In word itself tattoo, as we shall see that its history as well, has two big derivations: from the Polynesian word ‘ta’ that means striking something and the Tahitian word ‘tatau’ that means that you mark something. Its history started 5000 years ago and it is as complex as the people that wear them today. By inserting colored materials beneath the skin surface you get a tattoo. Probably the first tattoo ever was created totally by accident, rubbing a wound with dirty hands from ashes and mud and notices that once the wound has healed itself, the mark remained.
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Egyptian tattoos were ignored by the specialist and archeologists because of prevailing social attitude to the medium. But today we know that most if the important figures of Egypt’s past were tattoo, being a very important feature for the rules of that world. In 1891 scientists discovering a female mummy, which represented the highest priestess of Hathor and is believed that lived between the years 2160 BC and 1994 BC. This female showed many dots and lines all over her body and geometric abstract patterns. This is a basic woman only tattoo for the Egyptians in which women were associated with other rituals practiced back then.

They spread this practice all over the world, to Greece and Crete and to Arabia and Persia and by the time of 1900 BC this art was known through all of Asia. The western Asian nomads also known as ainu brought them to Japan, were the earliest forms of evidence was found in clay figures that had their faces painted, representing the tattoo. It has been show that the Japanese tattoo artists from back then were very innovative giving the tattoo a whole new approach, known today as the classic Japanese tattoo that is a full body suit worn with dignity and pride.

When sailors defied the seas and returned back home, you know that they would have a tattoo, generally one that was not that complicated to make and had a cartoonist feeling to it like mermaids, hearts, anchors, birds, snakes and especially name of their loved ones. Also it has been know for a long time that tattoos were only for sailors and for criminals. Of course that there was a trend because in prison everyone had a tattoo, being professionally made to make a statement on the man’s identity and autonomy or for the gang members that had a significant sign and all the members had to have the same tattoo to share their appreciation and commitment to that cause and to those people. Among the tattoos, the most popular art were spider webs and tear drops.

In the nineteenth century, tattoos became even more popular and started to mess its roots with another artistic group, the circus. They were a hit and the circuses decided to show on display all body covered tattoo people. It was interesting, daring and fresh so many people came intrigued to the shows.

Everyone loves tattoos, maybe from the rock stars or maybe from TV shows like Miami Ink or from the Orange County Choppers, the fact is they have become increasingly popular and many people have one or two or even more. We think that they are a way to show your pride from your accomplishments and it will be like a visual biography on you own body.

But getting the right tattoo is very hard although this is a very old and ritualistic form of art. You have to search a lot before you make this decision because you have to find your own style and to find one that will represent exactly what you want. Find one that will speak about the person you are and what you have gained so far. You may want to go online because you will find hundreds of internet sites that will help you in selecting from the coolest tattoos in the world the one that would suite you best. You can find flash tattoos or pre drawn tattoos designs and you can look for the books with them from tattoos parlors. But every design has the designers own style and it may not fit you so you might go online just to check some of the coolest sites with the coolest tattoos in the world.

If you know French and you are looking for design of tattoos then Flash and Furious is the site for you. But even if you don’t know the language, you will manage because the site is very easy to surf around it and the beauty of a tattoo is that its not dependent on any language. It’s like music. You have over 2600 designs on this site organized into categories so for sure you shall find something that you will like on this page.

With many cool features and completely free, Tattoo Tribes has hundreds of tattoos just for you and a very interesting feature that will help you visualize how the tattoo will look on you. You may print after downloading images of your selected tattoos to bring them to the tattoo artist to get a better image of what you want and what is your style. These tattoos are suited mostly for black ink work and for sure you will get some great ideas form this site.

Tribal tattoos are the most common and preferred among the tattoos, so on Tribal Shapes you will find a large tattoo collection with many tribal shapes of all sizes. These tattoos use also the Kanji characters, which are the Japanese characters that were used in modern Japan. Just remember that you may not want to make a Kanji tattoo before you know what they symbolize because you may end up with people laughing at you.If you are one of the old school types then on Old Timer Tattoo you will find some free genuine old school pre drawn tattoos that are original drawn in the 70s.

But before you decided on any tattoo you would want to research it a lot because it may have a dark past that you do not know of. It is a very important decision that will remain with you for the rest of your life.