IndigoBlue
Contributor
bwerb:Well spoken...but...I don't see how you can dismiss the Torah as "unrecorded history"...we have extant scrolls from the caves of the Quemeron (sp.) community dating to the first century...which gives us a "recorded" historical record of...oh...two thousand years. Also...the recorded Egyptian history indicates tattoos in numerous places as well. Good fun though.
[http://www.egyptmonth.com/mag11012000/mag4.htm
In the West, tattooing is most often associated with Polynesia because it was from there that the custom was most dramatically reintroduced to industrialized nations. However, the earliest documented evidence for the tattoo is in Egypt. Although most anthropologists believe that the eventually almost universal tradition emerged separately and individually among different cultures, those who prefer single origin theories find various convoluted routes to explain how tattooing arrived in Samoa from Egypt. Be that as it may, Egypt is generally accepted as the cradle of tattoo art as it is of so many other arts, although recent research indicates that tattooing may have actually entered Egyptian culture via Nubian influence. By the Middle Kingdom, in any event, tattoos seem to have been popular and culturally acceptable.
The earliest intimations of tattoos come from clay figurines dating to roughly 4000BCE. These female figurines are decorated with dots, dashes and lozenges. This was inconclusive evidence until the discovery and examination of preserved, mummified bodies, whose body designs closely echo the patterns etched on the figurines.
Among the best-preserved mummies is that of a woman from Thebes from Dynasty XI (2160-1994 BCE), whose tomb identifies her as Amunet, Priestess of Hathor. Sometimes described as a concubine of Mentuhotep II, tattoo patterns remain clearly visible on her flesh. No amulet designs for Amunet. Instead, she bore parallel lines on her arms and thighs and an elliptical pattern below the navel in the pelvic region. ]
