tattoo's can say a lot about a person...

A friends daughter recently sent her Mum a picture of her new tattoo - a pineapple. It seems that it symbolises friendship, commitment and hospitality (being the unofficial state fruit of Hawaii). Mum is not to pleased and we started discussing the effects and cost of tattoo's. This led me on to look up prices etc. Turns out it's not prohibitively expensive, so kids can afford to get them.


While search for prices I came across loads of interesting facts about tattoo's.


As early as the Zhou, Chinese authorities would employ facial tattoos as a punishment for certain crimes or to mark prisoners or slaves. The branding of undesirables by the ancient, Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans. China, Japan, Burma, Scandinavia and France all branded or tattooed criminals right up until the 19th century.

The "D" on the left is a piece of skin removed from a deserter. This branding lasted in the British Army until 1717, when tattoo's replaced it. This went on until the 1870'S !



Everybody knows about the terrible tattooing of numbers on the arm in the concentration camps in WWII....




But nowadays there are temporary tattoo's available, lasting up to 7 days, for kids, people with Alzheimers, Autism, allergic reactions etc etc.



Or a permanent ID on the inside of the wrist. This is the first place the emergency services look to see if you have an ID bracelet or tattoo.


You might even need an electronic tattoo to log onto the web in future !!

Tattoo's for identification purposes are not restricted to humans, loads of animals carry tattoo ID's in their ears or, in the case of horses, on their upper lip :~(( That must REALLY hurt !