The art of tattooing has been found all over the world, from the Ice Age to our own day. And though aboriginal people from Arabia to America to the South Seas have traditionally practiced it, tattooing has lately been on the decline among tribal cultures – even as it has become fashionable in the first world. This book showcases the rich variety and sometimes surprising similarities of these disappearing tribal tattoo designs, both representative and abstract, employed as religious symbols, talismans, charms, indicators of status or position, or simply as adornment.