See also with reference to paint on the human person, pages [165] and [167].
The present writer, when reading the magnificent work of Conte Giovanni Gozzadini, Di Ulteriori Scoperte Nell’ Antica Necropoli a Marzabotto nel Bolognese, Bologna, 1870, noticed in Plate XII, Figure 1, the representation of a human head in bronze of great antiquity, and that it shows incised lines over the superior malar region, below and outward from the outer canthus of the eye. To any one recently familiar with tattooing and the lines of face painting this gives a decided suggestion, and is offered as such.
The head is reproduced in Figure 22.
Fig. 22.—Bronze head from the Necropolis of Marzabotto, Italy.
A less distinct suggestion arose from the representation of a “Fragment of a lustrous black bowl, with an incised decoration filled with white chalk,” pictured in Troja, etc., by Dr. Henry Schliemann, New York, 1884, p. 31, No. 1, and here presented, Figure 23. In the absence of knowledge as to the connection of the two sets of parallel lines on each side of the face, with the remainder of the bowl, it is not possible to form any decision as to whether there was any intention to portray face painting or tattooing, or whether the lines merely partook of the general pattern of the bowl. The lines, however, instantly caught the present writer’s eye as connected with the subject now under consideration.
Fig. 23.—Fragment of bowl from Troja.
TATTOOING.
Tattooing, a permanent marking of the skin as distinguished from the temporary painting, and accomplished by the introduction of coloring matter under the cutaneous epidermis, was formerly practiced extensively among the Indians of North America. Some authorities for this statement are here quoted, as also some descriptions of the custom where still practiced.