Katrina survivors sport memorial tattoos US news Katrina, The Long Road Back NBC News

The word tattoo, or tattow in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Samoan wordtatau, which means "to strike". The Oxford English Dictionaryprovides the etymology of tattoo as "In 18th c. tattaow, tattow. FromPolynesian (Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, and so on.) tatau. InMarquesan, tatu." 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 overallperformance — see military tattoo. In this case, theEnglish word tattoo is derived from the Dutch word taptoe.The first 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, every 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 his 1st voyage to Tahiti and New Zealand. In his narrative of the voyage,he refers to an operation named "tattaw".

Tattoo enthusiasts may possibly 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 work as "tattoo shops", "tattoostudios" or "tattoo parlors".Mainstream art galleries hold exhibitions of bothtraditional and custom tattoo designs, such as Beyond Skin, at the Museumof Croydon. Copyrighted tattoo styles that are mass-created and sent to tattoo artists are identified as"flash", a notable instance of industrial design and style.[8] Flashsheets are prominently displayed in a lot of tattoo parlorsfor the purpose of deliveringboth inspiration and ready-created tattoopictures to consumers.

The Japanese word irezumi indicates "insertion of ink"and can imply tattoos making use of tebori, theclassic Japanese handapproach, a Western-style machine or any technique of tattooing using insertion of ink.The most frequent wordutilised for conventional Japanese tattoodesigns is horimono. Japanese might use the wordtattoo to imply non-Japanese designs of tattooing.