Why do people get tattoos? What is the meaning behind a tattoo? Many people with great pleasure traumatize their skin and, despite the pain, remain satisfied, proudly displaying their tattoos on different parts of the body. And in some places to do tattoos, well, very unpleasant.
People use a lot of reasons for getting tattoos. Some got a tattoo, as they say "out of stupidity". Others - because of an overwhelming desire to stand out from the crowd and demonstrate their "cool" tattoo to the rest, proudly exposing these parts of the body. Others were tattooed to satisfy their needs by marking some meaningful sign, symbol or word on their skin. Such people, as a rule, try not to show their tattoos.
We present to your attention the 10 most tattooed personalities of the planet.
Maria Jose Cristerna
This is quite an ordinary woman, a mother of 4 children, a lawyer by profession. But that's if you don't look at her. Everything changes dramatically the first time you look at this woman. Ninety percent of her body is covered with tattoos and there are implants.
This appearance spawned the woman's nickname. She is now referred to as a "vampire woman." Skin covered in tattoos, piercings, implants make many people swallow nervously.
But Maria is not in the least bit worried: she is a happy mother, owner of a successful tattoo parlor. She is popular and is often invited to various TV shows and other events. This Mexican made a real breakthrough in the world of body art.
She consciously went to this for several long years. Now her entire body is covered by more than a hundred different drawings, each with its own story.
Maria is 35, but she's already been through a lot. At 17, she got married. Life didn't work out - in response, the girl began to reincarnate. It was a way for her to express herself. Many of her tattoos are military, which once again confirms: after a failed marriage, she became a fighter.
Facts about tattoos
Fact #1: Tattoos have been around as long as humans have.
The oldest tattoo belongs to the 5,300-year-old human ice mummy Etsy (Oetzi), which is the oldest mummy ever discovered.
Ancient tribes used tattoos to mark many important life events,
such as turning a boy into a man, marriage, punishment, faith, love, etc. According to many researchers, the Etsy tattoo was more therapeutic.
Each society had its own peculiarities and ways of modifying the body, but as a rule, the ink consisted of vegetable or animal tissue. One interesting ink recipe consisted of so-called black smoke (derived from wood or oil) mixed with a woman's breast milk.
While the Eskimos used thread soaked in ink to draw a pattern on their skin, the Maori peoples of New Zealand used tools to cut wood.
In almost all societies, the master tattooist spent his life learning the messy, painful process. Sharpened sticks, needles, stones, and other tools were used to prepare the skin to accept the ink.
"In ancient times, without the proper equipment, tattoos were much more painful, and it took a very long time to apply them," says Massacre.
Fact #2: A master tattoo artist is a very difficult job to get.
Permanent, ritualistic modifications of the human body are years of study. As the research of specialists of the University of Michigan showed, in ancient times it was a sacred profession.
Today, modern master tattoo artists undergo several years of training as well.
"Like other jobs, all masters start with apprentices, doing all sorts of odd jobs," Megan explains.
In fact, in the first year of practice, no one lets the beginner near the client. Instead, he learns how to properly clean equipment, learns how to protect himself and the patient from bloodborne pathogens, and learns all the necessary medical conditions within which he must work.
Fact #3: Master tattoo artists are not always people with the appropriate education.
While it was once the domain of vagrant criminals and other dubious figures, this has changed today. However, before getting the widespread "phenomenon" in the 1960s, many masters did not follow safety requirements and did not comply with proper regulations.
Such tattoo artists, as a rule, never had the necessary knowledge,
and probably never even trained in the business, but due to the lack of real regulation in the field, anyone who was making good money could afford to get a tattoo.
In the second half of the 20th century, as tattoos regained their former popularity, artists, entrepreneurs, managers, accountants, teachers and many others began to become masters.
"At one time it wasn't considered art, but now it's an artistic profession because so many craftsmen have a design or art education."
Fact #4: Leather is very difficult to draw on.
Tom Leppard
An Englishman by birth, he served in the British Army. When he retired, he realized that he could not survive among humans, their society was alien to him.
