Tribal Tattoos

Tribal tattoos are one of the most popular tattoos of the past 16 years.

In fact it’s so stinking rich and dating so far back in pre-history, that we have no idea where or when it started.

And unfortunately skin has a bad habit of decomposing so we don’t have any proof from long, long ago.

However stone age rock paintings all over the world depicted people with tattooed bodies.

While many different cultures and people’s throughout human history, many of them tribes, have practiced the art of tattoo designs.

The world “tribal” applies only loosly for this style of tattoo.

Around 2000 BC, in the Middle Kingdom, the Egyptians appear to have developed the art of tattooing. They learned this art from the Nubians who lived in the South.

The meanings of these specific patterns is still unknown, but they appear to have had some ritualistic purpose to do with Hathor (a goddess).

Every society in history using tattooing has done so with the same technique: a handle made from a stick or bone with a line of thin hard bones (fish bones).

These would be attached to that they all stuck out at the same distance.

This distance was just far enough to pierce the skin, but not far enough to do any serious damage.

Then after this was performed, soot or ashes were rubbed into the wounds, so that when the marks healed they healed with the color of the soot or ashes trapped under the skin.

Today’s tribal designs are not taken from any one group or one specific area.

Some of today's coolest images can be found here: Tattoo Designs - Art and Ideas

But it is, however, very similar to may actual “tribal designs” because of it’s hold and solid black patterns (most of which was most prevalent in Polynesia and the Pacific).

Tribal tattoo art relies upon sweeping solid curves with sharp points, instead of recognizable pictures or symbols.

Even though tribal art deals with complex patterns they are still applied to almost any other type or symbol or icon.

You can find tribal designs dealing with everything from flowers to animals.

So no matter what type of tribal tattoos you are looking for you are bound to find a beautiful example of it.