SRA

• Tattooing is the production of patterns on the face and body by inserting dye under the skin
• Some anthropologists believe tattooing developed from painting the face and body
• Tattooing may be done for decoration, as an indication of status, or as a means of obtaining magical protection
• Methods of tattooing:
• In the Pacific Islands, tattooers use a dark pigment made of soot mixed with water or oil and sometimes vegetable juice
• The tattooer follows an outline traced on the skin, tapping the back of a comblike arrangement of thorns or bone to force the row of points repeatedly through the skin
• The comb may be dipped into the dye before tapping, or the coloring matter may be rubbed into the freshly made wounds
• Since the points do not penetrate deeply, the pain caused is not severe
• Once applied, the designs are permanent, and mistakes cannot be corrected
• In preindustrial societies, tattooing is sometimes accompanied by group chanting and dancing to encourage the patient
• An experienced tattooer is usually a man of high rank and is well paid for his skill
• In New Zealand, Maori warriors were tattooed with individual combinations of curves and spirals, with the dye laid into grooved lines cut into the skin
• Inuit women of the Canadian Arctic used a sewinglike method of tattooing, drawing a blackened thread through the skin with a bone needle to denote marriageable age
• In twentieth and twenty-first-century Europe and North America, tattooers use an electrically powered needle, which has been banned in some places due to infection concerns like hepatitis B
• "A" is the first letter of the alphabet