Tattoos

The word: Tattoo

People have been marking their bodies with tattoos since the dawn of time, but where does the word tattoo (commonly misspelled tatoo or tatto) come from? The dictionary shows two very distinct meanings:

Tat * too
noun, plural – toos
a signal on a drum, bugle, or trumpet at night, for soldiers or sailors to go to their quarters
a knocking or strong pulsation
British. An outdoor military pageant or display

Tat * too
noun, plural – toos
verb, tooed, too * ing
common misspellings: tatoo, tatoos, tattos

noun
the act or practice of marking the skin with indelible patterns, pictures, legends, etc., by making punctures in it and inserting pigments.
a pattern, picture, legend, etc., so made.

verb
to mark (the skin) with tattoos.
to put (tattoos) on the skins.

The word tattoo, or tattow in the 18th century, is a loanword from the Polynesian word tatau, meaning "to write"

The first written reference to the word tattoo (or tatau), appears in the journal of Joseph Banks (24 February 1743 – 19 June 1820), the naturalist aboard Captain Cook's ship the HMS Endeavour: "I shall now mention the way they mark themselves indelibly, each of them is so marked by their humour or disposition".

Tattoo enthusiasts may refer to tattoos as "ink", "pieces", "skin art", "tattoo art", "tats", or "work"; to the creators as "tattoo artists", "tattooers", or "tattooists"; and to places where they work as "tattoo shops", "tattoo studios", or "tattoo parlors".

The study of word origins are very interesting because throughout the world there were many similar words for the same thing and it’s hard to say where something originated. Depending on where you look, the word tattoo was spawned from the sound of the tapping made by the primitive instruments while the images were being made on the skin. Others claim that it was a mistake made in phonetics going from Tahitian to English and the word should have been tatau, just like in Samoan.

Tattoo designs

English: tattoo
Danish: tatovering
Italian: tatuaggio
Brazilian: tatuagem
Estonian: tatoveering
Romanian: tatuaj
Norwegian: Tatovering
Swedish: Tatuering
German: Tatowierung
French: Tatouage
Spanish: Tatuaje
Dutch: Tatoeage
Finnish: Tatuointi
Polish: Tatuaz
Portuguese: Tatuagem
Lithuanian: Tatuagem
Creol: Tatouaz