WEBVTT - The Science of Tattoos 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.480 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.080 My name is Robert lamp and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.480 what's your relationship with tattoos? Do you have tattoos? Is 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:21.720 anyone close to you have tattoo? Well, I don't have 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.520 a tattoo. I'm noncommittal by nature. And this is how 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.800 I found out is by pondering like, well, maybe I'll 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:29.680 get a tattoo. What tattoo would I get? And then 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:35.040 just be like, I can't commit. Um, my husband is tattooed, 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:40.199 and I like them. I parturefually, like chef tattoos that 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.479 exalt like their favorite kind of food or their favorite night. 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.840 Oh yeah, I like that. There's the guy on Mind 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.600 of a Chef the second season who has the one 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.479 arm is sleeved and different vegetables and ingredients. My apologies 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:55.360 for not remembering his name, but check out the second 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:58.080 season of Mind of a Chef too, good stuff. Yeah, 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.480 but that's can be really kind of fascinating. What about you, Well, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:06.119 I do have one tattoo. And to your noncommittal thing 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.200 that you brought up, indeed with me. It was like 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:11.880 a long sort of deciding process because I always kind 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.520 of wanted one, but I wasn't impulsome enough to just 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.760 go out and get like some stupid tattoo in junior 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:19.959 higher high school. So I I spent a lot of 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:22.240 time thinking, all right, if I get the one tattoo, 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.320 get one one mark of my body that's gonna be permanent. 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.080 You know, what is it gonna be? Where am I 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:28.560 gonna put it? It It has to have some sort of 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.160 um you know, it needs to be a potent enough symbol. 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.399 It needs to uh to to to mean something to me. 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:36.840 Because if you get a whole bunch of them, if 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:38.960 you just get sleeves, and you can afford to have 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.000 some duds in the mix, right, and you can cover 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.399 them up later on. But if you're just gonna get 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.160 the one, you gotta really hit it out of the 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:49.360 park so that it's you know, you can argue that 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:50.640 maybe I didn't hit it out of the park with this, 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.240 so it's um. I had the design done by an 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.200 artist by the name of Michael Manning, and it's it's 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:02.600 on my my ribs and it's the Yeah, it was. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.520 It was probably not a great place pain wise for 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.720 a first tattoo, but it's essentially the spear wound of Christ. 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.600 But it's also kind of like um a volva and 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.079 also kind of like an eye. So like, I had 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.280 those three requests because I'm always I've always been fascinated 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.560 with with some of the Stranger Christ imagery, particularly images 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:24.920 such as the you know, the with the finger is 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.360 going into the whole and the resurrected Christ's body, and 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.040 the idea that that the spear of wound and the 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.440 resurrected Christ is not only like yonic symbolism but is 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.600 all but it is ultimately about combining masculine and feminine 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:41.400 aspects of God into one body. So I was always 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:42.960 interested in all that stuff. So I thought, well, hell 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.160 I would just get a tattoo that kind of encompasses 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.040 some of those ideas. And uh is kind of a 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.360 you know, a shifting, amorphous symbol of something. Well, I 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:53.080 was just about to say, you really nailed it, but 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.600 that's not a choice of words. But really, seriously, I 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.639 mean that is a thoughtful tattoo. Well, thank you. Yeah, 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:01.920 And plus it's out of the way, so nobody sees 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.880 it unless I'm you know, swimming or something so works 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.880 on all accounts. Now, a two thousand and twelve Harris 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.200 poll found that twenty one percent of American adults have 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.639 a tattoo. That's one in five, which is a lot 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.120 higher than I thought it would be. Yeah, yeah, I mean, 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:17.920 I guess you know. Part of it is that you 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:21.320 don't necessarily have to see tattoos. I've I've I've seen it. 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.640 When I was researching this, I kept coming across I 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:26.639 don't know something in the keywords I was throwing in. 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.800 I kept finding an article about Dolly Parton being secretly 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.519 covered with tattoos. I think she's a butterfly or something 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.640 emerging from her boosom. But I mean, I've never seen it. 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:41.880 So so so everybody could essentially have butterfly tattoos on 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:43.680 their stern ums, have been Lessia at the beach with them. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:45.320 You're just not gonna know. Oh you're gonna call it 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:51.520 this sternum the sternum. Yeah, I alright. Um. You probably 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.960 are familiar with all sorts of sites that celebrate the good, 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.760 the bad, the terrible of tattoos, because one of the 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:02.560 intriguing things about tattoos is that they can be permanent. 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.320 Although we have technology now to get rid of them. 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.440 But essentially what you're doing is you're trying to immortalize 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:13.080 some sort of idea. So when you see some bad 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:18.200 grammar in a tattoo, then it's especially mortifying, right, Yeah, 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:23.039 bad grammar, just weird, perplexing imagery. Particularly one that I 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:25.040 was come back to was the one of the dolphin 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.640 setting on like a lazy boy recliner smoking a ball. 