If you thought that tattoos have only really been around for a few decades, man, how wrong can you be? The fact is that the art of tattooing has been practiced for tens of thousands of years and this form of body modification has routes in many different cultures all around the world.
When you get down to discovering the origins of tattooing, you soon come to realize that there are very few corners of the world where it hasn't been practiced at some time or other. From Tahiti to Japan, the Americas to Europe and everywhere in between, there is so much more to this art than would initially meet the eye.
The most interesting thing about tattooing is that it would appear to have been discovered by a number of different cultures. If we are talking about body art being applied tens of thousands of years ago, we need to bear in mind that people were unable to travel to other parts of the world, as they can today, and therefore this means that tattooing would have had to be 'invented' within these communities separately.
Turning our attention to the ancient Egyptians first of all: even these people practiced tattooing. We know this because mummified bodies have been discovered that were adorned with body ink and which was applied as a permanent tattoo. This dates back many thousands of years.
Tattooing, itself, is thought to have first come onto the scene in the Pacific islands. They were a right of passage for the male members of the society and the higher up in the pecking order you were considered to be, the more ink you could expect to have done.
Europe has not escaped this tattooing revolution. A frozen caveman was actually found in this area that is believed to date back to the time of the last ice age (around 10,000 years ago); further proof how body art had become popular in most parts of the world without having been introduced from other areas.
One last historical fact about tattooing to leave you with is the fact that during Victorian times, tattoos were only turned to if you were considered to be of the aristocracy. In Britain, for example, it is widely acknowledged that Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were both proud to sport several tattoos - now I bet you didn't know that.