Tom ran away from civilization. After getting himself $10,000 worth of panther tattoos all over his body, he moved away from civilization to the Isle of Skye. The tattoos cover the entire area of his body, the inside of his ears and between his toes. For a long time, the man was called the most tattooed on the planet and even entered into the Book of Records.
The man became a leopard, even inserted his fangs. Clothing the man categorically does not recognize - he left himself only a bandage on his hips.
The most tattooed man in the world
Finally, we should find out who has the largest number of tattoos on the planet. His name is Lucky Diamond Rich. He has several layers of tattoos on his body.
Lucky Diamond Rich is the most tattooed man in the world. The drawings cover his body in several layers.
To make sure there are no areas of his body that are not tattooed, the young man even has drawings on his gums, ears and the skin under his fingernails. Having painted his whole body, Lucky decided not to stop. He's now covering himself with a third layer of tattoos. This time, the drawings are done in red. This way, he would set his own record.
True, some believe that smart people do not get tattoos, but are distinguished from society by other qualities. For example, according to uznayvse.ru, Marilyn Vos Savant at age 10 had an IQ of 228. Read more about the world's smartest children here.
Tommy Wills.
The most tattooed gaffer in all of Great Britain. Over the last fifty years he has done nothing but regularly cover his body with all sorts of tattoos.
He's almost 70 now, but he doesn't have clean skin - he's all "tattooed. Tommy got his last tattoo after his wife died. He wrote, "Tommy, I will always love you."
Etienne Dumont
A resident of Geneva. This man has worked all his life as a newspaper art critic. The reason for this abrupt transformation is still unknown.
One thing is clear - after he covered his body with images, got horn implants, inserted huge circles in his ears, nose and lower lip - his popularity increased several times.
Top 10 most tattooed people on the planet
For some, drawings under the skin - a way of self-expression, for some - a tribute to fashion, but, one way or another, applying and creating tattoos is a separate art form. Some people, wishing to join the beautiful, do not know measure, such as these people, who have become record-breakers in the number of tattoos on their bodies. 1 Rick Genest
Rick Genest is a famous male model, a man with a skull on his face, has gained unprecedented popularity in the last couple of years. The guy's body was covered in drawings by Montreal-based tattoo artists. Video:
2 Lucky Diamond Rich
Lucky Diamond Rich is the man with the most tattoos in the world, he even has them on his gums! He is the most tattooed man in the world. It took over a thousand hours to get all of his subcutaneous drawings. Video:
3 Julia Gnuse
Julia Gnuse is the most tattooed girl on the planet nicknamed "The Illustrated Lady". She has been covering herself with tattoos for over a decade and she does it to hide the signs of her terrible skin disease.
4 Tom Leppard ("The Leopard Man")
Tom Leppard ("The Leopard Man") loves felines so much that he covered his own body with spot patterns, trying to get as close to his favorites as possible.
5. Dennis Avner ("Stalking Cat").
Dennis Avner ("Stalking Cat") is another cat fan who has gone much further than his predecessor in wanting to become like them. "Stalking Cat" has covered his body in stripe tattoos, had split lip surgeries, teeth and ears reshaped, gotten implants, and even got a tiger tail!
6 Kala Kaiwi
Kala Kaiwi has had 75% of his body covered in colorful prints and is a walking advertisement for his own tattoo parlor in Hawaii.
7 Elaine Davidson.
Elaine Davidson has 2,500 tattoos on her body, 3 kilos of piercings on her face alone. She was born in Brazil and now lives in Edinburgh.
8 Eric Sprague ("Lizard Man").
Eric Sprague ("Lizard Man") is one of the first people alive today to split his tongue, becoming almost the founder of this trend. Sprague's body is covered with tattoos in the form of green scales, he had his teeth ground, he had implants inserted under his scalp, and he asked to be called "Lizard Man.
9 Etienne Dumont
Etienne Dumont, the literary critic from Geneva, has covered practically his entire body with pictures under his skin. Moreover, he acquired subcutaneous implants and five-centimeter tunnels in his ears. With all that said, to this day, he interacts quite successfully with the people around him and works in public places.
