Its not really known how long tattooing has been around but its quite possibly as long as 12,000 years and we do know the ancient Egyptians practiced the art of tattooing.
One may think the art of tattooing has its history mainly with men. Not so. Women from various cultures tattooed their bodies for a variety of reasons. Take the women from Borneo. They would mark themselves to show what they were skilled at, such as weaving or the gatherer of medicinal herbs. This communicated their rank as marriage material. In western Asia, girls were marked in such a way as to show their place in society.
In the last 100 years tattooing was common among criminals, motorcyclists and gang members but in the last 20 years this has drastically changed, so much so that approximately 50% of all tattoos are done on women. And who are these women? These are the soccer moms, and professional women, the women from ages of 18 to 40.
Tattooing has gone through its ups and downs over the centuries, and has even been banned many times in different cultures for periods of time. It appears though that tattooing will never really go away. During periods of a ban it seems to go...