Archive for the ‘history’ Category
Hindu Festival of Thaipusam is more than just a music and prayer festival. Ritual body piercing also occurs during the festival that takes place under a full moon to pray to Lord Murugan for a year of good health and peace. Thaipusam is celebrated in Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and other various parts of the world sometime in January or February.
While piercing is not mandatory, more extreme worshippers will get pierced while in a trance like state. Hooks and skewers will normally be used for jewelry. One of the main events is said to be over the top worshippers pulling chariots or other heavy objects with their piercings. Most people will just pierce cheeks or tongues to affect their speech so they can concentrate on worshipping.
Foot binding is an ancient Chinese tradition in which the feet of young girls would be bound to make the feet appear small and attractive. It was practiced between the tenth and twentieth centuries.
The painful process would begin before feet grew too much and would be performed on girls aged three to eleven. The feet would first be soaked in a bath of animal blood and herbs to soften the feet and was followed by a foot massage. Then the nails were
a normal foot compared to a bound foot
cut back as far as possible. Then bandages, which had also been soaked in the blood and herb mixture, were wrapped around the feet tightly in a figure eight pattern. The bandages were wrapped tight enough to cause the toes to break. Bandages were unbound then rebound to ensure the health of the feet. Then the feet were rebound even tighter by a professional foot binder. No pain relief was ever given during the process.
The most common risk of foot binding was infection, especially from the toenails which were likely to become ingrown during binding.
Bound feet were considered to be very erotic by the Chinese. Sex manuals had many ways to incorporate bound feet into lovemaking. Some men preferred the women to keep the bindings on their feet and never to the see naked feet. Also, the feet slightly restricted a women’s ability and would keep women from doing men’s work such as politics.
Sailor Jerry was one of the greats of old school tattoos when they weren’t referred to as old school but just tattoos. Almost everyone with eyes has seen his work somewhere or something inspired by his work. He created some of the most notable tattoos designs to come out of the old school.
Born in 1911 as Norman Collins, it is said he got the nickname Jerry from a donkey named Jerry that his father owned. The sailor part I can only imagine came from his time in the navy.
The navy was where he saw the world. Especially Southeast Asia, where he was influenced heavily for his own artwork. He opened his first shop in Honolulu’s Chinatown. A haven for drunk military men, and one of the only places at that time to get a tattoo.
Most of his tattoo designs where navy inspired. The famous large ship with the words Homeward Bound is one of his most famous designs. He was also notorious for
drawing beautiful women with perfect breasts. Many in military outfits or naked. One tattoo features a brunette appearing naked in a martini glass.
When he died in 1973, Sailor Jerry left specific instructions with his wife that the shop and his artwork where to be offered to his three protégés, Don Ed Hardy, Mike Malone, or Zeke Owen. If neither of them wanted it, the shop and artwork where to be burned to the ground.
Mike Malone decided to take over the business. In the 1980’s when tattoos became more popular Malone teamed up with Hardy to release books of Sailor Jerry Flash to sell to tattoo shops. (Flash- tattoo designs, usually hung on the walls of tattoo shops for customers to see and choose from or get an idea from). Sailor Jerry designs where soon hung on walls of tattoo shops everywhere.
In the 1990’s came the Sailor Jerry Limited brand of tattoo inspired clothing and accessories. The brand has even teamed up with Converse shoes to make sailor jerry chuck taylor’s.
Sailor Jerry brand rum soon came as well. The spiced rum came from a recipe that is said originate from a recipe found among Sailor Jerry’s personal belongings and to be a seafaring style of rum.
There are lots of ways to alter ones state of thinking. The most common way would be to take drugs and get high. But, next time you’re looking for a new high, maybe even one that will last longer than a few hours, look beyond the local drug dealers. Try instead something more along the lines of a body modification, or to be more specific skull modification.
Trepanation, the oldest surgery on the block, is when a hole is made in one’s skull and is said to give them a feeling of a permanent state of enlightenment or being permanently high. Trepanation is also said to relive stress, brain trauma, and I can only assume other mental issues if performed correctly.
When I first read about this, all I could think of was a lobotomy. But then I looked more into what a lobotomy was and 
what a trepanation was. A lobotomy is when connections in the brain are cut. Trepanation is just a hole drilled into the skull. The hole is said to allow more oxygen and blood flow to reach the brain making one feel enlightened.
One man by the name of Dr. Bart Hughes is one person to have has the procedure done, not only that he is the one who performed it on himself in 1965. He came up with the idea that it would work after discovering standing on his head could get him high. He figured to stay permanently high he would have to increase blood flow to his brain so he could get the same feeling he got while standing on his head and decided he had to relieve pressure to his head. Luckily, he was right and did not seriously damage himself. He said he felt fourteen again.
