kirschgruen: Tattoo Lettering Designs

The word tattoo, or tattow in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Samoan wordtatau, which means "to strike". The Oxford English Dictionary gives 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 overallperformance — see military tattoo. In this case, theEnglish word tattoo is derived from the Dutch word taptoe.The very first written reference to the word tattoo (or tatau)appears 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, everysingle 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 could refer to tattoos as "ink","pieces", "skin art", "tattoo art", "tats" or "work"; to the creators as "tattooartists", "tattooers" or "tattooists"; and to placesexactly where they work as "tattoo shops", "tattoostudios" or "tattoo parlors".Mainstream art galleries hold exhibitions of eachtraditional 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 known as"flash", a notable instance of industrial style.[8] Flashsheets are prominently displayed in numerous tattoo parlorsfor the objective of supplyingboth inspiration and prepared-made tattoophotos to customers.

The Japanese word irezumi indicates "insertion of ink"and can mean tattoos employing tebori, thestandard Japanese hand strategy, a Western-style machine or any approach of tattooing making use of insertion of ink.The most widespread wordutilised for classic Japanese tattoostyles is horimono. Japanese could use the wordtattoo to mean non-Japanese styles of tattooing.