XII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2020

The art of tattoos originated a very long time ago, about 60,000 years ago. During excavations of ancient minerals, the remains of people who previously lived before us were found, and various kinds of symbols were applied on their bodies. Also, our predecessors previously applied painting body and it meant attitude to any tribe, as well as various kinds of symbolism that endowed a person with magical power. Nowadays it’s hard to imagine it. We live in the age of technology, and for most people it is considered foolish to believe in magic or paranormal phenomena. People generally forgot about attitudes toward tribes, new states and races have been formed, and tribes completely disappeared.

The reasons for the appearance of body painting are not clear. Even before that people had distinctive features from their fellow tribesmen: scars, jewelry, etc. But the appearance of tattoos introduced a new kind of decoration of their body. First of all the most prominent parts of the body were decorated with tattoos, they were face, hands, neck. This was done in order to immediately understand who he is when looking at a person. But directly in our time people are afraid to get tattoos in prominent places and in vain hide them. People of the current generation have their own understanding on body painting, and it is different from what it was before.

Long before the appearance of tattoo equipment people used improvised means to apply drawings on their bodies. The instruments were various kinds of objects with sharp ends, and they also used clay and other means similar to our current paint as a pigment. But already in 1891 an electric tattoo machine was invented, and a new age of tattoo technology came. Since the advent of tattoo machines, applying various kinds of drawings to the body has become easier, and this was a big leap in the culture of tattoos, people began to spend less time and effort on paintings, and the process of applying became several times easier up. To this day the tattoo industry does not stand still and is developing. People come up with new ways to apply drawings to their bodies and improve old methods.

The art of tattooing appeared and developed mainly in English-speaking countries and gained the greatest distribution there. In European countries we can see, a different attitude to tattoos than in Russia. The application of a symbol on the human body in Russia was previously inherent only to prisoners, and to this day there has been a versatile impression of tattoos among Russian people. Many people think that this is beautiful, and the rest of the people think that this is a bad person or mentally unstable. As in Russia a negative attitude towards people with tattoos is inherent in Japan, where previously various kinds of drawings on the body were symbols of groups or the mafia. In Japan from the 17th century to the present day the Yakuza has been operating and the population of Japan is very rude towards people with tattoos, because in their country they are inherent only to gangs. Dragons in Japan are one of the symbols of gangs. But there are countries in which people with tattoos are treated not negatively and even sometimes positively. These are the countries of Europe as well as America, where tattoos are treated with indifference or approval, considering it as an art.

Religion is also especially relevant to tattoos. In most religions there is a ban on applying any symbolism to the human body, and only a small part has a neutral attitude to tattoos.

The attitude of Christianity to tattooing is built according to the main book of Christians, the Bible, according to patristic writings decrees of Ecumenical Councils, and instructions of the Pope. Christians believe that tattoos are signs of paganism inherent to the devil. It is the devil who makes people draw tattoos and think that it is beautiful, and when he comes from hell to us on earth, he will be covered with all sorts of underwear symbols, and people will already form their attitude to tattoos and will assume that he is an ordinary person. When baptism takes place it’s not in vain that they say cleanse the body and soul and accept God into your heart. But there is also a contradiction, when tattoos are used by the Coptic Orthodox Church, whose members after baptism make a tattoo on the wrist of their right hands. But if we talk only about saving the soul, then the symbolism on the body has nothing to do with it either you will go to heaven or hell, it should depend only on the spiritual development of a person and the location of his inner world.

The attitude of Buddhism to tattoos is neutral - they are not encouraged or prohibited. For example, Tibetan monks believe that tattoos adversely affect the reincarnation or subsequent incarnation of the soul on earth. And the countries of the south-east practicing Buddhism apply scriptures to their bodies as a talisman, which indicate the area of ​​work on oneself or as a defense.

The attitude of Islam to tattooing is completely negative - both the one who inflicts and the one who is inflicted according to Sharia law are subject to condemnation and damnation. The reason for this was the fact that a person in this religion is the creation of God and any interference in his creation is regarded as a great sin. In this religion, there is a complete ban on the application of various kinds of symbols and there are no moments in which a person who worships this religion could be tattooed himself.

 The right to choose whether or not to get a tattoo belongs only to the person, and religion only directs its followers in accordance with its own standards.

Today's tattoo culture is significantly different from what it was before. Most of the world's population does not make much sense in tattoos, and because of this, they have become a common decoration of a person as for example, earrings or clothes. Previously tattoos were applied as a symbol of significance or division into classes, but nowadays they do not have such a meaning. The world does not stand still and is developing something that previously had an important meaning becomes completely different. We can speak not only of body painting, but of other types of art