Native American tattooing
Native American tattooing is a rich cultural practice that varied widely among different tribes across the Americas. Techniques used for tattooing included cutting with blades and pricking with needles, with some cultures employing a method of "sewing" designs into the skin. Charcoal was commonly used as the pigment, and tattoos were applied to various parts of the body, including the face. The practice served multiple purposes, such as enhancing beauty, indicating social status, and commemorating important rites of passage. For example, high-ranking individuals like Bella Coola men displayed tattoos of their parents' totemic animals, while Mandan chiefs typically sported tattoos on one arm and breast. Additionally, tattooing held medicinal significance in some tribes, with Ojibwa healers using it to treat ailments by marking spots on the body corresponding to pain. The tradition was particularly prominent among women, who often adorned their faces and were esteemed for their tattoos, as seen in the Netsilik Eskimo culture, which even ascribed special afterlives to tattooed women. Overall, Native American tattooing reflects a diverse range of meanings and practices deeply rooted in cultural identity and heritage.
Subject Terms
Native American tattooing
Tribes affected: Widespread but not pantribal
Significance: Tattooing was one of the most widespread native practices in pre-contact North America and later
Tattooing was one of the most widespread native practices in the Americas. Techniques ranged from cutting with blades to pricking with needles or other sharp instruments. Among the Aleut and peoples from the Northwest Coast culture area, a common technique was to “sew” the design into the flesh with a needle. The most common pigment was charcoal, and all parts of the face and body were tattooed.
Tattooing was used to enhance physical beauty, indicate social status, and commemorate rites of passage. High-ranking Bella Coola men were tattooed with their parents’ totemic animals. Among the Mandan, chiefs were usually the only men with tattoos, often on one arm and breast. Natchez nobility wore tattoos on their faces, arms, legs, chests and backs. Osage shamans tattooed their chests with symbols associated with their heritage of knowledge. The Tlingit often made tattoos during the final potlatch of the mortuary cycle, and they used hand tattoos as a sign of nobility.
Tattooing was often undertaken as medicine. Ojibwa healers used tattooing to treat arthritis, toothaches, broken bones, sprains, dislocated joints, and backaches. Instruments included three or four fish spines, bone splinters, or needles inserted and fastened into a split stick handle. Charred birchbark, gunpowder, or other medicines were applied either to the affected area or to the pricking instruments. Tattoos were made in the form of circular spots above the source of pain. When the affected area was large, marks were made in rows or lines.
Tattoos appear to have been most frequently worn by women. Women in the Great Plains tattooed their faces between the mouth and the chin. Tattoos were considered among the most attractive features of Netsilik Eskimo women, for whom there were separate afterlives for women with tattoos (who joined skillful hunters) and without them (who sat through eternity with bowed heads).