Most people are familiar with how tattoos are applied in this modern day and age but few are familiar with how they were applied in days past.  Tattooing certianly isn’t new to our culture.  Historical records have determined that people were tattooing as far back as 5000 years ago.  In 1991 a 5300 year old mummy was discovered in the Swiss Alps.

Tattooing has been popular in Japan and other Asian countries for thousands of years.  Early tattoos were generally very cultural in nature.  For a person to receive a tattoo there had to be a significant reason.  Oftentimes these reasons included a coming of age ceremony.  Tattooing was also done for religious purposes.

Of course they didn’t have modern tattooing  equipment 5000 years ago.  Early tattoos were generally given by hand with a sharp instrument such as sharpend pieces of bone.  These rudimentary instruments where hand carved for the specific purpose of applying tattoos. In many cases, the carved bone would have multiple fine points carves onto it similar to a very tiny comb.

The ink that was used in these early tattoos was generally a plant based dye.  Early tattoo artist would make their own ink by crushing up plants known to have dark pigments in them.  This early tattoo ink was only available in black.  It wasn’t until much later in history that people started using colored ink for tattoos.

The way an early tattoo artists would apply the tattoo was rather simple.  He would dip his rudimentary tool in the tattoo ink, place the tool slightly above the skin, and with a small mallet tap on the back of the tool in rapid secession.  This tapping would cause the tool to pierce the skin and consequently, deposit the tattoo ink under the skin. This would be done hundreds of times until the desired results were achieved.

Early tattoos weren’t as intricate in design as modern tattoos due to the limitations of this primitive equipment.  If the tattoo didn’t turn out very good, you are just stuck with it.  No one back then had even considered the possibility of tattoo removal.  It would be many thousands of years before tattoo removal creams were in a  invented.

If you are interested in tattoo removal, you might enjoy reading this comprehensive blog on tattoo removal cream info.