A reciprocal relationship.
Tattooing has passed through a long history. Statues prior to 8000 BC have been found, bearing marks which are believed to be ancient tattoos. The Bronze Age man(roughly 5000 years old) recently discovered in the Alps carried several tattoos on his body. The mummies of the chiefs of Iron Age horsemen and warriors in the steppes of Western Asia also carry tattoos of monsters crawling over their chest and legs.
In contrast to the religious and ritualistic tattooing of the Maori, known as Moko, or the practice of the Mayas, Incas and Aztecs, the Western tradition founded in the 18th and mainly 19th century derives from the stories of explorers such as Captain Cook brought back to Europe on his return in 1771 from his first voyage to the South Seas.
It is known that centuries earlier the art of tattooing in Europe was practiced the Gauls, the Teutons, the Picts, and the Greeks. The Danes and Saxons, upon their invasion of Britain, brought an elaborate culture of tattooing to the island: a tradition of engraving tribal symbols onto their bodies.
The possibility of directly and fluently tattooing free hand onto the skin made it possible for tattoo artists to work spontaneously with the body. This had an impact on the motifs used - the old seaside motifs concerned primarily with became less popular and new designs appeared, dealing with the structure of the body.
We believe that the new modes of travelling will lead a new aesthetics of tattooing. Analogous to the end of the 19th century, the digital technology supporting CYBERTATTOO and the PARLOUR MAID will change the art of tattooing. Travellers can submit their experiences, stories, and icons and collect tattoos on their journey all over the world, and at the same time receive on-line inscriptions of a variety of motifs onto the body by simply pressing a button to start the digital engraving machine.
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