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.600 That's one of my favorites. Um, and really that's that's 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:34.800 That's not even like one of the worst tattoos. It's 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:38.360 not like it's not really offensive to anybody. Uh, it's 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.800 just strange that someone was like that, that's going on 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:43.200 me and I'm going to take it with me to 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:47.480 the grave. It's gonna last longer than my life. That tattoo. Now, 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.240 there's one I saw that was super earnest and kind 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.520 of sad only because of the way it turned out. 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.320 But um, it was a bat tattoo that said only 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.680 God can judge me. The problem with it is that 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.120 it had super fancy scroll so that j look like 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:06.839 an f and so it turned out essentially looking like 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:11.760 only God can fudge me, fudge me. Okay, all right, Uh, 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.520 it's yeah. I mean that's the power of tattoos though, 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:19.480 is that it's it's the the the permanence or the 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.200 the ideal permanence of the thing. It's what may can 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:26.039 make a tattoo uh inspiring and empowering. It's what it 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.880 can make a tattoo uh dehumanizing and uh. And we've 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:34.159 seen examples of both ends of the spectrum throughout human history. 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.120 I mean, you go back in time, you look at 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.599 some of our earliest examples. We found, Um, we found 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.600 them etched in the flesh of the five thousand, two 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.400 hundred year old Ootsi the Iceman. This was the Iceman 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.360 that we found on the Italian Austrian border back in 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:54.039 nine And we also find very early examples of tattoos 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:58.560 among the Egyptians, the only the females. This is a 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.320 really interesting They this to date them back to around 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.120 two thousand year two. This would date them back to 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.039 around two thousand b c. E UM. And these were 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.680 these women were probably they think royal Cortisan's dancers, ETCETERA. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:16.680 Archaeologist Johan Fletcher theorizes that these tattoos had a therapeutic 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.719 role and functioned as a permanent form of amulet during 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.440 the very different difficult time of pregnancy and birth, and 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.760 these would have been placed on the abdomen um around 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.640 the breasts and uh. And so in this we see 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.680 the idea of the the tattoo is is is a 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.239 is almost a magical spell as a protective uh feature. 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.680 And and really you see that again through throughout human 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.440 history even today, A lot of times we get those 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:46.120 those tattoos on us um to immortalize some some spirit 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.839 that we aspire to, or some person that means a 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:55.400 lot to us, some deity, some supernatural force, whatever, some 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.000 sort of symbolics, some symbolism that we wish to take 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.279 into our flesh. One of the more interesting ones to 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:07.039 me that I ran across was from a archaeological dig. Uh. 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:11.960 These archaeologists were working in an icy plateau in eastern Russia, 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.360 and they stumbled upon a burial chamber of a mummy 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:20.000 who became known as the Siberian Ice Princess, and her 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.680 year old body was incredibly well preserved in the permit frost, 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.040 and it had elaborate tattoos on both of her arms. Now, 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.080 her head was shaved, and she wore a wig and 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.720 a tall wooden head dress decorated with cats and swans, 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:36.760 and they think she goes a princess or someone who 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.480 of elevated status, because not only that she was surrounded 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.200 by six horses that were saddled and bridled they were 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.320 supposed to be They think her spiritual escorts into the 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.400 other world. And she also had a little um container 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.600 of cannabis, which they then found out maybe had something 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.040 to do with alleviating her pain, because she did have 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:01.160 some cancer growth in her body and she had some 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.400 form of osteoporosis too. So, um, what I thought it 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.480 was interesting in terms of the tattoos is that the 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:12.320 person who lead this Natalia, Paulice Max, says that compared 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.320 to all tattoos found by archaeologists around the world, those 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.120 on the mummies of the Pazarik people whom she was 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.280 a part of, are the most complicated and the most beautiful. 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.920 And so what's interesting about this tattoo is that they're 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.080 they're the sort of language that they deal in is 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.400 of animal imagery, and so they had a kind of 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:37.600 animal based language, which is really cool. And Paul's Max 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.120 says that these tattoos were used as a means of 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.720 personal identification, So think of your own passport. This idea 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.800 is that this would tell the story of who you were, 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:51.960 so that in the afterlife you could meet up with others. Interesting, 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.720 there's a reminds me of an old Eastern saying that 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:57.480 I ran across that said that if if you do 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.680 not have a tattoo, did it's almost like you don't exist, 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.480 Like you're you're basically invisible of the tat. By tattooing 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.600 something into your body, um, like you're making yourself more real. