Forms: see TATTOO sb.2 [f. TATTOO sb.2; already used as a vb. by Capt. Cook.]
1. trans. To form permanent marks or designs upon the skin by puncturing it and inserting a pigment or pigments: practised by various tribes of low civilization, and by individuals in civilized communities. a. with the person or part as obj.
1769. Cook, Jrnl. 1st Voy., July (1893), 93. This method of Tattowing I shall now describe…. As this is a painful operation, especially the Tattowing their Buttocks, it is performed but once in their Life times. Ibid., 27 Nov., 164. Few of these people were Tattow’d or marked in the face,… several had their Backsides Tattow’d.
1774. Mme. D’Arblay, Early Diary (1889), I. 325. His hands are very much tattooed.
1774. Charac., in Ann. Reg., 61/2. His hands are tattaowed, according to the mode in his native country.
1835. Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., xvi. 251. All were tattooed to a greater or less extent.
1846. Brittan, trans. Malgaigne’s Man. Oper. Surg., 88. We know that soldiers tattoo their arms and breasts, and impress and trace on them words and figures that neither lotions nor even blisters can efface.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xxv. IV. 5. They [Illyrians] shared with the remote Thracian tribes the custom of tattowing their bodies.
1852. Mundy, Our Antipodes, x. (1855), 247. [The Maori women] tattoo the under-lip a deep blue.
1887. W. S. Gilbert, Ruddigore, I. Look at his arms—tattooed to the shoulder.
b. with the mark or design as object.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 248. The women … usually tatoo two lines, reaching from the lip to the chin.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. ii. His long skinny arms all covered with anchors and arrows and letters, tattoed in with gunpowder like a sailor-boy’s.
1877. W. H. Dall, Tribes N. W., 89. The … practice of tattooing perpendicular lines on the chin of women.
1902. Man, II. 99. That a totem should be tatued on a body is a widespread practice.
2. transf. and fig. To mark, spot, or stain, esp. in a permanent way; to affect or characterize permanently as if by marking; to defame, vilify, ‘blacken’ (quot. 1884).
1774. Westm. Mag., II. 145. Well I remember when tataow’d you stood, In all the dignity of H——’s blood.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), vi. Miseries Stage C., xi. A Harridan with a face tattooed with wrinkles.
1847. Longf., in Life (1891), II. 86. Proof-sheets of Evangeline all tattooed with Folsom’s marks.
1884. Tribune (N. Y.), June. Mr. Blaine is tattooed…. So was Abraham Lincoln…. As soon as any man gains public confidence, malignant and envious creatures are found to revile him.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. vi. 177. The pleasure of tattooing myself with tar among the ropes.
Hence Tattooed ppl. a., Tattooing vbl. sb. (also concr.; also attrib., as tattooing-needle); also Tattooage (nonce-wd.), a tattooed design [= F. tatouage]; Tattooer, one who practises tattooing; Tattooist, a professional tattooer; Tattooment, the action or process of tattooing.
1846. Thackeray, Cornhill to Cairo, xiii. Above his *tattooage of the five crosses, the fellow had a picture of two hearts united.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 17. The accounts given us in Cook’s Voyages of *tattowed Indians.
1791. Gilpin, Forest Scenery, II. 261. The Indian … doting on her black teeth, and tattooed cheeks.
1846. Keightley, Notes Virg., Georg., III. 25. The wild-looking tattooed Britons.
1897. P. Warung, Tales Old Regime, 168. Tattooed anchor on right forearm.
1906. Athenæum, 17 March, 334/2. To classify the tatued peoples of Borneo.
1817. Langsdorff’s Voy. & Trav., v. 113. The tattooing of persons in a middling station is performed in houses erected for the purpose by the *tattooers, and tabooed by authority.
1837. Fraser’s Mag., XVI. 641. The azure dye of the tattooer is lastingly imprinted in the face of an Otaheitan.
1883. Daily News, 26 Oct., 5/2. The great tattooers among European peoples are French soldiers and French criminals.
1773. Charac., in Ann. Reg., 3/2. They have a custom of staining their bodies … which they call *Tattowing.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, iii. The practice of tattooing is very common in the navy.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, xii. 211. Scored … to resemble the tattooing of a New-Zealander.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Tattooing-needle (Surgical), an instrument for inserting a pigment beneath the epidermis. Used … for coloring white spots on the cornea.
1882. R. M. Jephson, With the Colours, 370. I selected the inner part of my left fore-arm as the field of operation; and after rolling up my shirt sleeve, I submitted that portion of my anatomy to the tender mercies of the tattooist.
1894. Pall Mall G., 5 Dec., 2/1. *Tattooists vied with each other in their efforts to invent new designs.
1885. J. H. Dell, Dawning Grey, Mind, 35. At best But rude *tattooment of embellishment.
