Migrant Tattoos And Their Implications A Case Study Of...

Migrant Tattoos and Their Implications: a Case Study of Eritrean Emigrants in Newcastle Introduction Tattoos, as an art of body modification, have cultural and social meanings all over the world for thousands of years (Humbly, 1925). Archaeological evidence clearly showed that body modification (tattooing) is one of the oldest forms of human expression/art (Ball, 1996). The implication and importance of tattoos has been diverse and changed through time in a society (Humbly, 1925). â€Å"Anthropological evidences showed that tattoos have served in many various and diverse cultures as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, sexual lures and marks of fertility, pledges of love, punishment, amulets and talisman, protection and as the marks of outcasts and convicts† (Hemingson, 1999). Due to the absence of research on tattoo it is quite difficult to talk about when and where the practice of tattooing (such kind of body modification) was started in Eritrea. However, it is common to see a tattoo among Eritrean women and men aged between 50 to 70 in Eritrea (Per.Comm, Hailey). There are remarkable differences on the meaning, location and symbol of the tattoos between men and women. In the first place, it shows your place of origin, country side (Per. Comm, Hailey; Alem). The tattoos on men usually located on forehead and arm, and it implies male heroism and religious and spiritual devotions, whereas the tattoos on