HomeThroughout history mankind has sought to make distinctions between people, to set some apart or to include some. A common way in which ancient peoples achieved this was by the use of the tattoo. Tribal patterns for tattoos would be used to set a group apart by signifying their allegiance to a certain god or tribe or family. What this practice effectively accomplish was that it ensured that the tribal pattern for tattoos became both common place and unique at the same time.
One might ask how that is possible. How can one practice be both common and unique at the same time? It is not so impossible once one puts his/her mind to it. For example, one group of people worships the moon god instead of the sun god and they want to acknowledge their allegiance to it. Tattoos have already become common place in their culture so they choose a special, unique rendering of the moon god to be their tattoo. Thus, they have taken something every common place and made it something unique and distinctive to their purposes and passions.
The same rings true of tribal patterns for tattoos in today’s society. Maori tribal tattoos, tribal shoulder tattoos and chest tribal tattoos have all become quite popular and common place in today’s world. Yet at the same time, all of these tattoos have a special uniqueness and meaning depending on the owners and their reasons behind getting it. Thus the door to self-expression and individuality is never closed. Quite the opposite happens as a matter of fact. The door to self-expression is left open as one can choose whatever they wish to show or display whatever they would like to.
Self-expression is not sacrificed, in the least, for the sake of unity.Tribal patterns for tattoos do more that just set apart a group of people; they also set apart a person as an individual. In ancient times, the priest of a certain god would have a specific tattoo that was similar to his followers, but different enough to set him apart as an individual with a special purpose and identity. Tribal tattoos do the same today. They allow for people to feel apart of a larger group, while at the same time signaling every person out as an individual with a special purpose and identity.
In a general sense, tribal tattoos join together; unite if you will a larger constituency of persons who happen to have an interest in tattoos. This does not mean that it nominalizes the owners of said tattoos, just for the reason that was mentioned above. Tribal patterns for tattoos are out of the ordinary in the way that they allow for some commonality and yet individuality at the same time. No two are alike it seems, but at the same time, they are all the same. That has been their purpose for many ages, and they continue to achieve that purpose today, as evidenced by the growing numbers of people who continue to choose the most common and unique tattoos in the history of the world.
