Ancient Tattoo History

The tattooed hand of a Chiribaya mummy displayed at a museum 

Tattoos have been around for thousands of years, but why did people begin doing art and how did it become so popular? This week I'd like to post about the history of tattooing and common interceptions about the art, the good and the bad all throughout ancient tattooing history. Tattooing has been practiced for centuries by many cultures; in each culture tattooing may represent something different. The word tattoo originates from Tatau or Tatu. These ancient tattoo have of course have been done by traditional manners which include the diligent manual poking of the skin using a needle with ink on the end of it. Since the art has been around for so long, in ancient history, every culture has different meaning when the ink is put on. For example in India tattoos were used as tribal differentiation to tell who is from what tribe using cultural symbols. This includes the typical temporary "Henna" tattoo. Tattoos meant signs of religious beliefs, healing and sometimes punishment. In China, characters were marked on prisoner's faces to indicate their stature, this is an example of the art being used in a negative and degrading way. Some cities in Japan have even banned tattoos as they see it as a direct correlation to organized crime within underground communities. A lot of native Indian cultures had chiefs, or persons of high ranking with tattoo patterns on their face representing their rank within the community.



Within the Samoan culture, tattoos on males are referred to as pe'a, and the female tattoo is the malu. These tattoos cover the legs in such a way that it looks like the person is wearing pants from a distance. These tattoos were conducted during ceremonies when boys reach adulthood or when a member of the tribe is being promoted with the chief's authority. Though the pain is extreme, to refuse a tattoo of ceremony within the Samoan culture is extremely offensive. Not only has tattooing been used for symbolism, but also for make-up or in other words "permanent make-up". Cosmetic tattoos are used by women when they want to permanently shade certain parts of their face mainly eye brows or adding colour or blush to areas of the face. In today's day and age tattoos still have the same old qualities, people still practice and get traditional tattoos done to represent feelings, ancestry or belonging of a culture.

Dwayne Johnson's Tatau (Each part of his tattoo has a specific meaning within the Samoan culture) 

Adrenaline Personal Experiences

For this weekly blog post I'm going to take a different approach. Instead of reviewing artists around the world for their work, I'm going to review my personal experiences at a shop downtown by the name of Adrenaline Tattoos, from where I got two of my tattoos from. This is a great and well known shop in the city of Toronto with a wide variety of tattoo artists that specialize in different styles. Adrenaline Toronto not only specializes in tattooing but also piercings. With a large selection of both piercing specialists and tattoo artists, you can walk into the shop comfortably knowing you will get exactly what you want. The employees will make you feel welcome and more than happy with the results of your tattoos, while keeping a clean and safe workplace. I will review both artists which did the work for me on a personal experience basis and also show off some of their art.

Firstly i'll begin with my first tattoo done by an Adrenaline employee by the name of Raidel Bas. He was born and raised in Cuba, like myself. I chose him upon viewing his previous art in his portfolio, I was convinced i wanted to get my tattoo done by him. The tattoo the Raidel did for me was the Cuban Coat of Arms on my right shoulder. The overall job took about two hours as he was a fast worker, but also with great technique. I was happy with the job he had done and the work space. Adrenaline has rooms for each artist that they work in and customize to their liking. Raidel had pictures and sketches of his art around the room and music which made the experience that much better.

My second tattoo was done by Joe Baker. Finding this artist took me a while because for the piece I wanted done I needed a specific style of artist. Joe did a Koi Fish piece right below my coat of arms on my right arm. When I first went in for my consultation to explain what I wanted exactly, he listened carefully, by the time I went in for my schedule tattoo appointment, he had drawn out exactly what i was looking for and asked for. The reason I chose Joe is because i saw the complexity of his art when i was looking through his portfolio, along with his long years of experience tattooing. Joe has been a long time employee at Adrenaline and he is known by the tattooing community within Toronto. His years in the industry reflect on his work style as it is amazing, while also being a fast worker. My Koi fish took about three hours to finalize but the quality of the work was most definitely worth the wait. My experience with Joe was above excellent, the work space was clean and tidy and it was a good environment overall, and I would most definitely return to Adrenaline for a third time.

My overall personal experiences with Adrenaline Tattoo Toronto have been phenomenal and I have never walked out disappointed. The moral of the story is; if you need to find a great parlor with great artists, you should most definitely check out Adrenaline Tattoo Toronto!

Some of Raidel's and Joe's art can be seen if you click on their names!

