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Show TATTOOING. Tattooing, or at least tattooing as practiced by uncivilized men, is an art without a history. No one, as far as we are aware, has made it the business of his life to study the development of tattooing from its rude beginnings. We have not, therefore, the materials at hand for a really scientific discussion of the ?? of ‘moke' as the New Zealanders call tattooing. As science becomes more thoroughly differentiated, and as specialists arise in this branch of learning we shall doubtless have books written on Mokelogy. This seems the most appropriate term for the new study because it sounds tantological to talk of tattoology in the course of a few years we may believe that conferences of Mokologists will be held in ?? and more intellectual provincial towns. When Englishmen first settled in New Zealand they found that the older women had one side of their faces tattooed, so that from one point of the view they looked like men, while the other aspect of the profile revealed them as women. Now the women tattoo only the lines of the lips and a scroll depending from the angles of the mouth. They also draw line ?? on their arms and breasts. The practice of the New Zealanders shows us tattooing as no longer a torture or a kind of trade mark, but merely a form of personal ornament. It is in this shape that tattooing survives among the savage and backward classes of civilized people, among boys, criminals and the lower classes of soldiers. This modern tattooing has recently been made the subject of special studies, both in France and Italy. ?? are often found tattooed literally all over their bodies. The men who are frequently under arrest find, in tattooing a help to kill time. Whole pictures copied from illustrated newspapers or the covers are often imprinted on the flesh by the use of needles and coloring matter. Mottos are also engraved, and marks of trades, or religious and patriotic emblems, are very common. Places like Loretto and other centres of pilgrimages are also ?? of the art of tattooing. Sacred signs are stamped, for a small charge on the bodies of the pilgrims and this practice actually prevails in Jerusalem. In Paris and other great towns there are professional tattooers, and the cost of a really elaborate design may reach 12f or even 30f. Mankind is naturally prone to relapse into the barbarous customs of the past and there can be no better proof of this than the extent to which tattooing is practiced in the armies and prisons of France and Italy. Indeed these tattooed civilized men have sunk even below the standard of the barbarian of New Zealand. Civilized tattooing is mechanical in method and trivial or disgusting in subject while the "moko" of the New Zealanders is designed on sound principles of decoration. The recent French and Italian researches prove that tattooing in Europe is chiefly confined to men. Roger Tichborne wished to tattoo his cousin and Mr. Payn tells, in the ?? Christmas number, a very moving tale of a young lady of rank who tattooed her arm with the name of ?? School girls should remember that, however devoted they may be to "Tom" at the age of fourteen at eighteen they will find the indelible token of this affection rather inconvenient. But, if all tattooers were as expert as the Dyaks, ?? who love blue china might consent to be tattooed. The hands of a Dyak [unreadable] Mr. Carl Beck's "Head Hunters of Borneo" have the most beautiful blue ornaments, on the most exquisite taste. We have known esthetic ladies who tinged their nails with henna, from this to tattooing ?? to Dyak is but a short step. Whether young dandies should tattoo themselves is a question that may be left to the cultivated taste of long haired lads who already wear bangles and bracelets. The first young man tattooed in Nankin blue will doubtless have a success, but imitation might prove monotonous. It is certain that Europeans will find no better teachers in this art than the china collecting, head-hunting Dyaks of Borneo.-London Saturday ?? |