10 Pauly Unstoppable
Pauly Unstoppable (real name Pauly Mowery) is one of the most body-modified people on the planet. His track record includes dozens of tattoos and scars, piercings, tunnels, and silicone implants.
Gregory Paul McLaren
A 17-year-old boy got his first tattoo as a keepsake after meeting a prostitute. That drawing gave him confidence for the rest of his life. A lot has changed since then.
The boy has become a real man who loves to travel. In every city he gets a tattoo. As of today, he has already done this procedure on 4 continents, in 17 countries and 45 cities. In total, he has been under the needle for almost 48 days.
Rick Genest
This is a 28-year-old guy. He is well known in Canada, as he is a famous model. Not many people knew him until he got a skeleton tattoo on his body and a skull tattoo on his head.
His first drawings made at age 16 after a serious traffic accident, to hide a thick scar on his arm. Then followed other areas of the body. In total, the guy paid about 4,000 Canadian dollars for all his tattoos.
But he made a lot more money on his image. He is a celebrity who is invited to commercials, music video shoots. The star travels around the world, takes part in fashion shows, and sometimes works part-time as a DJ.
The man is a tattoo.
10. Maria Jose Cristerna
This woman has an extremely unusual appearance, the story of which acquisition is no less interesting than Maria herself.
This is how the tattoo enthusiast was in 1998.
Today she is a mother of four children and a happy wife. Maria lives in Mexico, she is a lawyer by training, and for a long period of time was an assistant judge. Now she has her own tattoo parlor and is incredibly popular.
She loves to sing, star in various television shows, and give her own tattoos to clients. In the photo below, Maria is pictured with her husband David Pena, waiting outside a school in Guadalajara for their children.
Becoming a female vampire, Maria became a vampire back in her first marriage. Her husband often humiliated and beat her, even causing the unfortunate woman to give birth prematurely. Changing her body became a kind of psychological defense.
She has long been married for the second time, happily married, but she still cannot stop, constantly making herself scarier and scarier. Maybe it's all her subconscious, which is still afraid of violence and hides behind an ugly exterior.
Julia Gnus.
Everything started with the girl's illness. She was diagnosed with porphyria, a hypersensitivity to light. There is a treatment for this disorder, but it significantly reduces her vision. The girl's skin was covered with terrible scars and blisters. To hide them, she decided to draw a picture. Now tattoos cover 95% of her body.
The images on her body are diverse. There you can see cartoon characters, Hollywood stars, unusual flowers and plants, jungle landscapes. The girl is called the person with the largest number of drawings on the body.
The most tattooed stars
There are a lot of fans of drawing on the body among celebrities. One of the most famous is Angelina Jolie. The subject of Colin Farrell's pride is a tattoo on his shoulder. According to him, it helps him to win victories over women's hearts. Colin prefers to wear short-sleeved shirts and T-shirts to show off his tattooed shoulder.
Angelina Jolie keeps getting tattoos
Susan Sarandon's back is adorned with tattoos in the form of her children's initials. The names of the children are an adornment of the body and all the famous Johnny Depp. On his skin, in total, more than ten drawings.
Megan Fox has a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on her arm, Scarlett Johansson also has tattoos. Drew Barrymore turned out to be much bolder in applying drawings and symbols to the body. She has tattoos on her back, on her right leg, on her left hip and on her stomach.
Charlize Theron was not left without tattoos either. In 1991, on her right ankle, she got a drawing depicting two fishes, and on her right foot she drew a lotus flower.
Charlize Theron tattoos
Among the stars there are many who want to further decorate themselves with the help of tattoos. The list could be endless.
Denise Avner
The man is more commonly referred to as "the cat." This is the most unpleasant character of the entire list. The man worked in the Navy for a long time, until one day he decided to become a tiger.
