoos carbon dated as far as 5300 years ago (6). The first figural tattoos (tattoos depicting/ representing real things) were found at Gebelein, Egypt on two naturally preserved mummies from 3351 to 3017 BC (7). History is often haunted, and ink-filled skin can reflect the human capacity for violence. The brutal practice of enforced tattooing was employed during the Holocaust. Victims were numbered– ink replacing identity– with survivors revealing that they ‘no longer [had] a name’, and were branded like ‘cattle’ (8). For some, the symbol of ink and skin is stained with blood.
Space and time flicker. Symbols are not static. Tattoos have defied time constraints, at one instance signifying both the ‘exotic new world’ and the ‘old, forgotten, or past’ (9). Across the earth, another lifetime, an artist sketches. Tattooing engages with the human capacity for memory and thought- the various mental components required to create an idea, establish a design or choose an artist. External elements (ink, needle, electricity, machine) interact with human senses- sound, sight, touch. We see our physical abilities in the artist’s endeavours: the movement of tendons and muscles within the arm to control the machine.
The little heart still beats above my knee, and will until I die. Others have expressed disbelief at the flippant origins of this, and other, tattoos, punctuated with reminders that they last “forever”. When comparing the vastness of time with the existence of my tattoos, the thought that my body could hold “forever” strikes me as both amusing and sweet. I have grown to view the fearsome permanence we award them as a reminder of humanity's resolute belief in our eternal nature. It's sentimental, but as demonstrated above, I love to see the world reflected in an ink splash. It's a personal philosophy, but I recommend it– the ordinary is beautiful when you recognise its infinity, and tattoos are just the beginning.
References
Jill K Robinson, ‘In Polynesia, tattoos run more than skin deep’, National Geographic, (2022)
Shirley Ferguson-Rayport, & Richard Griffith, & Erwin. Straus, ‘The psychiatric Significance of tattoos’, The Psychiatric quarterly (1955)
Stephen Pritchard, ‘An Essential Marking: Maori Tattooing and the Properties of Identity’ Theory, Culture & Society (18.4) 27-45
Payel Ghosh, ‘Tattoo: A Cultural Heritage’ Antrocom J. of Anthropology 16.1 (2020) pp. 295-304.
Ghosh, p295
Ghosh, p295
Friedman, Renée & Antoine, Daniel & Talamo, Sahra & Reimer, Paula & Taylor, John & Wills, Barbara & Mannino, Marcello, ‘Natural mummies from Predynastic Egypt reveal the world's earliest figural tattoos’ Journal of Archaeological Science 92. 10 (2018)
Alice Bloch, ‘The body as a canvas: Memory, tattoos and the Holocaust’ The Sociological Review (2024)
Pritchard p30
