Great quotes about tattoos and tattooing

Tattooing is often a magical rite in the more traditional cultures, and the tattooist is respected as a priest or shaman.
--Michelle Delio

In Fiji, Fromosa, New Zealand and in certain of the North American Indian tribes, tattooing was regard as a religious ceremony, and performed by priests or priestesses.
--Ronald Scutt

The actual tattooing process, which involved complex ritual and taboos, could only be done by priests and was associated with beliefs which were secrets known only to members of the priestly caste. . . Hambly concluded that historically tattooing had originated in connection with ancient rites of scarification and bloodletting which were associated with religious practices intended to put the human soul in harmony with supernatural forces and ensure continuity between this life and the next.
--Steve Gilbert

Famous witch and author Laurie Cabot writes of the tattoo: "The origins of tattooing came from ancient magical practices. . .
--Laurie Cabot

According to Amy Krakow in her chronicle The Total Tattoo Book, ‘tattooing has had well-defined roles: marking a rite of passage at a stage of life, calling the spirits, proudly, defiantly or sneaky showing who you are via body art.
--unknown

Many native tribes practiced therapeutic tattooing. The Ojibwa, for instance, tattooed the temples, forehead, and cheeks of those suffering from headaches and toothaches that were believed to be caused by malevolent spirits. Songs and dances that were supposed to exorcise the demons accompanied the tattooing ceremony.
--Steve Gilbert

Skulls imprinted on skin abound, and depictions of the Grim Reaper are commonly seen. . . These images, indelibly marked on the skin, reflect uncertainty about the future, and sublimate the pervasive fear of the unknown. Possibly, at the same time, to wear a death’s figure on one’s body may be an invocation of whatever undefinable forces of nature and the cosmos that exist, in an attempt to protect the wearer from such a fate.
--Henry Ferguson

Tattooing is about personalizing the body, making it a true home and fit temple for the spirit that dwells inside it. . . Tattooing therefore, is a way of keeping the spiritual and material needs of my body in balance.
--Michelle Delio

When the designs are chosen with care, tattoos have a power and magic all their own. They decorate the body but they also enhance the soul.
--Michelle Delio

The reasons why puncturing the skin should be regarded with some degree of awe are not far to seek, for in the first place, there is the drawing of blood, which to the savage world over is full of significance as a rejuvenating and immortalizing factor. There is in addition to the opening of numerous inlets for evil to enter. . .
--Hambly Wilfrid

Rolling Stone magazine describes famous tattoo artist Paul Booth during his tattoo as, ". . . allowing his clients' demons to help guide the needle.
--Rolling Stone magazine

Burmese tattooing has been associated with religion for thousands of years. Tattooing among indigenous North American groups including the Arapaho, Mohave, Cree, and Inuit --Eskimo-- is rooted in the spiritual realm as well.
--Laura Reybold

In fact tattooing is much more likely, in view of its subsequent development, to have had a mystical significance, or to have been used as a status symbol, the red ochre carrying an association with blood and life.
--Ronald Scutt

Be that as it may, primitive tribes were certainly convinced that the spirit, having escaped from the body at death, retained a replica of its earthly tenement. They therefore used tattoo marks as a means of identification in the next world and a passport to future happiness.
--Ronald Scutt

The Mohave Indians in the Lower Colorado instituted chin tattooing for both sexes because it was believed that a kind of Judge looks over each one who comes to Sil’aid (Land of the Dead) and if a man don’t have marks on his face, He sends him down to where the desert rats are.
--Ronald Scutt

Among other Indian tribes there was a conviction that on the journey heavenwards to the ‘Many Lodges’ they would be stopped by an old woman and examined for the presence of tattoo marks on the forehead, chin or wrists. I absent, the luckless warrior would be pushed off a dizzy height to fall back to earth with no hope of ever gaining readmittance to the spirit world.
--Ronald Scutt

Then there is the ghastly fate of the untattooed Frijan women: ‘struck down by the souls of their own sex and without further ado served up as food for the gods.
--Ronald Scutt

Yet the worship of the sun-god Baal had involved the marking of the hands [tattoos] with the divine token in a mystic attempt to acquire strength.
--Ronald Scutt

Just as occurred in other cultures with tattoo traditions, when these pagan tribes were ‘converted’ to the Christian religion, their spiritual and cultural rites (which included tattooing, piercing and scarification) were outlawed. . .
--Jean-Chris Miller

Whenever missionaries encountered tattooing they eradicated it.
--Steve Gilbert

While these and other body modifications continued to be practiced underground as a way for non-Christian people to identify each other, God forbid you got caught and your mark was revealed.
--Jean-Chris Miller

