Tattoo marks

Tattoos are 5000 years old originally from Eurasia.

Otzi the ice Man is a Bronze Age mummy found in ice with tattoos on his legs.

In ancient Egypt only female priestesses had tattoos. They were mainly patterns of dots and lines.

History

By the 1800’s tattoos were very popular with sailors. It was important to sailors to look different from normal people.

The word , tattoo originates from Tahitian word ‘tattau’ , which means ‘to mark’.

The practice of tattooing means different things in different cultures. In early practice, decoration appears to have been the most common motive for tattooing, and that still holds true today. In some cultures, tattoos served as identification of the wearer’s rank or status in a group. Tahitian tattoos served as rites of passage, telling the history of the wearer’s life.

Meaning

This Tahitian tattoo tells about right of passage in the wearer’s life.

1. Choose a design2. Make a Stencil3.Trace the Outline4. Add shading and colour5.Bandage the tattoo

Do you know how tattoo are made?

Tattoo marks are designs made by multiple

small puncture wounds made through the

skin with needles or similar penetrating tools

dipped in colouring agents ( dye )

Derived from Polynesian “Ta Tau” = to mark

Tattoo Marks

Tattooing injects ink into the skin by an electrically powered tattoo machine. A solid needle punctures the skin between 50-30,000 times per minute.

When you see a tattoo, you are seeing the ink through the epidermis (outer layer of the skin).

The tattoo ink is actually deposited in the dermis (the second layer of the skin).

Tattoo marks are fairly good identification marks, both for living as well as dead subjects.

They may provide wide range of information about the person possessing them.

In connection with identification; tattoo marks may speak about:-

-Race,Nationality & Religion -Occupation -Sex, Age -Language -Name of the person -Name of the relative,friend or lover.

In living persons

In dead persons

In skeletal remains

Need of Identification

Inmates in Nazi concentration camp during The Holocaust. The Nazis introduced the

practice of tattooing at Auschwitz in 1941 in order to identify the bodies of registered prisoners in the concentration camps. During registration, they would pierce the outlines of the serial-number digits onto the prisoners' arms. Tattoos have also been used for identification .

As early as the Zhou, Chinese authorities would employ facial tattoos as a punishment for certain crimes or to mark prisoners or slaves. During the Roman Empire, Roman soldiers were required by law to have identifying tattoos on their hands in order to make desertion difficult. Gladiators and slaves were likewise tattooed: exported slaves were tattooed with the words "tax paid", and it was a common practice tattoo "Stop me, I'm a runaway" on their foreheads. Emperor Constantine I banned tattooing the face around AD 330 and the Second Council of Nicaea banned all body markings as a pagan practice in AD 787.

In the period of early contact between the Māori and Europeans, the Maori people hunted and decapitated each other for their moko tattoos, which they traded for European items including axes and firearms. Moko tattoos were facial designs worn by women and men to indicate their lineage, social position, and status within the tribe. The tattoo art was a sacred marker of identity among the Maori and also referred to as a vehicle for storing one's tapu, or spiritual being, in the afterlife.

Tattoos are sometimes used by forensic pathologists to help them identify burned, putrefied, or mutilated bodies. As tattoo pigment lies encapsulated deep in the skin, tattoos are not easily destroyed even when the skin is burned.

Tattoos are also placed on animals, though rarely for decorative reasons. Pets, horses, and livestock are sometimes tattooed with identification and other marks.

Animals are occasionally tattooed to prevent sunburn (on the nose, for example). Such tattoos are often performed by a veterinarian, and in most cases the animals are anesthetized during the process. Pet dogs and cats are sometimes tattooed with a serial number (usually in the ear, or on the inner thigh) via which their owners can be identified.

Example of Identification

Commonly used dyes: indigo, cobalt, finely divided carbon, china ink, cinnabar, vermillion, prussian blue , etc.

Optimum depth of penetration: superficial layers of dermis.

