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One of the most common and popular forms of ancient art is portrayed by tribal tattoos, in fact, we can say that tattooing is a tribal practice performed for thousand years to present day, preserving its subconscious meaning of “belonging to”. People wear tattoos as a personal choice but often this is a way of acceptance, as fashion is to avoid being catalogued as “démodé”

Tribal tattoos have different meanings during different periods of times and nations. Today, tribal designs are mostly associated to the origins of kindman and their empathy with the elements of the nature. In fact, even today, there are tribes and native groups preserving the tattooing art almost intact, being part of their traditions and social rites.

Depending on the chosen designs, tribal tattoos can represent symbols or abstract art. Many of them are based on specific cultures, including the Maori, originally from New Zealand, but in the United States, it is more frequently that most people prefer Native American tribal tattoos or those with Hawaiian reminiscences.

In Europe, Celtic tribal tattoos are the most popular among the tribal designs, although with Celtic the trend is also one of the favorite choices of New Agers and Pagan practitioners. Tribal tattoos with African influence were more popular during the late 1970s and the early 1980s, when Reggae and other African and Caribbean influenced tendencies were trendy, however many people still like them.

Hawaiians tribal tattoos have become trendy again during the 2000s, and people find them fashionable even as part of their wedding ceremony. Whether to invoke protective Gods or as meaningful phrases such as “No Keia La, No Keia Po, A Mau Loa” (From this day, from this night, forever more).

There are many native artists, both American Indians and Hawaiian Islanders, who are specialized in tattooing people, many of them highly acclaimed by their magnificent work portraying images of temples, or depiction of traditional ceremonies in miniature tribal tattoos. In fact, many tribal artists begin a tattooing session with a prayer or invocation to the Gods to protect and guide them.

Because Native American tattooists are superstitious, you must be respectful of their beliefs, even if those practices do not mean anything to you, except the desire of having an incomparable tribal tattoo. Otherwise, you can get tribal designs after browsing the common tattooist’s catalogs, or doing an online search to find a tribal pattern or image, including neo-tribal art.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Tattoo designs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.