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Getting a Native American Tattoo

The Problem With Tribal Designs

The latest hot question filling my email box, usually from immature people with American Indian ancestry, is "What are the traditional designs for Cherokee (or Apache, or Mohawk, or any other Native American) tribal tattoos? Because my grandmother was office Cherokee (or Apache, or Mohawk) and I want to laurels my heritage."

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Well, this isn't a bad question on the face of information technology. Many American Indian tribes do accept traditions of tribal tattoo art. In some tribes this tradition is unbroken, and in others it's beingness revived by Indian young people. However, if yous are writing to me and asking this question, I would encourage you to consider three things:

1. You may have Indian heritage, but you practise non have an bodily connectedness with your ancestors' tribe, otherwise you would have family members to ask about your tribe'southward tattoo tradition rather than asking me.

2. People who have Indian heritage but no actual connection with their ancestors' tribe are

often incorrect nigh their ancestors' tribal affiliation! (Yous wouldn't believe how many people have been looking for an impossible-to-locate Cherokee great-grandmother, only to find that they'd wasted years bcause she was actually Assiniboine and everyone just chosen her Cherokee because they'd never heard of the Assiniboines.)

3. You should assume that getting a tattoo will be

PERMANENT . Sometimes they can remove tattoos after (which is extremely expensive) only other times they can't remove them completely and you would still accept a partial tattoo pattern or a permanent scar. So if you get a Native American tattoo, plan on keeping it.

At present, combine these three things. Say you're a swain who

actually wants to connect with your grandmother's people, really desire to brand that a part of your life, so you get an elaborate Cherokee facial tattoo. And so y'all find out she was really Assiniboine. Now y'all've got a problem--a lot of Indians are skeptical of immature non-Indians rediscovering Indian roots anyhow, call back they're not very serious. You think the Assiniboines are going to take you as ane of them when you have Cherokee tattoos all over your face. (In Sioux cultures men don't fifty-fifty tattoo their faces, only women exercise, so yous'll expect similar an idiot going over and challenge to be related to them.)

Now if y'all

take a tribal identity already--you belong to a tribe, or you accept third cousins who practise and you visit them every year, or something like that--then dandy, go for it, worse that happens is you lot become old and fat and the tatoo doesn't await good anymore similar the one I got in the army. But if yous are looking for a tribal identity, and you would maybe like to be accepted every bit a mixed-blood Indian someday, or at least y'all don't want actual Indians to express joy at you when you introduce yourself, please do yourself a favor and hold off on the Native American tattoos until you are actually affiliated with the tribe in question. Use your mutual sense: if American Indian tattoos were originally used as a form of permanent tribal identification, and then putting on the wrong tribe'southward tattoo will permanently mark you lot as an outsider. Do y'all really want to chance that? For that matter, even putting on a right tattoo from a tribe you've never fifty-fifty been to visit will give you some negative reactions as well (only like putting on army tattooes when you've never been a soldier would).

In other words, if yous have to ask a stranger near information technology over the Net, you probably really do not want to be getting a Native American tribal tattoo. You run the risk of achieving exactly the contrary effect from the one y'all were hoping for: distancing yourself from your people, or fifty-fifty mis-honoring an ancestor. Tread carefully in that location.

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Simply What If I Want A Native American Tattoo Anyway?

When I outset put this page up in 2003, most of the tattoo-related email I received was from mixed-claret people wishing to get traditional tribal tattoos to honour their native ancestors and feel closer to their native heritage. It is these people that my previous advice is intended for (and judging from their responses, it has been appreciated.) However, since that time tribal tattoo art has plainly really hit the mainstream, and at present I get a lot of frustrated electronic mail from other people--young people looking for tattoos who are non that interested in reconnecting with their specific Indian roots, or indeed do not accept whatever at all. "Await," they say, "I just want to become a cool looking tribal tattoo that shows my respect for Native Americans in full general. I don't really care which tribe information technology's from. I don't need warnings--don't you have any suggestions?"

Well, you're going to have a hard time getting an authentically traditional Native American tribal tattoo if yous really don't belong to a Native American community at

all, simply hither are some tattoo ideas which may be interesting to you if you are in this situation:

1) Yous could get a tribal tattoo design created past a gimmicky Native American artist. I know of one Cherokee creative person, Ken Masters, who has gratis tribal tattoo designs created past him available on his website. Y'all could besides browse through our gallery of Native American artists, specially the native paintings, because some of the other artists may pattern Indian tattoo art on committee.