Permanency of tattoo marks: depends on type of dye used, its depth of penetration & part of body tattooed.

Features

Latent tattoo marks: Visible by using UV light, by rubbing the part, by examining with magnifying glass in strong light

Natural disappearance of tattoo marks:Vermillion, cinnabar – disappear after min of 10

years.Black pigments ( Indian ink ) – permanent

Artificial removal of tattoo marks:Surgical removal & skin grafting, electrolysis; applyingCarbon dioxide snow; derm abrasion; laser; caustic substances

Features

1.Fine Line black and grey: Originated in Chicano communities of LA

during the 1970’s.Single needle-fine lines and smooth shadingRealisticTopic often included portraits,roses,memorial

pieces.

Tattoo Style

2.Biomechanical:Meant to look like ripped apart flesh with

mechanical parts underneath.Best on muscled parts of the

body(neck,legs,arms)

3.Tribal:Comes from Native American culture,became

very popular in the 1990’s.Intricate line designsTrue tribal tattoos are considered rites of

passage and are often done by ‘hand’.

Tattoos are permanent.

Some jobs won’t hire because of tattoos.

Tattoos carry risk of blood infection.

Warning about Tattoos

• As long as the tattoo artist follows correct sterilization and sanitation procedures, the risk of contracting a disease is relatively low.

• But the truth is, diseases can be contracted (and some can be fatal). Here are common diseases from tattooing:

• Hepatitis (this is a common one; can cause liver failure)

• HIV (no documented cases in professional tattoo parlors)

• Allergic reactions to tattoo ink

• Tuberculosis

DISEASES FROM TATTOOING

For some, they don’t like to have tattoos because they say that’s its just a permanent dirt on you body. And for some, they say that they can’t easily get a job because of the tattoo.

They are health hazards when you have a tattoo.

Tattoo dyes-especially red,green,yellow and blue cause allergic reactions,such as itchy rash at the tatoo site.this can occur even after you get the tatoo.

Problems

Skin infections-a skin infection-which might cause redness, swellig,pain and a puslike drainge-is possible after tattooing.

Blood borne diseases-if the equipment used to create your tattoo is contaminated with infected blood, you can contract various blood borne diseases –including tetanus, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

The bible says that you are not allowed to have a tattoo because tattoos, according to bible is only for the dead people. But for me its still your choice whether you still want to have one. “You shall not make any cutting in your flesh for the dead,nor print any mark upon you: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:28.

• Laser removal uses short impulses of intense light to selectively break down tattoo ink in the skin.

• The broken down ink is then removed by the body’s immune system.

• Tattoo removal is usually performed with lasers, and is considered a cosmetic procedure (not covered by health insurance).

• It can take anywhere from 40 or more sessions for the tattoo to fade.

• Yellow and red inks are the hardest to remove; black is the easiest. But no matter what, there will most likely always be remnants of the tattoo left behind.

• The feeling of tattoo removal is equivalent of have a hot iron placed on your skin

Method of Removal

CASE

One James Smith Disappeared on April 8,1935, a shark caught off the beach at Coagee vomit a human arm-while being kept at the aquarium.

Medical evidence suggested that the arm was severed from a dead body not by a shark bite but by an instrument, a tattooed design of two men boxing was the reason for its being identification as Smith’s arm by his wife & brother.

Later Patrick Brady was tried for his murder at Sydney.

Shydne Shark Case

Tattoo Mark may disappear during life without leaving any trace on the body after a period of at least 10 yrs provided the pigment used is vermilion or ultra marine & if it has not penetrated deep into the skin.

But the marks are indelible if some pigment, as Indian ink, soot, gunpowder or powder charcoal , has been used and has penetrated deep into the fibro-elastic tissues of the skin.

The letters “P.L” tattooed on left forearm were evident in a badly decomposed body examined a fortnight after death.