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.600 I'm thinking about that all right. Now. You mentioned that 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.120 the sort of medicinal aspects of that tattoo, I should 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.360 go back and mentioned that on our our friend Ootsi 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.520 the iceman uh Ootsies tattoos consisted of dots and small 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.679 crosses on his lower spine and right knee and ankle joints, 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:30.240 and those correspond to areas of scrain induced degeneration uh 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.040 with the suggestion here being that they may have been 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:37.080 applied to alleviate joint pain, and therefore we're essentially therapeutic essentially, 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.120 and again you're getting also probably into a certain amount 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:44.280 of magical thinking as well and ritual but but ultimately 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:49.120 an early form of of a medicinal tattoo. Now you 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:53.400 had mentioned Egyptian women and um tattoos that would help 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.640 as sort of talisman's And there's one example that the 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.319 British Museum looked at. They had scan and ripped the 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.920 mummy of an Egyptian woman dating back to seven hundred CE. 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.480 They found a tattoo on her thigh and as just 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.520 deciphered by the curators, the tattoo, written in Ancient Greek, 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.840 is transliterated as m I x A h A or Michael. 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.760 So the idea here's that its thought that the the 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:22.600 name was referring to the archangel Michael, and because it 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:24.760 was placed on our inner thigh, that it might have 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:29.120 been a protection not just for the birth of a child, 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:36.400 but maybe even against a sexual violent act. Interesting. Here's 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.200 another interesting religious tattoo. And I do want to point 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.599 out that we're not going to attempt to chronicle every 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.959 fascinating tattoo tradition that's been passed down through human history, 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.120 because there are many whole books have been written about this. 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.360 But we're just hitting some high points here. For us 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.080 Um during the Crusades in the eleven and twelfth century, 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.600 Um Christian warriors identified themselves with the mark of the 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.440 Jerusalem Cross, so they could be given a proper Christian 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.959 burial of died in battle. And that that one is 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:04.360 kind of interesting because on one hand it's a religious tattoo, 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:07.480 but it's also it also is sort of like some 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:12.160 of the modern models of medical tattoos that will touch on. Basically, 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.720 it's saying who and what you were for anyone that 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.640 would come across your body. All right, we're gonna take 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:19.480 a quick break and we get back. We're gonna talk 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:28.320 prison tats. All right, we're back now. Earlier and we 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.920 mentioned the the power of tattoos. The permanence of tattoos has, 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.000 of course the positive and empowering side, but also a 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.640 negative into humanizing side. You do see a long tradition 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.920 of penal tattoos uh throughout human history, particularly uh. You 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.240 see it in Chinese, see it in Japan, you see 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.200 it in the Hellenistic period. And this is the idea 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.520 that you have, You have your your criminals, and you 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:54.319 want to mark your criminals. So what do you do. 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.400 You tattoo them and you let everyone know then from 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.199 you know, ideally for the rest of their lives. We're 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.840 dealing with someone who committed this act. So that's taking 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:05.880 the permanence of that tattoo and using it in a 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.640 very very negative manner. Yeah, but now you know, fast 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.640 forward to today and you see prison tattoos more of 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.800 aspect of prison culture. And to be clear, according to 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:20.120 the Federal Bureau of Prisons, having a tattoo kit is 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.440 considered contraband for a number of reasons the US as 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.480 a weapon, it could spread infectious disease. And yet, as 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:30.440 we know, contraband gets through the gates, and in fact, 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:34.280 there's an entire prison economy based on contraband. Yeah, I 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.000 think we went into some of this in our did 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.800 we go into this in our our our episodes about digestion? 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.600 Because I know Mary Roach went into the prison wallet 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.720 a lot in her book Prison Wallet. That's right. I 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:51.120 cannot imagine smuggling a tattoo machine into my prison wallet 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:53.880 based on some of the other things that get smuggled in. 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:59.040 The tattoo gun is probably not the worst. But but indeed, 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.160 I mean, you could you look at a prison environment 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:03.800 and you have so many there's it's it's almost a 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.439 perfect model for why a lot of people get tattoos. 