Element Tattoo Supply and Deathless Spring Clip to RCA Adapter

The word tattoo, or tattow in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Samoan word tatau, meaning "to strike". The Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology of tattoo as "In 18th c. tattaow, tattow. From Polynesian (Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, and so forth.) tatau. In Marquesan, tatu." Ahead of the importation of the Polynesian word, the practice of tattooing had been described in the West as painting, scarring or staining.The etymology of the body modification term is not to be confused with the origins of the word for the military drumbeat or functionality — see military tattoo. In this case, the English 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 now mention the way they mark themselves indelibly, every single of them is so marked by their humour or disposition".[5] The word tattoo was brought to Europe by Cook, when he returned in 1769 from his first voyage to Tahiti and New Zealand. In his narrative of the voyage, he refers to an operation called "tattaw".

Tattoo enthusiasts could refer to tattoos as "ink", "pieces", "skin art", "tattoo art", "tats" or "work"; to the creators as "tattoo artists", "tattooers" or "tattooists"; and to locations exactly where they perform as "tattoo shops", "tattoo studios" or "tattoo parlors".Mainstream art galleries hold exhibitions of both conventional and custom tattoo designs, such as Beyond Skin, at the Museum of Croydon. Copyrighted tattoo designs that are mass-created and sent to tattoo artists are known as "flash", a notable instance of industrial design.[8] Flash sheets are prominently displayed in numerous tattoo parlors for the objective of delivering both inspiration and prepared-created tattoo photos to clients.

The Japanese word irezumi implies "insertion of ink" and can imply tattoos making use of tebori, the classic Japanese hand strategy, a Western-style machine or any approach of tattooing employing insertion of ink. The most frequent word employed for traditional Japanese tattoo styles is horimono. Japanese might use the word tattoo to mean non-Japanese types of tattooing.