The Chukchi designs are much simpler than those of the Eskimo.
Dr. Bazin, in “Étude sur le Tatouage dans la Régence de Tunis,” in L’Anthropologie (b), tells that the practice of tattooing is very widespread and elaborate in Tunisia, but chiefly among the natives of Arab race, who are nomads, workmen in the towns, and laborers, and also among the fellahs. The Berbers, on the contrary, who have remained mountaineers, the merchants of the coast towns, and the rich proprietors are little or not at all tattooed. In regard to the last class this proves that tattooing has become nothing but an ornament, since the members of this class are clothed in such a way that the legs and arms are completely covered, so that it would be useless to draw figures which would be invisible or almost entirely hidden. He adds that the notables “du Tinge” do not disfigure themselves by incisions. The distinctive sign of the lower classes is the presence of three incisions on the temples, three on the cheeks, and three also on the lower part of the face.
Notes on East-Equatorial Africa, in Bull. Soc. d’Anthro. de Bruxelles (a) contains the following memoranda: Tattooing is done by traveling artists. Perhaps at first it showed tribal characteristics, but now it is difficult to distinguish more than fancy. The exception is that Wawenba alone tattoo the face. The local fetiches bear marks of tattoo.
Gordon Cumming (a) says:
One of the “generals” of Mosielely, King of the Bakatlas group of the Bechuana tribe, had killed about twenty men in battle with his own hand, and bore a mark of honor for every man. This mark was a line tattooed on his ribs.
David Greig Rutherford (a) makes remarks on the people of Batanga, West Tropical Africa, from which the following is extracted:
Tattooing evidently originated in certain marks being applied to the face and other parts of the body in order to distinguish the members of one tribe from those of another. The same marks would be used for both sexes, but as the tendency to ornamentation became developed, they would be apt to observe some artistic method in making them. Among the Dualles the custom at one time appears to have obtained with both sexes, with a preponderance, however, in the practice of it on the side of the women. The men did not always see the force of giving themselves needless pain, but the women, with a shrewd idea that it added to their charms, persisted in having it done. The men (and it is significant that in places where the men have ceased to tattoo themselves they continue to do it for the women) tattooed their children at an early age, but as the girls approached a marriageable age they added, on their own account, various ornamentations to those already existing. As an example that tattooing in its later stages is regarded as an increase of beauty, I may mention an instance given me by the wife of a missionary here. A woman belonging to some neighboring tribe having come to stay at the mission, was presented with a dress of some showy material as an inducement to her to discard the loin cloth she had been in the habit of wearing and as an introduction to the habits of civilized life. She objected to wear the dress, however, upon the ground that if she did so she would thereby hide her beauty. It appears certain that the unmarried woman who is most finely tattooed wins most admiration from the men.
Oscar Peschel (a) describes tattooing as another substitute for raiment and remarks: “That it actually takes away from the impression of nudity is declared by all who have seen fully tattooed Albanese.” As bearing in the same direction Mr. Darwin, in “Voyage of the Beagle,” may be quoted, who, when at New Zealand, speaking of the clean, tidy, and healthy appearance of the young women who acted as servants within the houses, remarks: “The wives of the missionaries tried to persuade them not to be tattooed, but a famous operator having arrived from the south they said: ‘We really must have a few lines on our lips, else when we grow old our lips will shrivel, and we shall be so very ugly.’”
In September, 1891, a Zulu, claiming to be a son of the late Cetewayo, gave to a reporter of the Memphis Avalanche the following account: