The history of tattoos - Addison Anderson

Translator: Reno Kanti Riananda Reviewer: Elda Indria Sari

Thinking of getting a tattoo?

Ingin membuat tato?

Decorating your birthday suit would add another personal story

Menghias tubuhmu akan menambah satu lagi kisah pribadi

to a history of tattoos stretching back at least 8000 years.

dalam sejarah tato yang telah ada sejak 8.000 tahun silam.

Tattooed mummies from around the world attest to the universality

Penemuan mumi bertato dari seluruh dunia membuktikan universalitas

of body modification across the millennia,

modifikasi tubuh selama berabad-abad

and to the fact that you really were stuck with it forever

dan fakta bahwa tato di tubuhmu itu akan abadi

if your civilization never got around to inventing laser removal.

jika peradaban manusia tidak pernah menemukan teknologi penghapusan laser.

A mummy from the Chinchorro culture in pre-Incan Peru

Mumi dari peradaban Chinchorro sebelum era suku Inka di Peru

has a mustache tattooed on his upper lip.

memiliki kumis yang ditato di bibir atasnya.

Ötzi, mummified iceman of the Alps, has patterned charcoal tats along his spine,

Ötzi, mumi di pegunungan Alpen, memiliki tato arang di sepanjang punggungnya,

behind his knee and around his ankles,

di belakang lutut, dan di sekeliling pergelangan kaki,

which might be from an early sort of acupuncture.

kemungkinan berasal dari sejenis teknik akupunktur.

Mumi Amunet, pendeta wanita pada Kerajaan Pertengahan Mesir,

The mummy of Amunet, a priestess in Middle Kingdom Egypt,

features tattoos thought to symbolize sexuality and fertility.

memiliki tato yang diduga melambangkan seksualitas dan kesuburan.

Jauh lebih kuno dari mumi,

Even older than the mummies,

figurines of seemingly tattooed people,

patung orang yang bertato,

and tools possibly used for tattooing date back tens of thousands of years.

dan peralatan untuk menato sudah ada sejak puluhan ribu tahun silam.

Tattoos don't have one historical origin point that we know of,

Sejauh yang diketahui, tato tidak berasal dari satu wilayah tertentu,

but why do we English speakers call them all tattoos?

tetapi mengapa kita semua menyebutnya tato?

The word is an anglophonic modification of "tatao,"

"Tato" merupakan modifikasi dari kata "tatao",

a Polynesian word used in Tahiti,

kata dari bangsa Polinesia yang digunakan di Tahiti,

where English captain James Cook landed in 1769

tempat berlabuhnya kapten James Cook pada tahun 1769

and encountered heavily tattooed men and women.

dan bertemu dengan pria dan wanita yang tubuhnya dipenuhi tato.

Stories of Cook's findings and the tattoos his crew acquired

Kisah Kapten Cook dan tato yang kemudian dimiliki anak buahnya

cemented our usage of "tattoo" over previous words like

memperkukuh penggunaan kata "tato" dibandingkan kata-kata sebelumnya

"scarring," "painting," and "staining,"

seperti "goresan", "lukisan", atau "pewarnaan",

and sparked a craze in Victorian English high society.

dan memicu kegilaan di masyarakat kelas atas Inggris pada zaman Victoria.

We might think of Victorians having Victorian attitudes

Kita mungkin menyangka orang-orang pada zaman tersebut akan bersikap kaku

about such a risque thing,

terhadap hal yang kurang senonoh,

dan sepanjang sejarahnya, memang ada sentimen bahkan larangan terhadap tato.

and you can find such sentiments, and even bans, on tattooing throughout history.

But while publicly some Brits looked down their noses at tattoos,

Meskipun di depan umum warga Inggris memandang rendah tato,

behind closed doors and away from their noses,

namun diam-diam, jauh di bagian tubuh yang rendah,

lots of people had them.

banyak orang memilikinya.

Reputedly, Queen Victoria had a tiger fighting a python,

Konon, Ratu Victoria memiliki tato harimau melawan ular piton,

and tattoos became very popular among Cook's fellow soldiers,

dan tato sangat populer di antara anak buah kapal Kapten Cook,

yang menggunakannya untuk mencatat perjalanan mereka.

who used them to note their travels.

You crossed the Atlantic? Get an anchor.

Sudah melintasi Atlantik? Buat tato jangkar.

Been south of the Equator? Time for your turtle tat.

Sudah berada di selatan garis Ekuator? Saatnya untuk tato penyu.

Namun dunia barat telah mengenal tato jauh sebelum pertemuan

But Westerners sported tattoos long before meeting

the Samoans and Maori of the South Pacific.

dengan bangsa Samoa dan suku Maori di Pasifik Selatan.

Crusaders got the Jerusalem Cross so if they died in battle,

Tentara Salib memakai tato Salib Jerusalem agar jika tewas dalam perang,

they'd get a Christian burial.

dapat dikuburkan secara Kristen.

Tentara Romawi di Tembok Hadrianus memiliki tato militer

Roman soldiers on Hadrian's Wall had military tattoos

and called the Picts beyond it "Picts," for the pictures painted on them.

dan memanggil bangsa di balik tembok dengan sebutan "Picts",

karena lukisan di tubuh mereka.

