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Tattoo : secrets of a strange art as practised among the natives of the United States
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women and love

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WHY do people get tattooed? Very seldom are the

tattooed aware of the true motives responsible for their visitsto the tattooers. Some say:" So that they'll know me if I'mkilled or struck unconscious." Others refer the impulse toimitation of their friends; or because they wish a mementoof some event; or because they wish" to look swell." Manyclaim that they get tattooed" just to kill time." These reasonsare evident rationalizations. The true motives lie deeper.

Professor Lombroso wrote that people of the modern ageand civilized countries tattoo themselves in an atavisticreversion to their primitive Glossar ::: zum Glossareintrag  primitive criminal type. But only a smallportion of the tattooed today are criminals or even semi-criminals. And primitiveness Glossar ::: zum Glossareintrag  primitiveness does not necessarily involvecrime. With these qualifications we may accept Lombroso'stheory of atavism as an important point.

The atavistic dream may or may not be to kill or rape orsteal. It may also be to frighten off an attacking enemy, towin a willing woman, to invoke magic for legitimate andhonorable purposes. The primitive Glossar ::: zum Glossareintrag  primitive desire for an exaggeratedexterior- for tattooing, among other things- is, thus, not

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