Abstract

Through supporting physical evidence dating to over 5,000 years ago, tattooing stands alongside painting and sculpture as the most ancient direct expression of human creativity across the globe. Historically, tattoos have appealed to individuals for various reasons including personal tastes and social aesthetic preferences. Over the years, advances and influences within culture, fashion, politics, religion, and technology have altered the appeal, methods, and styles of tattooing. Even though tattooing has existed throughout human history, only the non-Western aspect of the art form tends to be investigated within many scholarly texts. In other words, most contemporary Western tattoos are not currently featured in art history courses. Ancient tattooing practices evolved in the Pacific Islands into styles known as the Polynesian tatau. Returning to their Western homelands with tattoo knowledge and artwork, explorers and sailors from the mid-1700s to the early 1900s were directly exposed to tattooing through contact with Pacific inhabitants. The geometric patterns, lines, and dots of tatau transformed into stylistic tattoos containing nautical imagery with bold colors and heavy outlines. Thus, tattooing evolved through the encounters of Western and non- Western cultures becoming a style commonly known today as Traditional Tattoos. This paper investigates how the Traditional Tattoo sub-genres Sailor and Tribal may be investigated within the art history canon, taking a look at how they developed while relating non-Western history to a contemporary Western perspective.

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