From winding and elaborate Celtic knots, to the bold and unique scarifications of African tribes, tattoos appear in almost every civilization throughout history, making it an essential part of their cultures and an art of its own.
Tattooing was very dangerous, crude, and took months to complete in many cultures, but was seen as a sacred art and was taken incredibly seriously. With no specific tools to carve into the skin, ordinary blades and wood carving tools were used and natural pigments were used for colors. Ancient peoples took pride in their brands and marked the pain of carving the skin as a test of adulthood. These marks also showed ancestry and expressed a person’s social status across languages and borders where words could not.