NOTE: Some content of this page is a modified copy from
'the World of Celtic Art' provided
by Peter Oostervink.
Tattooing is one of peoples' oldest art forms, coming somewhere between scratching in the dirt and cave painting. All it took was a clumsy person to fall in the fire and land on a charred, pointed stick, and someone else to notice that a mark was left when healing took place. It was more complex than scratching in the dirt, but simpler than mixing paints and making brushes for painting on cave walls. Sharpen a stick, char it in a fire, stick holes in your skin and you have art.
Early man didn't perceive tattooing as only art, they gave tattooing a mystical or magical significance. Tattooing to bring a person into a relationship, with a God, a magic power or future state was an idea with wide geographical distribution. Early tattooing was used to symbolize the fertility of the earth and of womankind, preservation of life after death, the sacredness of chieftainship and other cultural factors.
The ancient Celts didn't believe in written record keeping, consequently, there is little evidence of their tattooing remaining. Most modern Celtic designs are taken from the Irish Illuminated Manuscripts, of the 6th and 7th centuries. This is a much later time period than the height of Celtic tattooing. Designs from ancient stone and metal work are more likely to be from the same time period as Celtic tattooing.
In CELTIC BRITAIN, Charles Thomas writes, " A suggestion is that the Picts painted or tattooed their faces, bodies and exposed limbs and that by so doing they were maintaining in the far north a custom of great antiquity and former wide occurrence. In Scotland, tattooing may have been a pre-Celtic, pre-Iron Age inheritance; yet there appears to be tattooed cheeks on Gaulish coins, and we know of Caesar's remarks about the painted bodies, of the British tribes, while one post-Roman Irish source refers to tattooed shins - by far the most likely meanings would be those concerning the status or rank, the group affiliation and the occupation of anyone bearing such marks."
In CELTIC ART, author I.M. Stead says, "All the Britons dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue color and this gives them a more terrifying appearance in battle "
Caesar's observation is expanded by Herodian: 'they mark their bodies with various figures of all kinds of animals and wear no clothes for fear of concealing these figures.'
Herodian was mistaken in thinking that they wore no clothes, although they might well have stripped for battle. The leaves of woad were an important source of blue dye until the first half of the present century, and the Britons evidently used it to paint or tattoo their bodies. No Briton's skin has ever been found tattooed or painted or plain, but the body of an Iron Age warrior, completely preserved in Siberia's permafrost gives some idea of the scope of what might have been a common British art form, now completely lost.
In his 1925 book, THE HISTORY OF TATTOOING AND IT'S SIGNIFICANCE, W.D. Hambly wrote, "It seems clear that the Picts tattooed by puncture and that animals were the chief subject portrayed. The forms of beast, birds, and fish which the Cruithnae, or Picts tattooed on their bodies may have been totem marks. Certain marks on faces of Gaulish coins seem to be tattoo marks. Tattooing by puncture was possibly known among such Gaulish tribes as Ambiani, Baiocasses and Caletes. The markings of Picts is historically important in showing the advances of tattoo by puncture to an extreme northerly point of Great Britain before the Christian era."
The well-known tattoo artist Pat Fish, who began tattooing in 1984, writes:
"Although most people are seeking for "meaning" in their lives and tattoos, it is nevertheless true that the most delightful knotworks, braids, and zoomorphic animal figures are illustrations used to fill up precious vellum page space around texts from the Book of Kells.It is not necessary to know what they might have "meant" to the monks who painstakingly painted them. If the design speaks to you, it can be your tattoo. By wearing it you will learn meanings. I believe that the best way to look at these artworks is as a meditation and a prayer. They are not strictly representational, they do not attempt to duplicate nature exactly. They are a sinuous line, an intricate interweaving, and a thought that returns to source."
NOTE: The majority of tattoes
pictured on this page were actually done by Pat Fish:PAT FISH Luckyfish, Inc. P.O. Box 777 Santa Barbara, CA 93102-0777 USA (805) 962-7552 (2-8PM PST) http://www.luckyfish.com http://www.luckyfishart.com http://www.cafeshops.com/luckyfishBe ART : get a tattoo! Make your own luck.
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