Native young people leave behind traditional tattooing customs

In indigenous populations, young people are moving away from traditional tribal tattooing customs, according to Lars Krutak. 

Those young people are more interested in getting sports star or public-figure tattoos because those are  trendy and fashion-oriented, Krutak said. 

Those tattoos are also considered more modern, according to Krutak. 

“Traditional tribal tattoos in some places are sort of looked down upon as more primitive and sort of backward,” Krutak said. 

“The youth ... want something more colorful. They don’t want this geometric stuff, and so they’re migrating towards these more modern designs ... which I think is a shame,” Krutak said. 

But some people in these communities try to preserve the tattooing culture, according to Krutak.

“Certain individuals ... are coming up in these communities and trying to ... promote awareness ... that we have something that’s unique and that’s our own. ... that no else has in the world. ... Why would you want to go copy others people’s designs when we have this incredible tattooing culture and history?” Krutak said. 

Krutak said that one of his goals is to honor those who came before and document both their stories and the meaning behind tattooing. 

How do we know where we are going in the future if we don’t know where this all came from in the past? Krutak said. 

Krutak's research is about promoting awareness, educating the public and "trying to create some sort of a renaissance back in these home communities where tattooing is disappearing," he said. 

Researcher: Earliest tattoo was cosmetic

Tattoos are a visual form of language, according to Lars Krutak, archeologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, tattoo researcher and author of three books about tribal tattooing including “Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification.”

The earliest evidence of tattooing is a mustache on a 7,000-year-old South American mummy, according to Krutak.

The second-earliest evidence comes from the Iceman, Otzi, discovered in the Otztal Alps in 1991, Krutak said.  

“About 85 percent of his linear markings line up with classical acupuncture points to relieve rheumatism, and CT scans showed a body wracked by arthritis,” 

Therapeutic tattooing is still practiced in some parts of the world, according to Krutak. 

“It’s a practice that's continued on for 5,000 years. ... It’s obviously an effective remedy since people have been doing it for so long and they continue to do it,” Krutak said. 

Historically, tattooing has also been used to mark combat victories and other warfare honors, Krutak said.  

Many tattoos also marked significant life achievements and stages, like reaching adulthood, or having a first child. It depends, cross-culturally, according to Krutak. 

“Other tattoos ... served as memorials for individuals ... passed loved ones who died,” he said. 

Some people believed that tattoos could repel evil spirits that brought disease, according to Krutak. 

Tattoos also served as symbols of identity, Krutak said. 

“Clan markers, lineage markers, ... basically, if you know how to read these symbols, you can ultimately tell sort of the biographies of individuals. You can read their life story if you are armed with the ability to read this visual language,” Krutak said.  

Chicago Tattooing & Piercing artist inks a sweet cover-up.