How did the Tahitian word for tattoo enter European languages?
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Body modifications and mutilations
Peruvian elongated skulls, trephined male (left) and intact female (right), c. 1000 bc.
The word "tattoo" entered European languages through the Tahitian term tatau, which refers to the practice of marking the skin.12
While the practice of tattooing has existed globally for millennia—with evidence dating back to the Iceman (c. 3300 BCE)—the specific term was introduced to English and other European languages following the 1769 expedition of James Cook. During this era of exploration, Europeans encountered the practice among Polynesians, and the word was subsequently recorded and adopted into the Western lexicon.2