Primitive tattoo art specific to a tribe
About
Tribal as a style encompasses several indigenous and primitive tattoo traditions.
Indigenous tribes would use symbols as a way to engrave the passing of rituals, to mark social status, to signal group belonging, wartime achievement and for spiritual and ceremonial reasons.
Today we can see the term being used interchangeably to describe several ancient tattoo art, such as:
- Maori face tattoos
- Aboriginal Dreamtime
- Mayan and Aztec deities
- Hawaiian kakau
- Samoan abstract animals
- Celtic crosses and knots
Origin
Humans have been getting inked since the dawn of civilization. Mummies, bones, tools and other vestiges of elements related to tattooing tradition have been found in places like Egypt, Tibet, Chile, Italy, Polynesia, India, Japan, North America, North Africa, Sub-saharan Africa and many other places. So, basically, the whole world. And most of these traditions of body modification developed isolated and independentl
Design
Due to the simplicity of the techniques and instruments (bone fragments or thorns), indigenous tribes followed simple patterns, geometric shapes, and repetitive figures. Most commonly, they draw symbols significant to the population, like the fauna and flora available in the region and natural elements such as mountains and rivers or the moon and the sun.
Today you can find many tattoos imitating ancient tribal art by reproducing the shapes, lines, and patterns. You know, the kind of tattoo that was popular in the 90’s, especially with gym dudes. Well, those are actually called New Tribal because they do not come from an indigenous tradition. That is, they do not hold and transmit meaning common to a group. Most people will still call them Tribal though. New Tribal mixes elements from several independent traditions and experiment with new patterns and shapes.
copyright:The Alpaca