Egyptian Tattoos History |
For some years a British anthropologist, has been studying existing races of man in Egypt and comparing these with their ancestors. Many modern Egyptians carry on their faces or bodies Egyptian Tattoo designs.
One day it occurred to the anthropologist to study what these Egyptian Tattoo are. To everyone’s surprise they turned out to be very ancient. Some have been identified as going back more than 3,000 years, to the times of Joseph and Moses. Others have been traced to ancient Babylonia, to Persia in the days of Darius the Great, and to other ancient lands.
Egyptian Tattoos History |
The anthropologist has made a collection of more than one hundred designs used by modern Egyptian Tattoo artists in Egypt. These designs will be preserved and studied as carefully as though they were actual documents from ages long past. From such study, it is believed; clues to obscure facts of ancient history may emerge.The art of Egyptian Tattoo probably is, with one exception, the oldest in the world. The exception is the use of the paint pot and paint brush with which ancient peoples were accustomed to decorate their forms. In the beginning, all of these painted and Egyptian Tattoo designs probably were important symbols. They marked the positions of the decorated individuals in definite tribes, clans, or religious sects.
Egyptian Tattoos History |
The famous Moslem traveller, Ibn Battuta, who visited Egypt in the fourteenth century, describes the practice governors of Egyptian cities had of stamping on the arms of visitors in indelible ink a mark indicating freedom to leave town, just as modern customs officers stick little printed seals to travellers’ baggage. Egyptian Tattoo, it’s probable, was often a symbol of the same type, though more permanent.