When Cortez and his conquistadors arrived on the coast of Mexico in 1519, they were horrified to discover that natives not only worshipped devils in the form of status and idols, but also had somehow managed to imprint indelible images of these idols on their skin. The Spaniards, who had never heard of tattooing, recognized it at once as the work of Satan.
--Steve Gilbert

These tattoos act as protective and empowering talismans for the wearer. There are even some body artists who perform ritual tattoos, piercing, brandings and cuttings. They may suggest you consult your astrological chart to pick the right time to get your body art. They will burn incense, light candles, . . .
--Jean-Chris Miller

Some tattooists in the West are experimenting with ritual tattooing. This method of working incorporates doing a ritual to create a sacred space in the area where the tattoo is positioned. Often incense is burned and the gods invited to bless the proceedings.
--Michelle Delio

Evidence indicates that it is the mere presence of the tattoo, not its artistic content, that correlates with certain diagnoses. Thus, any tattoo can be viewed as a warning sign that should alert the practicing physician to look for underlying psychiatric conditions.
--Raspa, Robert F. and John Cusack

Tattooed men who are not behind bars are either latent criminals or degenerate aristocrats. If someone who is tattooed dies in freedom, then he does so a few years before he would have committed murder
--Adolf Loos

Hambly concluded that historically tattooing had originated in connection with ancient rites of scarification and bloodletting which were associated with religious practices intended to put the human soul in harmony with supernatural forces and ensure continuity between this life and the next.
Steve Gilbert

The world is divided into two kinds of people: those who have tattoos, and those who are afraid of people with tattoos."
Author Unknown

The tattoo attracts and also repels precisely because it is different.
Margo DeMello

A tattoo is a true poetic creation, and is always more than meets the eye. As a tattoo is grounded on living skin, so its essence emotes a poignancy unique to the mortal human condition.
V. Vale and Andrea Juno

For westerners, the tattoo has always been a metaphor of difference.
Margo DeMello

There is no "underground" community, no dark den of drunken sailors initiating themselves into manhood via cheap, ill-conceived exercises in bodily perforation; it's just a group of people who delight in using their bodies as billboards.
Joanne McCubrey

Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past.
Jack London

Tattoos are like marriage: it's a lifelong commitment, it hurts like hell, and the color fades over time.
Terri Guillemets

Tattoo. What a loaded word it is, rife with associations to goons, goofs, bikers, tribal warriors, carnival artists, drunken sailors and floozies.
Jon Anderson

Inking without a plan gives Booth freedom to explore the desires of those seated in his chair, he says, to feed off their energy, allowing his clients' demons to help guide the needle.
Joshua Lipton

[P]rimitive tribes were certainly convinced that the spirit, having escaped from the body at death, retained a replica of its earthly tenement. They therefore used tattoo marks as a means of identification in the next world and a passport to future happiness.
Ronald Scutt

Beauty is skin deep. A tattoo goes all the way to the bone.
Author Unknown

Tattooing is about personalizing the body, making it a true home and fit temple for the spirit that dwells inside it.... Tattooing therefore, is a way of keeping the spiritual and material needs of my body in balance.
Michelle Delio

When the designs are chosen with care, tattoos have a power and magic all their own. They decorate the body but they also enhance the soul.
Michelle Delio

[A] genuine tattoo.... tells a story. I like stories and tattoos, no matter how well done, and if they don't tell a story that involves you emotionally, then they're just there for decoration, then they're not a valid tattoo. There has to be some emotional appeal or they're not, to my way of thinking, a real tattoo. It tells people what you are and what you believe in, so there's no mistakes.
Leo, tattooist, 1993, quoted in Margo DeMello, Bodies of Inscription, 2000

It [giving birth] was easier than having a tattoo."
-- Nicole Appleton

I want to get a tattoo of myself on my entire body, only 2 inches taller
-- Stephen Wright

Tattoos are like stories - they're symbolic of the important moments in your life. Sitting down, talking about where you got each tattoo and what it symbolizes, is really beautiful.
-- Pamela Anderson

On the chest of a barmaid in Sale - Were tattooed the prices of ale
-- Anonymous

Sometimes I bust out and do things so permanent. Like tattoos and marriage.
-- Drew Barrymore

Quirky is sexy, like scars or chipped teeth. I also like tattoos - they're rebellious.
-- Jennifer Aniston

I think I have enough tattoos for now. If I get any others, I'll probably do my kids initials.
-- Niki Taylor