page_title: History of tattooing
section_title: Indigenous People of North America
hierarchical_section_title: History of tattooing / Ancient and traditional practices / North America / Indigenous People of North America
caption_attribution_description: Tattooing of Inuit Woman 1654
context_page_description: Tattooing has been practiced across the globe since at least Neolithic times, as evidenced by mummified preserved skin, ancient art and the archaeological record. Both ancient art and archaeological finds of possible tattoo tools suggest tattooing was practiced by the Upper Paleolithic period in Europe. However, direct evidence for tattooing on mummified human skin extends only to the 4th millennium BC. The oldest discovery of tattooed human skin to date is found on the body of Ötzi the Iceman, dating to between 3370 and 3100 BC. Other tattooed mummies have been recovered from at least 49 archaeological sites, including locations in Greenland, Alaska, Siberia, Mongolia, western China, Egypt, Sudan, the Philippines and the Andes. These include Amunet, Priestess of the Goddess Hathor from ancient Egypt, multiple mummies from Siberia including the Pazyryk culture of Russia and from several cultures throughout Pre-Columbian South America.
context_section_description: Indigenous People of North America have a long history of tattooing.  Tattooing was not a simple marking on the skin: it was a process that highlighted cultural connections to Indigenous ways of knowing and viewing the world, as well as connections to family, society, and place.
  There is no way to determine the actual origin of tattooing for Indigenous People of North America.  The oldest known physical evidence of tattooing in North America was made through the discovery of a frozen, mummified, Inuit female on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska who had tattoos on her skin.  Through radiocarbon dating of the tissue, scientists estimated that the female came from the 16th century.  Until recently, archeologists have not prioritized the classification of tattoo implements when excavating known historic sites. Recent review of materials found from the Mound Q excavation site point towards elements of tattoo bundles that are from pre-colonization times.  Scholars explain that the recognition of tattoo implements is significant because it highlights the cultural importance of tattooing for Indigenous People.
  Early explorers to North America made many ethnographic observations about the Indigenous People they met. Initially, they did not have a word for tattooing and instead described the skin modifications as "pounce, prick, list, mark, and raze" to "stamp, paint, burn, and embroider." In 1585–1586, Thomas Harriot, who was part of the Grenville Expedition, was responsible for making observations about Indigenous People of North America. In A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, Harriot recorded that some Indigenous People had their skin dyed and coloured.  John White provided visual representations of Indigenous People in the form of drawings and paintings. Harriot and White also provided information highlighting specific markings seen on Indigenous chiefs during that time.  In 1623, Gabriel Sagard was a missionary who described seeing men and women with tattoos on their skin.
  The Jesuit Relations of 1652 describes tattooing among the Petun and the Neutrals:
  But those who paint themselves permanently do so with extreme pain, using,
  for this purpose, needles, sharp awls, or piercing thorns, with which they
  perforate, or have others perforate, the skin. Thus they form on the face, the
  neck, the breast, or some other part of the body, some animal or monster, for
  instance, an Eagle, a Serpent, a Dragon, or any other figure which they prefer;
  and then, tracing over the fresh and bloody design some powdered charcoal, or
  other black coloring matter, which becomes mixed with the blood and penetrates
  within these perforations, they imprint indelibly upon the living skin the
  designed figures. And this in some nations is so common that in the one which
  we called the Tobacco, and in that which -- on account of enjoying peace with
  the Hurons and with the Iroquois -- was called Neutral, I know not whether a
  single individual was found, who was not painted in this manner, on some part
  
  of the body.
  From 1712–1717, Joseph François Lafitau, another Jesuit missionary, recorded how Indigenous People were applying tattoos to their skin and developed healing strategies in tattooing the jawline to treat toothaches. Indigenous People had determined that certain nerves that were along the jawline connected to certain teeth, thus by tattooing those nerves, it would stop them from firing signals that led to toothaches. Some of these early ethnographic accounts questioned the actual practice of tattooing and hypothesized that it could make people sick due to unsanitary approaches.
  Scholars explain that the study of Indigenous tattooing is relatively new as it was initially perceived as behaviour for societies outside of the norm. The process of colonization introduced new views of what acceptable behaviour included, leading to the near erasure of the tattoo tradition for many nations. However, through oral traditions, the information about tattoos and the actual practice of tattooing has persisted to present day.
caption: Painting of an Inuit woman with tattoos on her face.
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