The pricking and marking of the skin in patterns with indelible inks or pigments. The custom of tattooing was common to many Indian tribes throughout the United States.
Tattooing was practiced by the Seminole, Creek, Cherokee, and other Indians of the South. A boy was "scratched" when first named, and again "scratched" when he proved himself a warrior. The Wichita Indians were lavish in the use of this decoration. The Kiowa tattooed a circle on the forehead of women as a tribal mark. The Omaha pricked small round dots on the forehead of a girl, and if her father or a near male relative had committed a brave deed, a four pointed star was tattooed on her back and breast to honor this achievement.
Among the Osage Indians the keeper of the sacred pipe carried a tattooed design on his body, and if he had been successful in war and had cut off an enemy's head, he was entitled to have a skull tattooed on his back or breast. The Hupa Indians had ten lines tattooed along the inside of the left arm for the purpose of measuring strings of shell money. The Chippewa sometimes used tattooing to relieve pain, especially toothache. Mandan warriors had black parallel stripes tattooed on the left breast and arm. An Eskimo girl at maturity had a line tattooed at the edge of her lower lip. When she married two more lines were added. Eskimo men sometimes kept a record or tally of whales they had killed by tattoo marks on their cheeks, chests, or arms. Tattooing was done with steel needles, sharp flints, or cactus thorns tied in a bundle in the form of a brush. Inks were made from charcoal or charred box elder wood, while the dyes injected to give color to the design varied in different sections of the country.
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