Flame Tattoos Tattoo Designs, Tattoo Pictures Page 3

The word tattoo, or tattow in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Samoan word tatau, meaning "to strike". The Oxford English Dictionary provides the etymology of tattoo as "In 18th c. tattaow, tattow. From Polynesian (Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, and so on.) tatau. In Marquesan, tatu." Just before 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 physique 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) 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 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 may possibly 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 where they operate as "tattoo shops", "tattoo studios" or "tattoo parlors".Mainstream art galleries hold exhibitions of each standard and custom tattoo designs, such as Beyond Skin, at the Museum of Croydon. Copyrighted tattoo designs that are mass-developed and sent to tattoo artists are identified as "flash", a notable instance of industrial style.[8] Flash sheets are prominently displayed in several tattoo parlors for the goal of offering each inspiration and ready-made tattoo images to customers.

The Japanese word irezumi means "insertion of ink" and can mean tattoos employing tebori, the standard Japanese hand strategy, a Western-style machine or any method of tattooing utilizing insertion of ink. The most frequent word employed for conventional Japanese tattoo styles is horimono. Japanese might use the word tattoo to mean non-Japanese types of tattooing.