Tattoo Art
A Tattoo is a permanent mark or design on the body made by introducing indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin. Tattooing has been a popular form of bodily decoration since the era of Neolithic art: the oldest known example of tattooed skin belongs to a mummified man of the Chilean Chinchorro culture (c.6000 BCE), while the oldest European tattoo is on the body of "Otzi the Iceman" (c.3100 BCE, South Tyrol Museum of Archeology, Bolzano). Modern tattoo art dates from the mid-18th century when explorers came into contact with tattooed Indians and Pacific islanders - the word tatto actually derives from the Polynesian word "tat".