Tattoo (pronounced ta-too)
(1) A signal on a drum, bugle, or trumpet at
night, for soldiers or sailors to go to their quarters.
(2) A knocking or strong pulsation.
(3) In British military tradition, an outdoor
military pageant or display, conducted usually at night.
(4) The act or practice of marking the skin with
indelible patterns, pictures, legends, etc, by making punctures in it and
inserting pigments.
(5) A pattern, picture, legend, etc so made.
1570–1580: An evolution from the earlier taptoo from the Dutch command tap toe! (in the literature also as taptoe) (literally “the tap(room) is to”
(ie shut)). Originally, the tattoo was a
signal on a drum, bugle, or trumpet at night, for soldiers or sailors to go to
their quarters, the musical form varying between regiments but all based on a knocking
or strong pulsation; it was later it became an outdoor, usually nocturnal military
pageant or display.
The word was first used during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) where the Dutch fortresses were garrisoned by a federal army containing Scottish, English, German and Swiss mercenaries commanded by a Dutch officer corps. Drummers from the garrison were sent into the towns at 21:30 (9:30 pm) each evening to inform the soldiers that it was time to return to barracks. The process was known as doe den tap toe (Dutch for "turn off the tap"), an instruction to innkeepers to stop serving beer and send the soldiers home for the night although the drummers continued to play until the curfew at 22:00 (10:00 pm). Tattoo and the earlier tap-too and taptoo, are alterations of the Dutch words tap toe which have the same meaning. Taptoo was the earlier used alteration of the phrase and a reference was found in George Washington's papers: "In future the Reveille will beat at day-break; the troop at 8 in the morning; the retreat at sunset and taptoo at nine o'clock in the evening." Over the years, the process became more of a show and often included the playing of the first post at 21:30 and the last post at 22:00. Bands and displays were included and shows were often conducted by floodlight or searchlight. Tattoos were commonplace in the late nineteenth century with most military and garrison towns putting on some kind of show or entertainment during the summer months.
The use to describe body marking dates from 1760–1770. Tattoo, from the Marquesan tatu or the Samaon & Tahitian tatau (to strike) coming to replace the earlier tattow from the Polynesian tatau. It took some time for tattoo to become the standardised western spelling, the OED noting the eighteenth century currency of both tattaow and tattow. Before the adoption of the Polynesian word, the practice of tattooing had been described in the West as painting, scarring or staining and in 1900 British anthropologist Ling Roth in documented four methods of skin marking, suggesting they be differentiated under the names tatu, moko, cicatrix and keloid. There was, between the Dutch and the British, a minor colonial spat about which deserves the credit for importing the word to Europe and while that sounds petty, the colonial powers usually could find something about which to disagree,
Tan lines are visible differentiations in hue separating a “tanned” area from the paler “untanned” skin; it’s created by sun exposure or an artificial source of UV (ultra violet) radiation and is the marker between where clothing, sunscreen or shade has blocked the UV rays which radiate the exposed skin. Because such exposure is a documented risk-factor for skin cancer, intentionally seeking to be sunburnt to create fashionable tan lines is potentially harmful and many health warnings have been issued. While the energy from the Sun makes possible life on Earth and humans benefit for some exposure, too much definitely can be dangerous so, when exposed, the recommendation is to use coverage, either with clothing or frequent application of a sunscreen (the higher the rated SPF (sun protection factor) the more effective it should be. Probably, there’s never been a better encapsulation of strategy than the Australian “Slip, Slop Slap” public health campaign of 1981 (slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat). It was an effective message but while the incidence of skin cancer has fallen, between half and two thirds of the Australian population will in their lifetime suffer at least one skin cancer. Despite the numbers, tanning (with consequent tan lines) remains a popular pastime but fortunately, modern commerce saw a gap in the market and many beauticians will now emulate tan lines using (a usually spray-on form of) tanning lotion.
The portmanteau word tantoo (the construct being tan + (tat)too) describes a tan line planned deliberately in the style of a tattoo and, in the abstract, it can be thought to have the same relationship to a tattoo that a negative has with a printed photograph. Tantoo stickers are available in a variety of shapes and the look is achieved by placing the sticker on the skin in the desired spot, then inflicting sufficient sun damage on the surrounding area until the desired tone is achieved. At that point the sticker is removed. Tan lines have a place in cultural history because of the relationship between pale skin being associated with wealth (ie someone not toiling in the fields) and certain forms of “selective tanning” being linked with “the leisured class”. In the late twentieth century tan lines emerged as a genuine aesthetic in the beauty industry and rather than seeking to conceal their presence, many dressed to in a way which made them a feature.
