When you hear the word tattoo what is the first thing you think of? The art form is probably your answer, where ink is injected into the skin and turned into a design that is now on display for the rest of one’s life. This however is the third definition of the word.
The first use of the word originated from the Dutch word taptoe literally meaning ‘close the tap of the cask. It was changed to tattoo in the mid seventeenth century in Britain approximately a hundred years before the definition we know so well. A tattoo is the evening drum or bugle signal recalling soldiers to their quarters for the night, it soon became more associated with simple the sound of the drums instead of closing up a fort, another definition came along; rhymic tapping