Kavya Shukra said:
Face and body paint is one thing. Tattoos are a completely different story.
If you go back 150 years ago before tattoos were common all over the world, almost nobody had a tattoo. There are some places in Asia where they do tattoos by having a sharp needle on the end of a stick, dip it in ink, then hit the back of it to push it into the skin. Similar to the action of engraving words into a stone by hitting a chisel with a hammer. And there are African tribes that have done scarrification, where they make deep cuts into the skin knowing that it will form a large scar that will always be able to be seen with a large contrast against the look of the skin. And they make symbols and images with the scarrification. Making it look like the spots on a cheetah, and things like that.
I'm sure there probably other examples, but these are the only ones I am thinking of of cultures where a tattoo or something very similar have been done for a very long time.
There are many other cultures where the skin would sometimes be painted with certain lines or symbols that would represent other things. And this was done by people all over the world. This was usually done within rituals, where the person would be trying to "play the part" or act as a symbolic representation of a god or an energy current during the ritual. This was never meant to be permanent and it was only done during the ritual. Similar to how many native american tribes, when they do rituals involving contacting souls of dead people, they do not do this with their living face visible because the living are not supposed to speak with the dead. So they have a special mask to wear during this ritual which completely hides and covers the living face, and presents the look of a dead face that the spirits of dead people may communicate with. Of course the mask is not worn all of the time, and it would be very dangerous if it was worn all of the time because of all the death energies connected to it. But it was a specific tool that was used for a specific job, and was kept somewhere safely put away when it wasn't being used.
The symbolic paints and markings on the face done in all kinds of other cultures, were done in the same kind of way as the physical mask and for similar purposes. They were only used as a tool for a specific job during a ritual, which would only be maybe one night per year it would be done. And the other 364 days of the year it would not be used. This was done only with makeup or temporary paints. Maybe white ashes, black ashes, or blood. But these things would easily be washed off when they are done.
One example of a permanent marking done by Vikings was only done for the absolute worst criminals. If for some reason the punishment was decided to not be execution, the other punishment would be to completely and permanently exclude the person from all society and to live alone in the forest forever. But there had to be a way for all people to be able to know this, or else the criminal could just go live within another village and continue to hurt those people. So a very large scar would be made on the criminal's face under the eye. Either by cutting deeply with a blade, or by burning with a hot branding iron. But everybody knew what this scar meant, and it would tell all people who ever sees this person that it is a very dangerous criminal who is not allowed to get close to anybody. And it was done as a scar because it was a life long punishment that had to be permanent.
I have to say this because many people think that Vikings had tattoos, because of some things that were written describing their temporary paint in rituals. But the only permanent marking or tattoo equivalent that they ever had is what I said for the criminals.
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