Most tan lines are merely circumstantial although in niches they can be a thing, some adult sites now listing “tan lines” as a category. So, variously they can be admired or pass barely noticed but we live in very sensitive times and an Australian swimwear brand in November 2025 received criticism for “glamourising sunburn”, a conclusion drawn by those outraged by Loleia Swimwear’s Black Friday Sale campaign. What caused the angst was Loleia’s use of a photograph of a bronze-skinned model with LOLEIA 30% OFF STOREWIDE CODE: BLACKFRIDAY digitally added to her back in a way which looked as if the characters were in un-tanned skin (ie a tantoo). Based in the Western Australian capital Perth (the world’s most isolated city according to urban geographers), Loleia is said to have become a cult favourite in the crowded swimwear business but being targeted by the skin police will have generated a level of brand-awareness it would otherwise have taken much effort and likely millions of dollars to attain. Wisely, the brand did not respond to multiple requests for comment, presumably advised there was little to be gained for either defending or apologizing for the use of the image whereas letting the story play out was priceless (and free) publicity.
The CCWA’s (Cancer Council of Western Australia) SunSmart manager condemned the advertisement, saying: “It’s really concerning to see images like that, particularly targeting young people who might see that image and not realise that it might be a generated image. We don’t want people to aspire to that kind of look – tanning causes damage to your skin, and it is skin cells in trauma. Portraying and promoting images like that in the media is really not on … we’re really disappointed to see that kind of depiction.” That must mean the SunSmart manager believes bikini-buying young women will assume an advertising agency would pay an appropriately-stickered model to lie for hours under the sun or a sunlamp to achieve the desired tantoo rather than spend a few minutes (or maybe seconds if generative AI (artificial intelligence) is used) photoshopping a stock image. Perth may be isolated but the young folk there know about fake images. In fairness, the CCWA did have a good point to make because tanning remains fashionable in Australia despite the country’s skin cancer rates being among the world’s highest, the sometimes lethal melanoma one of the most common cancers in Australians aged between 15-29 (ie the prime bikini-wearing demographic).
Cultural change can be achieved but nobody seems yet to have found the formula which to make youth perceive untanned skin as desirably attractive and the bronzed look as mere “skin damage”. Historically, that was in many places the dominant narrative but that was when a tanned skin was associated with peasants toiling in the fields and a pale complexion reflected having the wealth and social status to “stay out of the sun”. Social and economic shifts have changed things in that in the twentieth century tans became linked with leisure which, combined with a “beach culture” (certainly in sunny Australia) made bronzed skin a marker of youthful vitality. “We’re really trying to change the culture that Australia has around the fact that tanning is desirable because we know that it just leads to skin cancer” the SunSmart manager was quoted as saying, adding “We’d really encourage brands and advertising agencies to consider how they’re depicting those behaviours in their materials – considering that it’s young people that they’re targeting, [it’s important] to think about how they can encourage them to do the right thing, particularly with swimwear brands. We want to see just some positive reinforcement of the messages that we’ve been talking about for generations.”
The manager of Skin Collective (a Perth skincare clinic) concurred, saying “…advertising sunburn in any form was dangerous. It’s a real concern that an advertising campaign is glamourising sunburn or tanning by showing it in a pattern. Research has shown that actually it takes only one sunburn that blisters and causes a peel to double your melanoma likelihood or risk. I definitely think a year ago, there was a significant messaging around making it trendy or cool to create tans. We saw even people go as far as tattooing tan lines on their bodies, which is a real concern in a country that has the highest melanoma rates. I think we need to take responsibility and understand that our marketing campaigns genuinely do influence trends – it’s important that your messaging is about sun safety, and we can do that by creating beautiful, curated campaigns that still [have a] SunSmart message. We’re actually changing the health of a whole generation, and it’s really important for us to be those educators.”
The issue with tanning in Australia is not new. In 2024, Ad Standards (the national regulator for advertising standards) found Fox Tan had, in a TikTok video, breached the AANA’s (Australian Association of National Advertisers) code of ethics regarding health and safety (advertisers have ethics, who knew?). That case concerned a video of a woman lying on a sun lounge, the caption reading: “When they say it’s time to get out of the sun now but your tan just started to look good.” According to Ad Standards, noting “…skin cancer affects a very large number of Australians over their lifetime and continues to lead to a high number of deaths every year”, the panel concluded “…the audience for the advertisement is likely to be younger Australians interested in tanning and considered that the messaging in this advertisement was especially dangerous for this group of people.” However commendable her efforts, the CCWA’s SunSmart manager may be fighting a losing battle.
In Japanese, the word irezumi means "insertion of ink" and is applied variously to tattoos using tebori (the traditional Japanese hand method, a Western-style machine or any method of tattooing using insertion of ink. The most common word used for traditional Japanese tattoo designs is horimono although increasingly the word tattoo is used to describe non-Japanese styles of tattooing. Etymologists found tattoo intriguing because so many languages contain similar words, some appearing to have emerged independently of the others and anthropologists agree the practice of tapping on primitive instruments as a distractive device seems to have been a widespread practice while images were being made on the skin, the conclusion being some of the variations are likely onomatopoeic:
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