Colonial views on tattooing

Some additional documentation of tattooing can be found in colonial encounters. These documents are useful for descriptive purposes but can aso be highly critical and ill-informed of the supposedly backward nature of tattooing.

A good example can be found here where John Crawfurd, a British diplomat writing in 1829, describes tattooing as “One barbarous practice, that of tattooing or staining the skin of indelible tint…”

It seems to be a common theme to view tattooing as barbaric, backward and a sign of inferiority. Little is written from the perspective of those who use it and this is a shame, especially in a historical sense.

Tattoos

Tatts have a colourful history, and Burma’s a good example of it.

You could say tatts fulfill two needs: beauty and spirituality. For a man to have a tattoo enhances his attractiveness to the opposite sex. It is also a sign of bravery (more on that later). However, for women like the Chin and the Monypwa, tattooing is used for the opposite effect. There is some suggestion that the elaborate tattooing common to the faces of Chin women is actually an attempt by the women to look ugly and therefore removed from the unwanted advances of Burmese soldiers. I have seen pictures of Karen men with tattooing across their entire upper thighs. Although Victor Lieberman suggests that this practice was the distinguishing feature of the Burmese men in the 1700s and before. Tattooing was a right of passage although you could say it has become less so in today’s world.