Tattooing

Sitting through a lecture on tattooing was interesting. Recent years have seen a boom in the popularity of tattoos and makes it easy to forget that the origins of tattoos go back more than 2000 years. Tattoos originated independently in a number of places and have been seen in tribes for hundreds of years. Nowadays tattoos are seen as a way of decorating the skin but for tribal communities tattoos have far more meaning. Looking at a number of tribes that use facial tattooing it is clear that there are several reasons for tattooing ranging from status, rank, bravery, religion, sexual lures and power.

For me the Fulani tribe was something that I found really interesting. Their tribe believe that beauty is very important and from looking at images and researching them the blacker the lips of the woman the more beautiful it is. The women use henna on their mouths and this made me think about the western equivalent which could be lipstick. I am interested in looking at creating pattern on the mouth as its something i have never explored before.