Many more similar details might be given regarding the races of
various parts of the world, but the limits of space forbid. But I
cannot resist the temptation to add a citation from Professor
Chamberlain's article on tattooing in his _Things Japanese_, because
it admirably illustrates the diversity of the motives that led to the
practice. A Chinese trader, "early in the Christian era," Chamberlain
tells us, "wrote that the men all tattoo their faces and ornament
their bodies with designs, differences of rank being indicated by the
position and size of the patterns." "But from the dawn of regular
history," Chamberlain adds,
"far down into the middle ages, tattooing seems to have been
confined to criminals. It was used as branding was formerly
in Europe, whence probably the contempt still felt for
tattooing by the Japanese upper classes. From condemned
desperadoes to bravoes at large is but a step. The
swashbucklers of feudal times took to tattooing, apparently
because some blood and thunder scene of adventure, engraven
on their chest and limbs, helped to give them a terrific air
when stripped for any reason of their clothes. Other classes
whose avocations led them to baring their bodies in public
followed--the carpenters, for instance, and running grooms;
and the tradition remained of ornamenting almost the entire
body and limbs with a hunting, theatrical, or other showy
scene."