Tattoo Psychology

People all over the world have tattoos that are engraved into their skin. In the United States of America, alone, people spend $1,650,500,000 and three in ten Americans have at least one tattoo. ¨Tattoos were found to be more common in females than males.¨ according to Sean T. Carroll, Timothy A. Roberts, and Elizabeth B. Myhre, authors of the article ¨Tattoos and Body Piercings as Indicator of Adolescent Risk-Taking Behaviors¨. These tattoos that litter the population had to have come from somewhere, so it 's time to ask the question, when and where did tattoos come from and how has the psychology behind them evolved over the centuries? This question is one that has been having some people searching for years. Tattoos and the act of tattooing

In an article by Jarrett A. Lobell and Eric A. Powell, called Ancient Tattoos, gave all of the following information. The ceramic female figurines mentioned before were from Cucuteni in Romania in the fifth millennium B.C. Otzi, a tattooed man that was discovered frozen in the Italian Alps, was from the Copper Age Europe in 3500-3100 B.C. From Egypt, there was faience figurines which were from 2033-1710 B.C. along with a faience bowl from 1400-1300 B.C. In Japan, there was a culture called Jomon where a dogu figurine was found and dated back to 2000-1000 B.C. From the culture of Lapita in Oceania, scientists found a tattooed pot fragment that was dated back to 1000 B.C. and an engraving that was dated to A.D. 1843. Throughout central and southeastern Europe, there was a culture that was called Thracian and from that culture a red-figure vessel was dated to 450-440 B.C. In Peru from the culture of the Moche, both a mask and a mummy were found with tattoos. The mask came from A.D. 100-300 and the mummy came from A.D. 450-500. A western shaft tomb in Mexico held hollow ceramic figurines which have been dated from 100 B.C.-A.D.400. The United States also holds their own in the history behind tattoos. The Native American tribe Mississippian has had a head effigy pot discovered and is dated A.D. 1350-1550. Finally, in the Philippines, the culture of the

In Christian traditions, pain and injuries are said to cleanse one 's evil away and that beatings purge their inmost being. There are many verses in the Bible that support the thought of pain purging someone of their sins. For example, (Proverbs 20:30) “Blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being.” or (Jeremiah 4:4), “Cleanse your minds and hearts, not just your bodies, or else my anger will burn you to a crisp because of all your sins. And no one will be able to put the fire out.” It is believed that people can use the pain from tattoos to help them start self-healing from a traumatic experience, though it is said by John A. Rush, author of Spiritual Tattoo, that a person should not undergo inflicting pain upon themselves if they are under the influence of drugs and/or suffering depression. It is also advised to not go through this process if they are doing it to seek attention or if they have the mindset of punishing themselves. These tattoos will allow a person who is trying to heal have a reminder that will be there forever. A tattoo gives them something to focus on and allows for a faster recovery, in some cases. After a person has healed, through this process, they will always have a reminder of what they had to go through to be where they are