The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1882-02-23
TattOOing.


Tattooing, or at least tattooing as
practiced by uncivilized men, is an art
without a history. No one, as far as
we are aware, has made it the business
Of his life to study the development of
tattooing from its rude beginnings.
We have not, therefore, the materials
at hand for a really scientific discussion
Of the evolution of ''moko,'1 as the New
Lealanders call tattooing. As science
becomes more thoroughly differen-
tiated, and as specialists arise in this
branch of learning, we shall doubtless
have books written on Mokology.
This seems the most appropriate term
for the new study, because it sounds
Pathological to talk of Pathology. In
the course of a few years we may be-
lieve that conferences of MOkOlogists
will be held in the larger and more in
tellectual provincial towns.
When Englishmen first settled in New
Zealand they found that the older
women had one side of their faces tat
tooed, SO that from one point of the
view they looked like men, while the
other aspect of the profile revealed
them as women. Now the women tat
tOoed only the lines of the lips and
scroll depending from the angles of. the
mouth. They also draw fine blue lines
on their arms and breasts. The prac-
tice of the New Zealanders shows us
tattOoing as no longer a torture or a
kind of trademark, but merely form
of personal ornament.
1t is in this shape that tattooing sur
wives among the savage and backward
classes of civilized peoples, among boys,
criminals and the lower classes of sol
diers. This modern tattooing has re-
Gently been made the subject of special
studies, both in France and Italy. Sol
diers are often found tattooed literally
all over their bodies. The men who are
frequently under arrest find, in tattoo
ing, help to kill time. Whole pictures
copied from illustrated newspapers or
the covers are often imprinted on the
flesh by the use of needles and coloring
matter. Notices are also engraved and
marks of trades, or religious and patri-
Otic emblems, are very common. Places
like Loretto and other centers of pill
grimages are also centers of the art of
tattoOing. Sacred signs are stamped,
for small charge, on the bodies of the
pilgrims, and this practice actually pre-
walls in Jerusalem. In Paris and other
great towns there are professional tat
tooers, and the cost of a really elaborate
design may reach IF. or even 20f Man
kind is naturally prone to relapse into
the barbarous customs of the past, and
there can be no better proof of this than
the extent to which tattooing is prac-
ticed in the armies and prisons of France
and Italy. Indeed these tattooed civil
lied men have sunk even below the
standard of the barbarian of New Tea
land. Civilized tattooing is mechanical
in method, and trivial or disgusting in
o1fIa xoyhi1o [Ie
Zealanders is designed on sound princf-
pies of decoration
The recent French and Italian re-
searches prove that tattooing in Europe
is chiefly confined to men. Roger Itch
borne wished to tattoo his cousin, and
Mr.. Payn tells, in the BetgTGUiG Christ
mas number, a very moving tale of a
young lady of rank who tattooed her
arm with the name of 'sTom. y School
girls should remember that, however
devoted they may be to Tom at the
age of fourteen, at eighteen they will
find the indelible token of this affec-
ton rather inconvenient. But, if all
tattOOers were as expert as the Dyaks,
ladies who love blue china might con-
sent to be tattooed. The hands of a
Dyak woman in Mr.. Carl Books Head
Hunters in Borneo' have the most
beautiful blue ornaments, in the most
exquisite taste. We have known es-
thetic ladies who tinged their nails with
henna; from this to tattooing a la Dyak
is but a short step. Whether young
dandies should tattoo themselves is a
question that may be left to the cult
waited taste of long-haired lads who al
ready wear bangles and bracelets, The
first young man tattooed in Nankin
blua will 6OI1hflpSS have a SucppSS lint
imitation might prove monotOnOus. 1t
is certain that Europeans will find no
better teachers in this art than the Chi
na-collecting, head-hunting Dyaks of
BOrneo.--Londo1o.S SATURDAY, ReUje1O.