Tattoo History - Caledonia

Caledonia is the latin name for Northern Scotland. The natives of England, Scotland and Ireland are named Skots and Pikts whereby "picti" was the Latin word for "The Painted". The roman history writer Herodian gave them their name and in fact: In the centuries before the formation of the roman empire when the celts spread their culture throughout north western Europe, from the years 200 before Christ until 600 after Christ, they shocked their enemies because it was their tradition to fight naked. Thereby displaying with ink applied tattoos which were simple dark motives, mostly stylized plants or animals but with the victory of the occidental culture the celtic tradition extinct.

Like everywhere else in Europe the Christians ruled the country with their reservation to gentile rituals. In the year 664 the Synod of Whitby declared the Celtic church as heretical. Unfortunately the celts barely left any written traces. Only sometimes Greek and roman historians reported about them. The remains of their culture are weapons, jewelry and stones with the typical Celtic spiral decorations and ornaments. Not until the the interest in the tradition of tattooing by other people, roused by the discoverers and sailors in the 18th century, the urge in Europe rose for it's own cultural roots which could be inserted into the tattoo too.

Obviously the early mid ages, the Celtic times with their myths and legends and complex knot works, where the most attractive. The renaissance of the Celtic mythology in the 1970s and 80s, literary quickened by The Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and by King Arthur's knights of the round table, Lancelot and Excalibur, did the rest and also had a deep influence on fantasy tattoos. Later on the Celtic motives were also combined with traditional tattoo motives like suns and roses and also with tribal tattoos.

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