Tattoo History - Republic Of Myanmar

Pagodas with golden spires pointed to the blue skies, monks wearing saffron colored garments pilgrim from house to house, granting the favor of accepting food; Buffalo harnessed teams pulling decorated carts over dusty roads, girls and women painting their faces with some sort of yellow paste which looks like brick earth used as make up and for protection; Burma is a country where in some places the Asia of bygone decades comes alive.

Burma lays between India, Thailand and China. In 1989 Burma wiped off the heritage of the British colonization and renamed itself to "Union Myanmar" according to their traditions. Same like their infrastructure the population, 79% Burmese who once lived as nomads in the Gobi Dessert and Tibet then settling on this swathe of land between India, Thailand and China in the 8th century, has also conserved cultural traditions. So the tatau which descended from the Tai and Shan who immigrated in the 13th century. For more than 250 years the Shan belonged to the most influential population groups and in the 19th century black-blue circular tattoos from the hips down to the knees were common for the Burmese male. Today the Shan are an ethnic minority but their tattoos are still connected to the population. Their skin designs have a religious and spiritual symbolism. Holy words as a protections of diseases and evil spirits and figurative motives like the grimaces of mythical man-eating monsters called Ogre as a lucky charm.

One of the most famous side show stars of the late 19th century was Prince Constantin who did, so the opinion former scientists, all of his sensational 388 tattoos done in Burma. Therefore he was known as the "Tattooed from Burma" and wrote tattoo history.

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