12 Cool Tattoo Lettering Designs Project 4 Gallery

The word tattoo, or tattow in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Samoan wordtatau, which means "to strike". The Oxford English Dictionary offers the etymology of tattoo as "In 18th c. tattaow, tattow. FromPolynesian (Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, and so on.) tatau. InMarquesan, tatu." Just before the importation of thePolynesian word, the practice of tattooing had been described in the West aspainting, scarring or staining.The etymology of the body modification term is not to be confused withthe origins of the word for the military drumbeat or functionality — see military tattoo. In this case, theEnglish word tattoo is derived from the Dutch word taptoe.The 1st written reference to the word tattoo (or tatau)seems in the journal of Joseph Banks (24 February 1743 – 19 June 1820),the naturalist aboard explorer James Cook's ship HMS Endeavour: "I shall nowmention the way they mark themselves indelibly, each of them is so marked by their humour or disposition".[5] The word tattoowas brought to Europe by Cook, when he returned in 1769 from hisvery first voyage to Tahiti and New Zealand. In his narrative of the voyage,he refers to an operation named "tattaw".

Tattoo enthusiasts may refer to tattoos as "ink","pieces", "skin art", "tattoo art", "tats" or "work"; to the creators as "tattooartists", "tattooers" or "tattooists"; and to locations where they perform as "tattoo shops", "tattoostudios" or "tattoo parlors".Mainstream art galleries hold exhibitions of each conventional and custom tattoo styles, such as Beyond Skin, at the Museumof Croydon. Copyrighted tattoo styles that are mass-developed and sent to tattoo artists are known as"flash", a notable instance of industrial design.[8] Flashsheets are prominently displayed in several tattoo parlorsfor the objective of offeringboth inspiration and prepared-made tattoopictures to customers.

The Japanese word irezumi indicates "insertion of ink"and can mean tattoos using tebori, thestandard Japanese hand strategy, a Western-style machine or any technique of tattooing using insertion of ink.The most common word utilized for standard Japanese tattoostyles is horimono. Japanese could use the wordtattoo to mean non-Japanese types of tattooing.