2) Cherokee, Cree, and Blackfoot all have unique writing systems, and you could apply lettering from 1 of those scripts as an American Indian tattoo design. These are syllabaries, non alphabets, which means that each Indian character represents one syllable. You could utilise the first syllable in your proper name or your girlfriend'southward name or something similar that. Here are pictures of all the characters in Cherokee, Blackfoot, and Cree. You can also download a complimentary Windows font of Cherokee letters here.

iii) You lot could utilize a word from a Native American language as a tattoo design. This isn't traditional in whatever tribe that I know of, simply in recent times some young Indian guys have started using word tattoos like this, especially with their names, family or clan names, a kinship term, or an animal they feel a connection with. Annihilation that gets the young people more interested in our languages is a adept new tradition as far as I'thousand concerned. You tin use a dictionary to notice the word for your favorite fauna or the kinship term for a family member you'd like to laurels. Here's our Amerindian directory, where we take links to online dictionaries and other resources in diverse Indian languages. If you'd like a give-and-take like this simply don't desire to track one downward yourself, our Native American language organization is currently doing a fundraiser to provide Native American names for people's dogs, and we could too provide translations of an animal or kinship give-and-take in several different native languages. Hither's a form yous can make full out if you're interested in that.

4) Y'all could adapt a Native American symbol or pattern from traditional artwork into a tribal tattoo picture. In that location are plenty of expert books with pictures of Native American designs and patterns, including Indian Designs, American Indian Pattern and Decoration, Indian Art of the Northwest Coast, Art of the Northwest Coast Indians, Images in Rock: Southwest Stone Art, Tribal Pattern Motifs of Ancient Mexico, and Native Designs from Pre-Columbian Mexico. You tin probably detect a book of Native American art designs in your local library.

5) You could cull a tattoo pattern based on an North American animal that has significance to Native American culture, such as wolf, bear, eagle, raven, or so on. If you lot are a tribal member yourself yous tin can employ the animal associated with your family'due south clan, merely if you are not or don't know your clan you lot can choose an animal based on its traditional symbolism. Here is a site of Native American beast symbols which discusses the meaning and mythology of diverse animals and tin help if you're because an animal tattoo.

half-dozen) You could use an image of the tribal seal or flag of a Native American nation equally a tattoo design. If you're

really certain which tribe grandma belonged to, this might be the pick for yous. Here is a really nice site with pictures of almost all the tribal flags in the United states and some of the Canadian ones: Native American Flags.

Hope one of those might be the idea y'all are looking for.

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Further reading:

Hither are some accurate resources that might be helpful to you if you are interested in traditional tribal tattoos.
(Our organization earns a commission from any book bought through these links)

Drawing with Great Needles: Aboriginal Tattoo Traditions of North America is an anthropology volume almost native tattoo traditions in Woodland and Plains Indian tribes, complete with many Native American tattoo pictures from the 1800'due south.

This book, The World of Tattoo, has pictures and detailed information about tribal tattoo art and meanings around the world, including a affiliate on Native American Indian tattoos.

This book, Tattoo History: A Source Book is another adept volume on tattoo traditions of the globe, including tribal body art from N and S America.

Native North American Art is a proficient book on Native American artwork in general which contains sections; on tribal tattoos; though those sections are small, the balance of the volume may exist interesting to you too.

The Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume discusses hairstyles, wearable and ornamentation among various native peoples during various historical periods, including a judgement or two on native tattoo art in each tribe.

The book How to Make Cherokee Article of clothing has a lot of authentic information near Cherokee tribal tattoos and body art in it, as well as habiliment styles.

The Encyclopedia of North American Indians has an online article on Native American Tattooing Methods.

Cherokee Tattoos includes history and pictures of Indian tribal tattoo art also equally contemporary Cherokee tattoo designs.

Plains Cree Vesture includes descriptions and drawings of tribal tattoos (roll downwardly the folio to see them) amidst the Cree Indians.

Native Tattoo Anthropology features tribal tattoo pictures from indigenous cultures effectually the globe, including Alaska Native and S American Indian cultures.

If you are interested in native Indian tattoos from a cultural perspective, you might like to browse through onetime pictures of American Indian people, such as the Curtis Collection, the National Archives Collection of American Indian pictures, and Images of Canada'south Aboriginal Peoples. Many of the individuals in these public-domain photos wear native tattoos or body art, so you lot tin can go an idea of what American Indian tattoos looked like. (Obviously, I recommend against trying to re-create a tattoo from a century-sometime sepia photo onto your own arm, both for cultural reasons and practical.)

If you take a detail tribe in mind you can as well attempt looking in our list of American Indian tribes--we have collected pages of historical photographs for several tribes, too every bit links about tribal art, and these may also help y'all.

Finally, if you are more than interested in tribal designs than in American Indian tattooing in particular, there are several good books illustrating the traditional artistry, symbols and designs of native people. Among them are Indian Art of the Northwest Coast and Art Design of the Pacific Northwest Indians; Images in Stone: Southwest Rock Fine art; Tribal Design Motifs of Ancient Mexico and Native Design from Pre-Columbian Mexico; and Indian Symbols and Designs and Native American Design.

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Source: http://www.native-languages.org/tattoo.htm