For as long as people have known that a smudge of ash rubbed into an opening in the skin would leave a permanent mark, tattoos have been a facet of society. Every people on the planet have had a tradition of tattooing, from the ocean-faring Polynesians that spread their culture from Tahiti to Hawaii and New Zealand, to the ancient Egyptians and the nomadic peoples of Africa, to both North and South America and the ancient peoples of Eurasia and the Middle East. Tattoos have b