Tattoos and body modification, our ancestors and Colonial discrimination
Since I was a little boy, I have been fascinated by heavily tattooed musicians. I was particularly infatuated with Travis Barker and his neck tattoo. Even as a child, I knew I was attracted to men, but I was especially intrigued by body modification and tattoos. This deep desire to cover my body in tattoos and my tendency to appreciate body modifications started very early in my life. Tattoos and body modifications were highly stigmatized, seen as undesirable by most adults, and especially rejected by my religiously influenced family.
Why are tattoos and body modifications so heavily stigmatized in Western and some Eastern societies? Why is there such a stigma? Generally, tattoos and body modifications communicate something about the person who has them. They make a statement that the individual’s desire to express themselves freely is more important than societal beliefs. For many of us with tattoos and modifications, there is a heritage and ancestral lineage that marks us, connecting us to our ancestors. In this article, I want to explore tattoos, body modifications, ancestral lineage, and how we have fought a cultural battle to be ourselves and honor our ancestors against tyrannical ideals that deem our identity as bad, undesirable, and ugly. I will delve deeper into why society has rejected tattoos and body modifications and how new generations are returning to our roots, embracing and honoring our ancestral lineage through these practices.
I am one of those individuals with more than 50% of my body covered in ink, and I have more metal in my skin than average. I understand the deep feeling that goes beyond fashion or a phase — body modification and tattoos are part of my life, my identity, and who I am. Accepting rejection from some areas of society has been my norm, but educating against stigma by being a productive and responsible member of society has transformed how people perceive us. Tattooing and modifying my body do not define my morality or kindness. However, society has long seen tattoos and body modifications as undesirable, ugly, and even evil. I have spent my life trying to understand how a look can determine goodness, kindness, or even evil. The personification of evil, designed long ago by religion, has ingrained in our psyche a code of how evil looks.
Body modification and tattoos are not a recent trend; they have been around for thousands of years, present in many civilizations long before we can imagine. They were initially discovered by English colonizers in tribes in the Pacific and Oceania. The word “tattoo” comes from the Polynesian island Tahiti, an English variation of the word “Tatau,” first encountered by English Captain James Cook in 1769. Despite colonizers viewing them as undesirable, some marines adopted tattoos, especially in Victorian society. Tattoos were part of First Nations people and found in parts of Africa, North American tribes, Mexico, Asia Pacific, and Oceania, including Maori and Hawaiian tribes. These tribes wore tattoos with pride as part of their cultural identity.
Why, then, if tattoos and body modifications have been a part of so many pre-colonial civilizations, are they now considered ugly or undesirable? This ingrained idea stems from colonization and the introduction of monotheistic religions that viewed anything different as evil, including tattoos and body modifications. Religion saw these practices as a threat and did a great job of illustrating in our minds what good and evil look like. Due to their pre-colonial origins and their connection to local spiritual practices, tattoos and body modifications were deemed evil and undesirable by colonial powers influenced by religion.
Years have passed, and tattoos and body modifications have lived in the shadows. It was only in recent years, in a new era valuing individual development, that people could embrace their ancestral desire to modify and tattoo their bodies. I am a Colombian gay man with a blended racial makeup, and in my hometown, a tribe called the Muisca inhabited the land. I was amazed to learn that my ancestors wore large septum piercings made of gold. The freedom to choose our appearance and the resurgence of body modifications show that people are appealing to their ancestral calling and being themselves. However, an ideal ingrained in our psyche due to religion, racism, and colonization still views tattoos and body modifications as evil, bad, and undesirable. This fallacy is losing power every day as more people embrace their authentic selves.
I have studied the origins of tattoos and body modifications to understand why I feel deeply connected to them. I concluded that it has to do with my origins, identity, and ancestors. The fact that these practices were considered undesirable is another form of colonial discrimination against our tribes and pre-colonial civilizations. This discrimination is similar to how African people were treated, as some African tribes also embraced beautiful and extreme body modification practices. My message is one of hope: you can be yourself and modify your body as you desire. There will always be a place for you, and stigma and discrimination will eventually fade as more people are authentic, honest, and true to themselves. Tattoo and body modification is part of our culture origins and human civilization, it is part of who we are.
“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will.”
Special thanks to instagram page @ brassturtle for all the illustrations!
