What does tattoo mean?
Juniper Ellis: The English word tattoo comes from the Pacific Islands word tatau. In Samoan, one of the meanings of tatau is “right, fitting, or proper.” That definition conveys how in the Pacific the designs help make the bearer fully adult, visibly ready to contribute to the community. On the other hand, the designs mean something quite different as they travel outside the Pacific, as the Irishman James O’Connell discovered to both his delight and dismay. In the 1830s O’Connell acquired a full-body tattoo in Pohnpei, where he married and became a member of the community. But in New York, where he gained fame as the first man to display his tattoos, women and children ran screaming from him. Ministers had warned from the pulpit that viewing the designs would transfer them to any woman’s unborn child. Tattoo spread like wildfire from the Pacific to the United States and Europe. Q: How did tattoo travel from the Pacific to the rest of the world? JE: Modern tattoo traveled on bodies, tha
