Tattooed Acolytes

Foxtrot said:
Africans used to have tribal tattoos even before your white gods came , no ?
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yep they did, and as you've been told above, they had different meaning with those of today's. Right now tattoos are associated with rebels, whorism etc. In African societies it was/is associated with protection against evil spirits,showing belonging to a certain age group, social status, courage etc. And they were not done by any person, it was a ceremony that the whole tribe came to witness.
I wouldn't get a tattoo myself, even my kids I wouldn't allow them unless they're 18+,.
As I said ask any random person in the street what they think of a tattooed thigh or breast or any large showing tattoo.
 
Berlin said:
In the mayhem that is the MCA'S baraza there was a bizzare clash on tattoos and their significance, the thread got derailed on the aspects of middle class but in general it seemed talkers had no grasp on the importance of bodily marks.

Below, is a piece from Dan Brown's The lost Symbol.

'The goal of tattooing was never beauty, the goal was change. From the scarified Nubian priests of 2000 b.c to the tattooed acolytes of the Cybele cult of ancient Rome, to the moko scars of the modern Maori, humans have tattooed themselves as a way of offering up their bodies in partial sacrifice, enduring the physical pain of embellishment and emerged changed beings.

Despite the ominous admonitions of Leviticus 19:28, which forbade the marking of one's flesh, tattoos had become a rite of passage shared by millions of people in the modern age-everyone from clean cut teenagers to hard core drug users to suburban wives.

The act of tattooing ones skin was a transformative declaration of power, an announcement to the world: I am in control of my own flesh. The intoxicating feeling of control derived from physical transformation had addicted millions to flesh-altering practices... cosmetic surgery, body piercing, body-building and steroids.

Even bulimia and transgendering.

The human spirit craves mastery over its carnal shell. '
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For me The Lost Symbol is interesting upto the point the the villain is killed kutoka hapo ni a lot of mumbojumbo about symbols....
 
Kamau wa Kíríro said:
For me The Lost Symbol is interesting upto the point the the villain is killed kutoka hapo ni a lot of mumbojumbo about symbols....
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:D :D I put a pause on it and began perusing Angel's & Demons.
Though I have to say the author has a good grasp on symbols and their worth. I learnt that the Nazi borrowed the swastika from India, and the Christians the cruciform from the Egyptians.
 
Foxtrot said:
Africans used to have tribal tattoos even before your white gods came , no ?
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Were they tattoos or piercings and tribal/protective markings? For people born and raised west of Nakuru, two lines marking around the cheek bones, neck, chest, back and hands are a sign of protective/medicinal markings, especially if you fell ill when you were below the age of five years.
 
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