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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Liz Waid.
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And I’m Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Derek Kastning is a tattoo artist in Texas, in the United States. He uses a sharp needle and dark ink to make permanent designs - tattoos - on people’s skin. Derek wanted to break a world record for doing the most tattoos in a twenty-four hour period. So at one o’clock in the morning on October 26, 2008, he began tattooing.
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Twenty-four hours later, Derek was done tattooing. In total, he had done 726 tattoos and had made a new world record.
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Today’s Spotlight is on tattoos. It is clear that this ancient form of body art continues to be popular even today. Join us as we explore some of the history and interesting facts about tattoos.
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Tattooing is an ancient art. People create tattoo markings by putting coloured ink under the top level of the skin. Early tattoos used inks found in nature. For example, a person could create a dark color, like black, using ash. He could create a red color by using stone brick dust. He would mix the dust or ash with something wet, like spit from a person’s mouth or liquid human waste. Tattooers cut or poked the skin with a sharp stick and then rubbed the mixed color into the new wound.
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Some people still use these traditional kinds of methods of tattooing. But tattooing methods have changed a lot over the years. Today, many modern tattoo parlours use machine needles. A group of needles is connected. There is ink on the ends of the needles. The machine moves the needles in and out of the skin very quickly. Tattoos are finished much more quickly. And there is no limit to the colors people can have in their tattoos.
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Because tattoo ink rests under the top level of the skin, tattoos can be very difficult, or even impossible, to remove. Today, people use laser treatment to remove tattoos. But in ancient times people tried some very unusual methods! People tried injecting the tattoo with substances like wine, garlic, liquid from fruit, or even waste from birds! Or, they spread these substances over the tattoo. Another, more painful way of removing a tattoo was to rub the tattoo off the skin, using stones. These methods were not successful. Many of them resulted in permanent scars - badly healed wounds.
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So, why would someone want something on their body forever? One answer may be found in the oldest tattoo. In October, 1991, two people found the frozen remains of a man in the Alps Mountains between Austria and Italy. Experts say the remains are over five thousand years old. However, the man had been very well protected in the ice there. Experts could see tattoos on his skin. The man’s tattoos included a cross symbol by one of his knees and a series of lines on his side and ankle. Some people believe these tattoos were in particular positions - that they may have been there for health reasons. Were they to show where treatment should take place? Were they to guard the body in those places? We may never know.
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Through the years many cultures have used tattoos for different purposes. Some groups use tattoos to show they belong together. Each member of the group may get the same tattoo. Records from the fourth century tell about tattoos on Roman soldiers. The record says that soldiers would earn their tattoo after completing physical exercises. Tattoos are still common today for members of the military. Many are proud of these tattoos that show they belong to a group.
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But tattoos can also be used as a bad way to mark who a person is. In the 1800s the British government used tattoos to mark criminals. The criminal received a tattoo of a letter that stood for the crime he had done. Tattoos also marked victims of Nazi concentration camps in the 1940s. Prisoners in these camps had numbers tattooed on their arms. Even after people escaped, they still carried the mark on their bodies.
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American sailors often got tattoos to show things they had achieved. If a sailor had a tattoo of a sparrow - a small bird - it meant he had sailed over five thousand miles, about eight thousand kilometres. He could get another sparrow tattoo when he sailed another five thousand miles. Tattoos were also a way to show where a sailor had gone. For example, a sailor who had been to China might get a dragon tattoo.
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For people from Samoa, getting tattoos was a ritual - a special ceremony. Traditional Samoan tattoos are only on the lower half of a person’s body. These tattoos were so complex, they looked almost like trousers. Sometimes young men got these tattoos to show how brave they were. Tattooing can be very painful!
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In one story, a tattoo was a method to send a secret message! One ancient Greek story tells of a man named Histiaeus. Histiaeus wanted to send a secret message to his son-in-law. Histiaeus shaved the hair off his slave’s head. Then Histiaeus tattooed a message on the slave’s head. When the slave’s hair grew back, Histiaeus sent his slave away. His son-in-law shaved the slave‘s hair off and got the message to begin a rebellion.
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Tattoos are still very popular today - for all kinds of people! But if you are thinking about getting a tattoo, remember to get your tattoo safely. Dr. Raj Mallipeddi is a skin doctor in London. He says there are some risks to getting a tattoo. Some are minor - the skin may become red or produce small raised areas. Infections by bacteria could also be a problem. In more serious cases, diseases - like HIV - can be spread through unclean tattooing supplies. These cases are very rare, but possible. So, Dr. Mallipeddi offers this wise advice:
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“My advice to someone interested in having a tattoo is to go to a tattoo place that can be trusted. They should place a very high value on being clean and avoiding infection.”
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What do you think about tattoos? Do they hold a special place in your culture’s history? Tell us your opinions at radio @ english . net.
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