There's also a long tradition of people being tattooed unwillingly.

Ada juga sejarah panjang tradisi pemberian tato secara paksa.

Greeks and Romans tattooed slaves and mercenaries to discourage

Bangsa Yunani dan Romawi menato para budak dan tentara bayaran

escape and desertion.

untuk mencegah mereka melarikan diri atau desersi.

Criminals in Japan were tattooed as such as far back as the 7th century.

Para penjahat di Jepang sudah ditato sejak abad ke-7.

Most infamously, the Nazis tattooed numbers on the chest or arms

Yang paling terkenal, para Nazi menato angka di dada atau lengan

of Jews and other prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp

kaum Yahudi dan tawanan lainnya di kamp konsentrasi Auschwitz

in order to identify stripped corpses.

dengan tujuan mengidentifikasi mayat yang dilucuti.

Namun tato paksa pada tahanan dan orang buangan dapat didefinisikan kembali

But tattoos forced on prisoners and outcasts can be redefined

as people take ownership of that status or history.

saat mereka mengambil kepemilikan atas status atau riwayat itu.

Primo Levi, penyintas Auschwitz, memakai baju lengan pendek di Jerman

Primo Levi survived Auschwitz and wore short sleeves to Germany after the war

to remind people of the crime his number represented.

untuk mengingatkan kejahatan yang ditandai oleh angka di lengannya.

Saat ini, keturunan dari penyintas tragedi Holocaust

Today, some Holocaust survivors' descendants

have their relatives numbers' tattooed on their arms.

menato angka milik keluarganya di lengan.

The Torah has rules against tattoos,

Kitab Taurat memiliki aturan yang melarang tato,

but what if you want to make indelible what you feel should never be forgotten?

namun bagaimana jika kamu tak ingin menghapus

sesuatu yang menurutmu tak boleh dilupakan?

Para penjahat di Jepang, di mana tato akhirnya dilarang

And those criminals and outcasts of Japan, where tattooing was eventually outlawed

from the mid-19th century to just after World War II,

sejak pertengahan abad ke-19 hingga sebelum Perang Dunia II,

added decoration to their penal tattoos,

menambahkan hiasan pada tato pemasyarakatan mereka

with designs borrowed from woodblock prints, popular literature

dengan desain motif balok kayu, sastra populer, dan ikonografi mistis spiritual.

and mythical spirtual iconography.

Yakuza gangs viewed their outsider tattoos as signs of lifelong loyalty and courage.

Kelompok Yakuza memandang tato mereka sebagai lambang kesetiaan dan keberanian.

After all, they lasted forever and it really hurt to get them.

Karena tato bertahan selamanya dan pembuatannya sangat menyakitkan.

For the Maori, those tattoos were an accepted mainstream tradition.

Bagi suku Maori, tato sudah menjadi tradisi umum.

If you shied away from the excruciating chiseling in of your moko design,

Jika menghindar dari siksaan pahatan desain moko,

your unfinished tattoo marked your cowardice.

tato yang belum selesai akan menjadi tanda kepengecutanmu.

Today, unless you go the traditional route,

Saat ini, kecuali kamu memilih cara tradisional,

your tattoo artist will probably use a tattoo machine

seorang artis tato akan menggunakan mesin

based on the one patented by Samuel O'Reilly in 1891,

seperti yang telah dipatenkan Samuel O'Reilly pada tahun 1891,

itself based on Thomas Edison's stencil machine from 1876.

berdasarkan mesin stensil Thomas Alfa Edison di tahun 1876.

But with the incredibly broad history of tattoos giving you so many options,

Dengan luasnya sejarah tato dan banyaknya pilihan,

tato macam apa yang akan kamu pilih?

what are you going to get?

This is a bold-lined expression of who you are,

Tato adalah ekspresi tegas tentang siapa dirimu,

or you want to appear to be.

atau seperti apa kamu ingin dilihat.

As the naturalist aboard Cook's ship said of the tataoed Tahitians,

Seperti kata seorang naturalis di kapal kapten Cook tentang orang-orang Tahiti,

"Everyone is marked, thus in different parts of his body,

"Setiap orang ditandai, di bagian tubuh yang berbeda,

according maybe to his humor or different circumstances of his life."

mungkin berdasar rasa humornya, atau suatu kondisi dalam hidupnya".

Maybe your particular humor and circumstances

Mungkin rasa humor dan kondisimu

suggest getting a symbol of cultural heritage,

mendorong untuk memakai simbol warisan budaya,

a sign of spirituality, sexual energy,

penanda spiritual, energi seksual,

or good old-fashioned avant-garde defiance.

atau simbol klasik pemberontakan.

Sebuah pengingat pencapaian penting,

A reminder of a great accomplishment,

atau untuk menunjukkan seberapa keren jika Hulk Hogan menunggang badak

or of how you think it would look cool if Hulk Hogan rode a Rhino.

It's your expression, your body, so it's your call.

Itu caramu berekspresi, itu tubuhmu, jadi terserah kamu.

Just two rules:

Hanya ada dua aturan:

carilah tukang tato yang tidak malu menggambar idemu,

you have to find a tattooist who won't be ashamed to draw your idea,

and when in doubt, you can never go wrong with "Mom."

jika tak yakin, tato "Ibu" tak pernah salah.