Ancient Tattoos & Tribal Identity

Many millions of people today such as myself are mysteriously drawn to the painful art form known of as tattooing, and some of us do not ancient tattoo womanknow why. I believe the reason to be a common thread that some of us share to the past. A past that deals with thousands of years of ink, blood, honor and tribal identity.

An art form, that would actually become a threat to the church in the 4th century when the first Christian emperor of Rome had banned facial tattooing of slaves and prisoners, and later Pope Hadrian in the year 787 who had prohibited all forms of tattooing. More measure would be employed, and in fact, a passage in the bible would be created that would make this age old custom of tattooing now considered a sin; as seen in  Leviticus 19:28 –

“Ye shall not make cuttings on your flesh (body) on account of a soul, i.e., a dead person (נפשׁ equals מת נפשׁ, Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 6:6, or מת, Deuteronomy 14:1; so again in Leviticus 22:4; Numbers 5:2; Numbers 9:6-7, Numbers 9:10), nor make engraven (or branded) writing upon yourselves.” (more…)

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