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Abstract Colors

Not a lot of tattoo artists are able to complete such great abstract color tattoos because of the high level of complexity. Just understanding the blending technique and 3-D aspect of such tattoos is extremely difficult. Nick Baxter has successfully mastered the color blending when it comes to tattooing to near realism, even though in some cases the chosen art style by the customer will be more of a fantasy style of work. Nick's art revolves around spiritualism and the links between human being and other animals and wild-life, his art has a strong connection to the natural aspect of the world using vibrant colors that bring out each piece. What sets Nick aside from your every-day tattoo artist is that he doesn't only trace out the tattoo on your skin; he understands the depth and complexity associated with the incorporation of color blending.

Nick was born 1981 in Connecticut and lived in New Haven up until 2008 where he had moved to Texas. Throughout school his passion was always complementing the creative aspects of the human brain which lead him to particularly be interested in tattooing since there are endless types and techniques. In 2010 he began his career in the tattooing industry and up until now he has been featured in every top tattoo magazines from around the world including other publications. Not only has he been featured in such great publications but he also created a book of his own in 2008, "Sharp-Focus Realism In Oil". This book includes his gallery of oil paintings within the past decade and instructional oil-painting text. In this book Nick teaches you how to smooth out oil paintings to make them look more rich and professional, also teaching beginner tattoo artists needing to learn tricks and pointers which Nick has learned over his course of being in the industry. Nick holds exhibitions where he not only shows off his art for tattoos, but also for oil paintings. Nick is also a member of the "International Guild of Realism" which is a group that achieves advanced realism through art of all types. At the end of the day, all art is intended to come alive, and be visualized as something real. Incorporating all of what Nick has learned through the guild, and just his oil painting experience alone, gratifies him with great skill and technique when it comes to tattooing. Nick's success in tattooing has been granted through his technique and skills developed through his other art such as his profession in oil painting, from which all the use of abstract colors come from.

Nick Baxter's:

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Nick Baxter's "Sharp-Focus Realism In Oil" 

Black & Grey

Black and Grey tattoos are very popular in the industry and are favored by a lot of people over colored tattoos because they tend to last longer. Black and Grey aren't really using the color grey, this refers to the term that there is no color being used in the pieces. The reason why black & grey tattoos last longer is because generally the color in some color tattoos fade after a while, caused by sunlight UV radiation, soaps and other harsh chemicals which drain color, and simply the passage of time. Paul Booth is a popular artist who specializes in black & grey tattoos, this style of tattooing is tough as well because you have to make 3D looking images with the absence of color. Paul Booth has a fully covered body consisting of black and grey tattoos which look like a giant work of art.

He attended a Catholic school in the 12th grade in New Jersey and caught the teacher's attention because of his constant doodling and sketching of skeletons and monsters, this turned into the art in which he specializes in today; black & grey monster and abstract dark imagery of monsters and supernatural. Artists recognized Paul at a tattoo convention where he was recognized for a demon piece he had done. Paul takes his patients through an experience when he is doing work on them. After Paul opened a shop with other artists with similar skills, he chose to design the tattoo parlor like no other. The name of his shop is "Last Rites Tattoos". In this parlor, Paul wanted to satisfy the imagination of his clients by making a dungeon like parlor, with little lighting, skulls and heavy metal in the background. Since his art style is demonic, dark and gritty, he wanted to make the surrounding environment accompany his style and he did this in a smart and successful way. In other words, the studio somewhat looks like a creepy haunted house, in a cool artistic way. Paul Booth usually charges $400 an hour but he goes beyond drawing something on somebody with a needle. He wants to understand your fears and what drives you to get such tattoos, this is used to help him decide the depth and complexity of the final piece. His style is strictly dark, bloody and haunting, Paul will refuse your offer of rainbows and cute bird tattoos.

Paul Booth has many honors such tattooing metal bands which correlate to his art, such bands as Slipknot, Slayer, and Lamb of God and in 2002 Paul was nominated the "King of rock tattoos" by Rolling Stone Magazine. Along with the privilege to do his great tattoo work on such bands he has also had appearances on public television on networks like CNN, Discovery, MTV, TLC and more. Black and grey tattooing is preferred when trying to accomplish a dark and gritty look which is favored by a lot of heavy metal musicians and dark imagery enthusiasts.

See more of Paul Booth's art here.
Have a tour of his abstract studio here.

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Come and see the 5th Annual Ottawa Tattoo Expo taking place November 15, 16, and 17 2013. Come out and support these great artists !

For more info visit: Ottawa Tattoo Expo