Tattoos Are a Part of Our History, So Why Are They So Taboo?

However, as around the globe, the tradition of tribal tattooing and body art in Asian and African countries was denigrated and deemed “savage” because the practice was unfamiliar to European colonists. Settlers and missionaries imposed on the areas where they ruled, and tattoo culture slowly died away. They called this process of killing off cultures and practices “modernization.” Tattoos changed from being an expression of pride in community and identity to being a marker of an era gone by.