Whether it’s modern works, or a more traditional style, tattooing is an art form. Starting out as a way to tell someone’s life story on their body and having certain tattoos to do certain tasks, to being viewed as a taboo that parents of teenage nonconformists cringe at in religious animosity, to now being an artistic way of expressing one’s personality, interests, and events in their own lives on their skin. History and facts, or personal experience and opinions, we have all let curiosity about this body modification get the better of us.





Everyone has their preference when it comes to the type of tattoo they like and or want. Tribal tattoos such as some originating from Samoans and tribes from New Zealand. The tattoos from these tribes aren’t necessarily pictures to identify as objects, but designs and symbols from their language. They use these symbols to explain their ranking in the tribe, how wealthy they are, and certain rituals the person with the tattoo can perform. Some women have tattoos on the hands, called Lima, which are required to serve kava, a narcotic drink made from the root of the kava shrub, during ceremonial occasions.





But what if you want a tattoo with a more personal feel to it? That’s when modern tattooing comes into play. Today’s tattoos are much easier to decipher. Tattoos of birds, flowers, and animals all have certain meanings, but then they get even more meticulous because breeds of birds, flowers, and animals have unambiguous meanings to them. You can get a tattoo so close to what you want say with your skin art, you might as well have come up with meaning of the tattoo yourself.




To get even more personal, you are able to get someone’s portrait permanently etched into your bark. You know them, others may not and even if they do, they aren’t the same person to them as they are to you. Not only is portrait tattooing the most intricate tattooing known to artists, there is no tattoo more personal. Even your own name isn’t as personal. How many “Sarah’s”, “Jacobs”, and “Michaels” do you know? People are as diverse as the meanings of the tattoos they get.

Tattoos arrive in many aspects, colors and essences, but nothing will twist the meaning they have to the proprietor of the emblem.