- The word tattoo, or tattov in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Polynesian word tatau, meaning “to write”.
- The first written reference to the word tattoo, appears in the journal of Josep Banks, the naturalist aboard Captain Cook’s ship the HMS Endeavour: “I shall now mention the way they mark themselves indelibly, each of them is so marked by their humour or disposition”.
- The word “tattoo” was brought to Europe by the explorer James Cook, when he returned in 1769 from his first voyage to Tahiti and New Zealand.
- Many tattoos serve as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, sexual lures and marks of fertility, pledges of love, punishment, amulets and talismans, protection, and as the marks of outcasts, slaves and convicts.
- Skin, at the Museum of Croydon. Copyrighted tattoo designs that are mass-produced and sent to tattoo artists are known as “flash”, a notable instance of industrial design.