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.920 Because you're cut off from people you love, so you 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.640 might get a tattoo uh of some reminds you of 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.080 somebody outside. You also have to in many cases bond 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.240 with a different cultural group you're you know, you have 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:22.719 prison gangs, for lack of another word, prison cultures, and 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:24.360 that you want to show that you are a part 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.240 of that culture. You make that that culture a part 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.839 of your flesh. Also, it's a it's a place where 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.800 some inmates find religion, and you want to show that 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.800 that this deity or this uh, this model of faith 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:37.480 means a lot to you, so you put it into 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:42.240 your skin. Retired law enforcement official in prison culture expert 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:45.600 Richard Lichton says, quote, I've talked to many inmates, and 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:47.840 tattoos are always about what's important to them. It can 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:50.720 be something personal likes about this name or a Bible quote, 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.720 or to belong to a group, to intimidate others, or 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.160 to tell a story. So I think that's really important 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.280 to uh. And we'll talk a little bit more about this. 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.040 But you know, if you're in prison and you, as 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:03.880 you say, you want to bond with a certain group 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:05.840 or identify with the group, the easiest way to do 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.640 that is to have a permanent tattoo inked on you. Yeah. 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:11.760 I mean it kind of comes back to the basic 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.280 idea that as humans, we we all look kind of 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.840 the same on the outside. You know, there's not there's 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:20.800 nothing on the outside that necessarily gives a lot of 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.120 depth about character. And the tattoo is an ability to 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.360 take our inner world and make it a part of 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.600 our outer world. Well. And in terms of prison culture too, 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.360 it's a bit of survival, right, especially if you're trying 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.760 to join a group or you know, get protection from 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:40.080 that group. So, um, let's get to the tear drop tattoo. 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:42.240 Shall we kind of get that out of the way, 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:45.640 because there's always that always comes up, and I feel 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.240 like there's no definitive answer for this. This is the 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.960 idea that you have a tear drop tattoo you've killed 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:56.640 somebody in prison. Yes, okay, that's usually there. I should 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:00.680 say that most people associate it with, you know, the 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.760 fact that the wearer has killed someone, but it can 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.160 also mean that the wearer has served a long prison 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:11.000 sentence or is mourning the loss of a family member, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.280 And a clear tear drop can mean that the wearer 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.360 has committed an attempted murder or alternatively that a close 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:22.160 friend was killed and the wearer is seeking revenge. You know, 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:24.840 we haven't even touched on this, but just as a 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.360 call back to our episode The Zen of Pain and 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.720 to a listener mail that we received and I believe 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:33.960 red in our recent episode, getting a tattoo stings a bit. 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.960 And Uh, it's depending on on your means of of 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.480 of actually uh, putting the tattoo in your flesh. Um 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:46.680 it it becomes a ritual, it becomes an experience of pain, 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:48.880 a rich wolf pain, and so you have that whole 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:52.120 dynamic going on as well as you say, get in 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.840 the name of a departed loved one put into your flesh. Yeah. 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.160 And I think that the reason why that tear drop 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.640 one is appoignant or so trouble link to so many 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:05.560 people because it's such a mark on that person and 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:10.160 in such an outward expression of the angst or sadness 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.480 that that consumes them. Presumably. Yeah, because when you get 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:15.960 a facial tattoo, you're changing the way that you communicate 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.240 with the world. Um. I think we've discussed before on 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:22.360 here that, uh, when a when a hominid species such 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.040 as humans have faces that kind of all look alike. 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:29.080 It's because the more the more like we are, the 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.920 more nuance comes out in our expressions, the more that 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.120 we're better able to communicate with one another because we 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:40.680 have kind of a similar facial recognition cognition system in place. Yeah, 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.680 so so, yeah, the idea of facial tattoo is often 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.560 kind of kind of frightening, kind of intimidating. Um. And 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:49.680 of course you see a great tradition of a facial 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:53.520 tattooing with the Maori people, really beautiful facial tattoos, but 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.240 in particularly with the men, it's it's often you know, 0:16:56.240 --> 0:17:00.760 it's about uh, putting on this this impressive usual display, 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.280 this aggressive display intimidation. Right, So it's sort of a 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.320 kind of embodied cognition, which we've talked about before with 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.640 the old lab coats, that people dawn sometimes and they 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:14.560 feel more important or more proficient. In the same way, 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.159 if you're altering your face to look more intimidating or 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:21.240 to express express your grief, then you are embodying that 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.159 that is changing the person that you are expressing to 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:28.360 the world. Now, speaking of gangs and cultural tattoos and 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.800 and about the hour display, sometimes it's about the hidden 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.360 display as well, because I think one of the most 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:39.520 remarkable examples of like a gang cultural tattoo is of course, 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:44.000 the the the body tattoos of the yakuza, the Japanese 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:48.200 gangster class. We have these elaborate designs that they generally 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.879 have themes of of unresolved conflict and also symbols of 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:56.200 of character traits that the the wear wants to aspire to. 