It took a lot of effort, time and money. The man had his body painted, his face reshaped, and his mustache implanted. At the end, Dennis put tiger fangs in his mouth. He climbed trees daily and ate only raw meat. Denis' life ended abruptly - at age 54, he committed suicide.
Eric Sprague.
This weirdo is in his late 40s. For 10 years he has been gradually turning himself into a lizard. For this purpose, his whole body is painted to look like scales, his face is changed. Eric placed five implants above each eyebrow, and the man's lips are colored dark green.
Eric is considered the founder of body modifications. He is the first person in the world who tried to sharpen his teeth to match the sharp teeth of a reptile. A little later he cut his tongue in half, too, and changed his nails to claws.
These greatest men deserve respect and condemnation at the same time. They each had their own reasons for taking such a step, but despite everything, they confidently achieved what they wanted. In doing so, they paid no attention to their surroundings.
Getting tattoos
"The tattoo doesn't actually go all the way through the skin. It goes through four or five layers." Masters learn their craft without actually seeing what they are doing because of the blood, ink, and equipment.
Also, leather, unlike paper or canvas, is not uniform in color, texture and thickness. A good craftsman takes a long time to learn how to create a uniform picture, avoiding scarring, unevenness and blemishes.
Fact #5: Many people are allergic to red tattoo ink.
Does your skin change color when you wear costume jewelry? You may be allergic to nickel. Nickel allergy is the most common form of allergic contact dermatitis (a rash caused by a harmless substance coming in contact with the skin).
However, when ink is injected under the skin, things are a little different. Ink can cause mild inflammation, which takes longer for the skin to heal.
Some people can have severe allergic reactions to tattoos.
The results in some cases are very unfortunate, so double check if you are allergic to red ink before getting a tattoo.
Fact #6: When you walk out of the master tattoo artist, it doesn't mean the procedure is over.
You can affect your tattoo yourself, even though it is under the skin. Tanning is the worst enemy of the tattoo. Laser tattoo removal uses ultraviolet light, the same as tanning, only in more concentrated amounts.
Since the tattoo only penetrates 4-5 layers of skin, the melanin that makes our skin tan is at the very "top" of the design. Over time, the white, yellow and orange ink colors lighten and oxidize.
Over time, even black ink oxidizes and takes on a bluish hue. If you can't hide from the sun, cover your tattoo with sunscreen or don't wear exposed clothing outside for a longer period of time.
Fact #7: A tattoo can glow, vibrate, and can be applied to any part of the body.
Vibrating tattoos were known about a few months ago, when Nokia patented magnetic vibrating tattoos - drawings that inform you of your phone's "activity.
The tattoos can glow in the dark and even react to black light. However, there is no such thing as an "invisible tattoo."
Even entirely transparent ink shows up when the human skin changes color due to the sun, emotions or time of year.
It's not news that people get tattoos on all parts of the body. This includes the inside of the lips, the heels, and other more sensitive areas. Megan tells of a man who got a tattoo on the whites of his eyes.
A tattoo on the penis is not uncommon either, but in this case, for obvious reasons, heterosexual men prefer to go to a female artist.
Fact #8: Drinking alcohol before getting a tattoo is a bad idea.
A good tattoo artist would not give a tattoo to a drunk client. The key word in the previous sentence was "good. A lot of tattoo artists will just charge you money, do the job, and send you home to deal with your hangover and reaction to the ink.
Alcohol may make you less sensitive to pain, but it will also "thin" your blood, leading to more bleeding during the process. In turn, in addition to harming the client, more blood loss will make it harder for the craftsman to work and make the process much longer.
Thus, you should not consume alcohol either before or after the procedure,
let the wound heal first. If you are looking for a remedy that will help to dull the pain, there are special products on sale, but they are not designed to act during the entire procedure, so be prepared for pain.
What should you pay attention to in a tattoo salon?
The most important thing is, of course, the sterilization of the equipment. Look around and see how clean your surroundings are, if there is dust in the corners, if there is no extraneous odors. This is the main thing that must be in the norm, the rest is at your discretion.
The most unusual tattoos in the world and the people behind them.