K.E v. Mangali

One witness, Dominick Falcon, told detectives that Burris, known as "69," was "bragging about killing a boy on Baltimore Street. He was saying that's how you were supposed to do the job, not a half job." Falcon testified that a gang leader known as "Bam" ordered Burris to kill Dickerson.

"Yea, he like a hit man for real," Falcon told police, referring to Burris. In court, Falcon said he was lying when he told all this to police detectives. Prosecutors played his police interview for the jury.

Prosecutors put Baltimore Police Sgt. Dennis Workley on the witness stand. He testified about the BGF, how it's run like a business and that its members control "most of the jails in the state," from the flow of drugs to information.

Workley testified that tattoos on Burris' body all have meaning. The words "Baltimore" and "Franklin" on his right and left forearms, for examples, show where he works. The "187" on his left arm is for the California penal code for homicide. The "OG" on his arm means "Original Gangster." Another tattoo of weapons, Workley said, stands for "death before dishonor."

Burris' defense attorney objected to Workley's testimony, saying it "poisons the well for the jury."

The judge instructed the jury this way: "Now, you have heard evidence of the defendant's involvement in gang activity. The defendant is not charged with a crime involving being a member of any gang. Information about the defendant's involvement if any with a gang was allowed only for you to understand the relationship between the defendant and other parties in this case."

Killer caught after officers recognize a murder scene depicted in his chest tattoo By DAVID GARDNER

2004 killing had been a cold case until officers spotted the tattoo by chance A gang member has been convicted of a murder that went unsolved for

seven years – after police discovered a detailed tattoo of the killing inked on the gunman’s chest.

Anthony Garcia’s telltale tattoo has a man with the body of a peanut – gang slang for a rival gang member – being hit by bullets and falling back towards the liquor store.

Garcia’s nickname was ‘Chopper’ and a miniature helicopter is depicted raining shots down on the scene.

Fresh allegations: Anthony Garcia, who was arrested for murder after a detective spotted the telltale tattoo on his chest, has been accused of conspiring to smuggle drugs into jail

The tattoo even showed the Christmas lights that were hanging from the roof of the liquor store where 23-year-old John Juarez was shot in the 2004 murder.

And it included a street lamp and sign from across the street. The whole scene was sketched out under the chilling banner of ‘RIVERA

KILLS’, a reference to the Los Angeles Latino street gang, Rivera-13.

Rivera Case

Police revealed how they only made the breakthrough by chance when homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd was flipping through snapshots of tattooed gang members.

Out of the blue, Garcia’s tattoo caught his attention because it reminded him of a murder case he helped probe years earlier.

The detective then helped set up a sting to trick the 25-year-old into confessing to the killing.

Garcia had only been arrested on a minor traffic offence and his bare chest was photographed because gang graffiti artists often mark their own bodies with the same signatures they spray on buses and storefronts.

Gang members also sometimes have tattoos that could help link them to a crime. At the time, the tattoo meant nothing to the officers who arrested Garcia and he

was let go. Homicide Lt. Dave Dolson said it was unheard of for a tattoo to lay out a detailed

crime scene. ‘I haven’t seen it before and I haven’t heard of anything like it, either,’ he told. After Lloyd recognised the mural, sheriff’s detectives arrested Garcia for the

shooting and officers, posing as gang members, got a confession from the gang member who bragged to them about carrying out the shooting.

It led to a first-degree murder conviction in a case that police had at one time given up hope of ever solving.

Lloyd, the investigator who cracked the case, had been at the scene of the murder in 2004 when he was a station sergeant in Pico Rivera, Los Angeles.

In the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, found that employers can impose dress and appearance policies, including regulating tattoo displays, provided the policies are handled in an equitable fashion.