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.960 For instance, the carp often shows up as a representation 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.800 and of strength and perseverance. Yeah, and then there's also 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.359 you know, sort of the the language behind them, So 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.720 it's not just the bonding, but it's also sort of 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.000 again embodied cognition in a way of saying, this is 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.000 the life that I have chosen for myself. When it 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:19.680 comes to gang tattooing, the Canada Border Services Agency document 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.160 Tattoos and their Meetings says that the three dot tattoo, 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:29.960 usually in a triangle configuration, it signifies prison, hospital, cemetery, 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.919 and that represents the path and the ultimate end of 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.240 a gang lifestyle. So it's the kind of commitment to 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.240 that lifestyle to to have that tattoo and say that 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:44.240 I accept of these maybe the terms of of uh, 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.680 my employment or the culture that I'm entering into now. 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:52.239 We mentioned medical tattoos a little bit earlier, and of 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:55.400 course we we still see the use of tattoos in medicine, 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.159 though not as a mystical curative factor, but you do 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.160 see them. For instance, is to indicate a medically relevant 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.520 condition on a body of your location, kind of like 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.600 those Crusader tattoos we mentioned earlier. Essentially would would let 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.200 someone know this person has this condition, please treat them accordingly. 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.720 You have in some cases, US soldiers have a tattoo 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.960 version of their dog tags that are sometimes called meat tags, 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:21.800 and this is essentially the same thing as the crusader 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:25.640 tattoo that says this dead body was so and so 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.119 and this is where they were formed, that is their unit, etcetera. 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:32.840 But then you also see um medical tattoos uh used 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:37.480 in radiotherapy. You're using a radiation to to treat a 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:39.639 very particular part of the body. You want to hit 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.240 the same part, the same area each and every time. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.959 You need a permanent marker of where to to apply 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:50.240 that radiation. Yeah, and usually it's just for like freckle 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.320 sized dots, and you know, in sort of a square 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.800 configuration that's mapping out that patch of tissue that needs 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.679 to get hit over and over and over again. And 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.359 the more accurate you can make that and the faster 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.639 the process, especially for people who are going through say 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:08.560 six weeks or more radiation treatments, this can be really 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:12.840 really helpful. Indeed, also you'll see medical tattoos sometimes used 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:18.640 for aerola replacement or parvy a replacement at following them assectomy. 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:20.600 So again this dude, those are just some some quick 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:25.840 points on the long, rich timeline of human tattooing. All Right, 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:27.439 we're gonna take a quick break. When we get back, 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:36.520 we're going to talk about the actual mechanics of tattooing. Hey, 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.080 we're back. So we've talked about the history of tattooing, 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.240 culture of tattooing, and it brings us up to the 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.280 modern day. Yeah, and before we really talk about the 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.440 more of the modern aspects of tattooing, including the invention 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:52.000 of the tattoo machine, we should say that, um, the 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:56.080 reason why tattooing became so popular, or one of the 0:20:56.160 --> 0:21:01.159 reasons is people like Joseph Banks, who was naturalist aboard 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.680 the British ship Endeavor and According to a Smithsonian article 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.119 by Abigail West, he was one of the first to 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:16.160 record encounters with the Polynesian practice of tattooings or tattoo um. 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:19.479 And again we're talking about seventeen sixty nine when Banks 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:23.440 was watching a twelve year old girl being extensively adorned, 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.840 and then he wrote about it, and it really captured 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:29.200 the imaginations of a lot of people, and they then 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:33.720 wanted to also participate with tattoos, and indeed we have 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.639 a rich tradition of sailor tattoos um. I think probably 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.880 some of my first encounters with tattoos were individuals saying 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.040 a church environment who were veterans and had been sailors 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.919 or otherwise engaged in the Second World War, and they 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:51.320 would have these sort of faded miss shape and tattoos 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:54.520 that may have once been mermaids or or or just 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.520 naked ladies or whatever, but had slowly turned into more 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.120 sort of green blurs on their arms. And you can 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:04.480 see the appeal because you know, here you have back 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:07.320 in the day someone looking at these tribes, and you 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:11.280 can see how sailors who consider themselves a community and 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:14.359 to themselves like a tribe might want to use as 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.880 bonding as well, or to tell stories about their travels. Yeah, 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.720 and and they're of course engaging and often risky employment 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.320 out there on the on the high seat. So you 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:26.600 have every reason to want to make something a little 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.440 permanent in your flesh when you're dealing with all of 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:33.000 this uncertainty. So you won't be surprised to know that 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:37.560 it became so popular that in December eighth eight someone 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.560 by the name of Samuel F. O'Reilly received a patent 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:45.920