If you were to judge anything by the way in which the popularity of tattoos has exploded over the past thirty years or so, you may very well believe that this form of body art has only been around since the twentieth century. You would be oh so very wrong!
In actual fact, tattoo history is known to have been around for millennia and mummified early homo sapiens have been unearthed adorned with intricately tattooed patterns on what would have been their skin. Tattoos may date back to tens of thousands of years ago and it is interesting to note the fact that tattooing has appeared independently in many separate cultures across the globe. This is indicative of the fact that it was invented by many different cultures and this makes it difficult to identify the official culture that first started to practice this art.
For centuries now people and cultures have expressed a love hate relationship towards tattoos. Indeed, the art was banned from many cultures, with Japan and the United States falling within this category of intolerant societies. Most bans have now been lifted as civilised countries realise that they do not have a right to stop someone from tattooing their own bodies.
There are still many countries in the world where tattooing is banned. This is an unfortunate consequence of religion where people are brainwashed into believing that some mythical God has claimed that it was a sin - big yawn! Don’t be so gullible and study the true facts on religion through palaeontology!