accounts for nearly a third of all tattoo design search requests, and the term “tribal” of course covers an astonishing array of tattoo design possibilities, from the traditional tribal tattoos of indigenous and aboriginal cultures, to the latest in graphic design for the body.
Most likely, the very first tattoo happened on accident. All it takes is a few rowdy primitives playing around the fire. It wouldn’t take long for someone to fall in, get poked with a charred stick and later heal before they’d realized that they were on to something. The news probably spread as fast as the fires that prompted the invention. As a matter of fact, it is rumored that the first tattoos were of the sun or flames in honor of the sun god(s).
There were three major factors that took the practice of tribal tattooing from the realm of art and into the plane of the spiritual: Pain, Permanence and Loss of the Life Source (blood). This mystical trio elevated the tattoo from mere art and transformed it into a chance to draw people into a relationship with God, a god, magic powers, or a trance or vision state.