T is for Tattoo - a podcast by Dr. Lori Beth Bisbey - A to Z of Sex

T is for Tattoo.

Welcome to the A to Z of Sex. I’m Dr Lori Beth and I am your host. We are working our way through the erotic alphabet one letter at a time. Just a reminder this podcast deals with adult content, so if you don’t have total privacy, you might want to put on your headphones. Today the letter is T and T is for Tattoo and Scarification Trigger warning: I am going to talk about branding later in the show.

The word tattoo comes from the Tahitian ‘tatu’ which means ‘to mark something’. Tattooing has existed since Neolithic times. We know this because of the ancient art that has been discovered, mummified – yes mummified skin, and the archeological record. In fact even older tattoo tools and art has been found which suggests tattooing started in the upper paleolithic time in Europe but we don’t have the evidence on skin until the 4th millennium (4000) BC. Ötzi the Iceman (dated between 3370 and 3100 BC) is the oldest example of tattooing on mummified skin.

Tattooed mummies have been recovered from at least another 49 sites throughout the world. Locations include: Alaska, Greenland, Siberia, China, Mongolia, Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, the Andes.

Tattooing has been used to identify criminals and describe their crimes in a number of cultures including Chinese, Greek and Roman. Tattooing by the Nazis was done as a means of humiliating, dehumanising and identifying the Jews, homosexuals and Gypsies sent to the death camps. Tattooing has been used for religious and spiritual reasons in tribal cultures, Hindu, Egypt, Syria, Japan (including the native Aïnu people), Copts, Thailand, Celts.

Many people from modern spiritual subcultures (pagan, western magicians for example) tattoo for spiritual purposes as well.

All tattooing is painful. Some more painful than others. For many cultures, tattooing was, and still is, a rite of passage rather than just marking a rite of passage. In a variety of cultures, large tattoos marked the move from adolescence to adulthood. In modern culture, many people now observe this tradition and tattoo to mark rites of passage and honour ancestors.

So what does tattooing have to do with sex you ask? Lots!

Ask any person who has been tattooed for more than 15 or 20 minutes, and you will be told that at some point in the painful process, they began to feel high. Endorphins and adrenalin are released when a person is being tattooed. For people who are masochistic (gain pleasure from some types of pain), this high can also include sexual arousal.

Tattoos are used in some parts of the BDSM subculture as marks of ownership. Submissives or slaves may be tattooed with the mark of their dominants or masters.

Research done by at a university in Poland in 2017 surveyed 2369 women and 215 men. They showed them images of tattooed and non-tattooed men to figure out whether people found tattoos more attractive. They discovered that tattoos didn’t increase attractiveness for the women but women did see the tattooed men as more dominant, and masculine. For the men, tattoos did increase attractiveness.

Tattoos have become more mainstream since the 1990s and now many people see them as sexy. There is lots of variation as to how many tattoos and where they are placed. Women are still more negatively judged than men with tattoos, but mainstream culture has grown to embrace tattoos. There is still a stereotype that suggests tattooed women are more promiscuous so men are more likely to approach them for sex.

In sexual subcultures, tattoos are more appreciated. Beauty is defined differently than in the mainstream culture and this is where tattoos really shine when it comes to attracting positive sexual attention.

Women who have tattoos are seen to be more creative which suggests the possibility of creativity with sex. You have to be able to withstand pain in order to be tattooed. And those who have multiple...

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