African Tattoos

Cradle of civilization Africa - tattooing as body decoration - cicatrization 

The origins of tattooing and ancient skin drawings take us to the beginnings of the history of civilization - to Africa. It stretches from South Africa north to the Mediterranean. The continent makes up one-fifth of the Earth's surface. The origins of this continent are measured in a million, not a thousand years. Scientifically, it has already been established that the early form of body ornamentation common among African peoples was "cicatrization". This type of body decoration was common among the dark-skinned people of Africa, because their original skin color is close to black, and the usual soot pattern is far from visible. 

Tattoos show a deep understanding of the human body and the cultural values associated with a person, in addition to their religious and aesthetic connotations, not just their contemporary aesthetic value. 

With the advent of monotheistic religions, especially Islam, in North African countries, the practice of tattooing among Africans declined. This is because in Islam, tattooing is considered a sin and a form of self-mutilation. As a God- being, it is believed that with a tattoo you are damaging something that God created. Therefore, the practice of tattooing was abolished. 

It cannot change people's roots and belonging. Documentation from the early 20th century shows that parts of North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, throughout history still existed a significant of traditional tattooing culture. 

These roots can be traced even before the Egyptians and Nubians era - it is the essence of Africa, which today is revived and regains the ancestral traditions in African hearts. Interestingly, in modern Africa, the art forms of tattooing and scarification have actually merged in many countries to create a process called cicatrization. The word cicatrisation is derived from the French word cicatrices, which means "scar". 

The Kanuri and the Hausa tribes have men called wanzam who are specialists in cicatrization. They cut your baby into a design that you and your tribe like. They then apply a mixture of powdered charcoal and aduva oil to the baby over the next few days until its skin heals. 

Many Bushmen tribes in Namibia and Angola used a stone knife or a sharp arrowhead to make an incision between the eyes and insert a carbonized pigment with magical ingredients, that included the powdered remains of certain animals. This infusion was injected into the wounds to give the wearer better vision, endurance, and a stronger javelin thrust. 

Kwengo Bushmen placed tattoos on important muscles. For the host to be more successful in hunting, special substances were rubbed into the cuts. For example, fat from a killed deer. This gave the hunter speed and endurance, and they were rubbed into incisions placed on the thighs. Nharo placed such incisions between the shoulder blades, they strengthened the arm's strength, while tensing the hunter's bow. 

The Bini or Edo people were the original founders of the Benin Empire (1440–1897) in southwestern Nigeria. They were traditionally ruled by the Ogisos (sky kings) who called their land Igodomigod. No citizen of the Bini Kingdom without tattoos could exercise their prerogatives to belong to palace societies. Moreover, the absence of a tattoo in Bini society meant that the individual was "foreign" and "uncouth", since it seems that an unmarked body was considered polluted with symbolic, clotted blood that could only be released during the tattooing ritual itself.