Hughes was not the first to use trepanation. It can be dated back to around 5,000 B.C. due to a trepanated skull being discovered in France dating to around 5,000 B.C. Trepanations are still said to be given in ceremoniously Africa even.
I myself have many days where frustration gets the better of me and drilling a hole in my head sounds like it would be a good way to take the edge off. While it may sound like a great idea to lead someone to enlightenment make sure further research is done and you do not do it on your own or just have a friend take a drill to your head. Like with any modification, piercing, or tattoo, GO TO A PROFESSIONAL! I will not be to blame if you hurt yourself trying to get high.
A fun less permanent idea
The classic Sugar Skull tattoo is one with rich cultural history behind it. They are based on the decorative skulls made for the Mexican holiday Dias De Los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead is starts on November 1st and ends the next day. Its purpose is to honor those close to one who have died. The decorative skulls are usually made from sugar, hence the name sugar skull, and are placed on an altar.
The sugar skull tattoos are usually just as decorative as the skulls they are based on. They usually have designs inside the lines of the skull such as flowers, crosses spades, shapes, and hearts. Sometimes, they also have decorations on the outside such as flowers, usually marigolds or roses, a candle on the top of the head, hats, or veils. Some are just a skull, some are a normal face with sugar skull designs on it, and others have skeleton bodies. Some sugar skulls just have white backgrounds while others have colors.
Sugar skulls made for day of the dead are said to bring good luck. Many people carry around small ones for good luck. I have a feeling, sugar skulls being lucky is why people started getting them as tattoos. Either way they make for beautiful tattoos that can be integrated with a lot of other tattoo elements such as flowers, hearts, and leaves.
Have you ever though your lip just wasn’t big enough? Thought to yourself, “my lip just needs to be much bigger,” if so you can follow the cool example set by pro body mod tribes and stretch your lip using clay or wooden plates.
I know what some of you may be thinking, this sounds completely erroneous, and why would someone do that? The tribes that practice this procedure find stretched lips to be very attractive. In some Amazonian tribes, young men get them done to signify adulthood. In other tribes women get them to signify that they are old enough to be a wife. But, they usually remove the plates after they are married.
The procedure usually starts with a hole pierced in the labret and a small wooden peg inserted to act as a stud or starter jewelry piece. When the hole heals after a few weeks a disc usually about 4 centimeters in diameter is put in place. The discs are usually made by the person wearing them from clay or wood. Eventually a disc anywhere 8 to 16 centimeters in diameter is inserted and is usually the final disc.
Most Common Groups to Stretch their Lips
- African tribes
- South American tribes
- Surma and Mursi tribes in Ethiopia
One of my favorite things about tattoos is showing it to other people and seeing their tattoos. You never know what you might find on someone. There could be a beautiful custom design that blows your mind, or and a classic from the old school days. Both kinds are great and have good and bad things about them. Neither one is better than the other.
Many people think having a tattoo that everyone else has is bad. No one wants to show up somewhere and have the same tattoo as someone else. Old school tattoos are mostly found on flash walls (designs in tattoo shops that have many pre drawn deigns for customers to choose form if not wanting a custom drawn design). While those designs are some of the groundbreakers of modern tattooing (tattoo machine era) you have to wonder how many other people are going to have that same tattoo.
But they don’t have they don’t have the connection to the earlier days of modern tattooing. When you meet someone with an older tattoo gotten back when old school was new that is like one on you it must be pretty cool.I love having tattoos that where drawn custom for me that no one else has, but I have always loved the old school panthers and sugar skull tattoos. They have a certain charm that I can’t seem to explain.
Think you felt pain getting your tattoo with a modern machine, think again. Imagine getting tattooed with needles made from bird beaks, or cactus needles like used in the traditional days of tattooing in Hawaii.
Other materials for needles where sea urchin spines, fish bones, bone splinters, and animal spikes.
Ink was made from kuki nut ashes and sugar cane juice. Tattoos where mostly only black, but when color was used, they came from flowers.
Designs originally where symmetrical geometric shapes but as years went on more pictorial designs came about.
The process was like that of many other ancient tattoos. A larger stick was used to tap the needle continuously. An assistant would assist the artist by stretching out the skin for the tattoo. Once the tattoo was done sometimes juices and saps of plants where rubbed on the tattoo to darken the ink.
This type of tattooing originated sometime around 1500 – 500 b.c. by the Lapita people that lived on the islands of Fiji, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Samoa, and Tonga. The pain of the tattoo was thought to be a spiritual journey. The more of your body that was covered by these tattoos the more respect you where given. Unlike in modern culture, especially here on the mainland, where people with visible tattoos make a person look unprofessional. Women where not allowed to be tattoo artists but could be tattooed, but only on the calves, feet, hands, ears and lips. Men could be tattooed anywhere. The most common spot would be on the face. The meanings of these tattoos usually came from a persons heritage and family.