Robert v. Ward

In 2012, a tattoo artist who inked mixed-martial-arts fighter Carlos Condit sued video game maker THQ Inc. for depicting Condit’s lion tattoo on a game character resembling the fighter. Also, the National Football League Players Association has warned players to seek copyright waivers from their tattoo artists to guard against lawsuits in the event images of the tattoos are used—intentionally or not—in advertisements, video games and other media. The case ultimately settle out of the court.

Lawyers foresee copyright waivers becoming a fixture in tattoo parlors. “I don’t doubt that in many larger tattoo parlors it will become standard that some type of document is presented to those who are going to have tattoos put on them stating that those tattoos have been created by the tattoo artist or the parlor,” says entertainment lawyer Jerry Glover of Leavens, Strand, Glover & Adler in Chicago.

Carlos Condit v THQ Inc.

Two Innocence Project Northwest law students tracked down assailants from a 2003 assault and obtained sworn statements that Brandon Olebar was not present when the victim was robbed, beaten and stuffed in a closet.

A Seattle man who spent 10 years in prison after he was convicted of robbery and burglary has been released after the Innocence Project Northwest persuaded King County prosecutors to re-examine the conviction, which was based solely on eyewitness testimony.

Brandon Olebar’s case came to the attention of the IPNW, based out of the clinical-law program at the University of Washington Law School, and two students “developed a body of evidence” that showed Olebar was not among the people who in February 2003 broke into the home of his sister’s boyfriend and pistol-whipped and beat the man unconscious, according to a statement.

The victim said as many as eight attackers beat him for more than 10 minutes, during which time he recognized Olebar’s sister as one of them. He told police the attackers had “feather” facial tattoos.

Wrongfully convicted man released after 10 years in prisonOLEBAR Case

Two days after the beating, the victim identified Olebar from a photo montage. Despite the fact that he did not have a facial tattoo and had an alibi, Olebar was charged with burglary and robbery.

A King County jury convicted him solely on the basis of eyewitness testimony and sentenced him to 16½ years in prison, according to the IPNW statement.

IPNW Director Jacqueline McMurtrie said two law students, Nikki Carsley and Kathleen Kline, tracked down and interviewed three of the assailants, who signed sworn statements admitting their involvement and denying that Olebar was present during the attack.

Working with IPNW attorney Fernanda Torres, they presented the new evidence to Mark Larson, the chief criminal deputy prosecutor to King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg.

McMurtrie said that over the next several months, Torres and Larson reviewed the case in light of the new evidence developed by IPNW and conducted independent interviews of new witnesses.

Last Friday, Satterberg’s office moved to vacate the conviction and dismissed the charges. Olebar, 30, was released.

A new state law allows people who were wrongfully convicted to file a claim in superior court for damages against the state. Under the law, a wrongly convicted person could receive $50,000 for each year of imprisonment, including time spent awaiting trial.

Indian Copyright Act, 1957 The Copyrightability of Tattoos

Shah Rukh Khan reportedly took steps which have caused him to become the first celebrity to register a tattoo in his name: the tattoo he sports in the film ‘Don 2’. If the reports are to be believed, the actor has obtained a copyright registration and not a trademark registration for the artwork in the tattoo.

While, in Shah Rukh Khan’s case, the Indian Copyright Office has registered a tattoo at all could raise deeply problematic issues. There is nothing in the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, which precludes the registration of tattoos or states that tattoos are not copyrightable. Nonetheless, according copyright protection to a tattoo means that the provisions of the statute would apply to it, and in some respects, it is extremely difficult to understand how it would be possible to apply the Act at all.

Copyrightability of Tattoos

If all people will understand the real meaning of every tattoo on one persons body, people who have tattoos will not be judged immediately. Like as the saying “Do not judge the book by it’s cover,” every tattoo that is tattooed on their body , there is always a deeper meaning for them.

Forensically, the main interest of tattoos is in identification of both living and dead. They survives most injuries except deep burns.

Conclusion

Franklin.C.A.Modi’s Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology.NM Tripathi Pvt. Ltd, Bombay : 1990.

Bibliography