The Art of Tattoos

Tattooing moved on to country-to-country When the Egyptians expanded their empire, the art of tattooing spread as well. .
             For millennia Pagans used tattooing as a form of worship for both the dead and the living, to bring fertility, courage and power both physical and magical to the wearer. During the rise of the Christian era and later during the burning times most Pagan traditions were abandoned in order to assimilate into the mainstream culture and avoid persecution. Although Paganism precedes modern religions, it is out numbered by Judeo-Christian beliefs and is considered taboo to many. It is this belief, which still keeps many modern Pagans indoors, and under cover smothering ancient rites of body modification.
             Tattooing was a primitive practice that had died out in Europe as Christian civilization advanced, but had survived elsewhere in the 'uncivilized' world. Roman and Greek culture did not see tattoos in a positive light. In those times tattoos were associated with Barbarians. Do to this the Greeks and Romans practiced tattoo removal. There primary technique was to chemically burn off the tattoo. Greeks and Romans also used tattooing as a punishment in which they would mark marked criminals and slaves. This practice is still carried on today.
             Even this powerful ban could not completely eradicate tattooing from either Europe or the Middle East. Tattooing worked its way into these religions by way of the Pilgrims. In the middle Ages when a person left his European village on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, no one knew where he really went the only way to prove that you truly went to the holy land was to return with a tattoo from the Coptic priests who practiced the art outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Most pilgrims got a simple tattoo of a cross but some of the more adventurous ones returned with images of St.George's victory over the dragon, the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus or Peter and the crowing cock.