1. Tattooed Population

There are more women with tattoos on their bodies in the United States than there are tattooed men. In 2012, 59% of all persons that had tattoos were women. In 2006, 36% of persons aged between 18 and 25 had tattoos and 40% of those aged between 26 and 40 years old at least had a tattoo. According to the National Geographic, 15%, which is about 14 million people in America had tattoos in the year 2000.

 2. Tattoo is Stigma in Latin

The Latin term that is translated tattoo is the word ‘stigma’.  Americans are known to spend an estimated 1.65 billion dollars each year on tattoos. Each day, there is a new tattoo parlor added in the U.S. each day. Currently, there are more than 20,000 parlors across the U.S alone.

3. Tattoo Machine

The machine that is used for tattooing has four sections. It has a needle, an electric motor, an ink holding tube and a foot pedal that helps control movement. Early methods of tattooing involved the use of rakes, chisels and picks. In some cases threads covered in soot were used. Such threads were sewn throw a person’s skin.

 4. Source of the word ‘Tatoo’

The term ‘tattoo’ is derived from a Polynesian term, ‘ta’ which means to strike. It described the sound that is produced by a tattooing spike as it knocks on the skin. The very initial recorded references made to the term ‘tattoo’ were found on Joseph Banks’ papers. Joseph Banks was a naturalist who boarded a Captain Cooks Ship, the ship that brought the term to Europe. Initially, tattoos were referred to as marks or prics.

 5. Popular Tattoo Spots

The most common spots where people have their tattoos done are wrist, lower back, ankle, foot, back piece, chest, arm, neck, arm band and breast. In 1936, men and women fort their Social Security numbers tattooed on their arms after the issuance of Social Security Cards. Most images that women tattoo on their bodies are angels and hearts.

 6. Body Skin and Tattoos

All skin on a person’s body is not the same and therefore does not take in tattoo pigment in the same way. For instance, tattoos made on knuckles, elbows, knew and feet fade fast compared to those made on other parts of the body. Women have their tattoos removed twice as much as men do.

 7. Rouslan Toumaniantz’s Tattooed Girlfriend

Rouslan Toumaniantz, a tattoo artist met his girlfriend, Lesya in 2013. Within 24 hours of meeting her in Moscow, he the alternative spelling of his name tattooed, on every part of her face with her consent. The name was tattooed in five inch, gothic style and runs from one cheek to the other in bold letters.
8. First Tattoo Artist in the United States

The first artist to do professional tattooing in the United States was an immigrant from Germany, Martin Hildebrandt. This artist arrives in the Unites States’ Boston area in 1846. The Assistant Secretary for Defense proposes in 1955 that citizens have their blood type tattooed on their arms just in case an attack occurred in the U.S.

 9. Tattoo Piercing

In order to get a tattoo done, the skin is usually pierced up to 3000 times by the tattoo machine each minute. The tattoo occurs on the second skin layer known as the dermis. Cells within the dermis are more stable compared to those in the epidermis layer and often experiences minor dispersion and fading throughout a person’s life.

 10. Soviet Union Prisoners and Tattoos

Between mid-1960s and late-1980, over 35 million persons were sent to prison camps in the Soviet Union. Out of these, up to 30 million of them got tattoos during their stay in prison. Inmates who were caught with tattoos that they did not deserve or earn were punished by death.