From Tahitian/Samoan 'tatau' (to mark, to strike), brought to English by Captain Cook's 1769 voyage to Tahiti. One of the very few Polynesian words in English (alongside 'taboo'). Not related to the military 'tattoo' (Dutch 'taptoe', close the taps).
A permanent design made on the body by inserting ink, dyes, or pigments into the skin through punctures.
From Tahitian and Samoan 'tatau' (to mark, to strike), brought into English by Captain James Cook and the naturalist Joseph Banks after Cook's first voyage to Tahiti in 1769. Banks wrote in his journal: 'Both sexes paint their bodys, Tattow as it is calld in their language.' Before this Polynesian borrowing, English had no specific word for the practice — it was described with phrases
English got two words from Cook's Polynesian voyages: 'tattoo' (Tahitian tatau) and 'taboo' (Tongan tabu). Both entered the language in the 1770s. There is also a completely separate English word 'tattoo' meaning a military drum signal, from Dutch 'taptoe' (tap shut — the signal to close tavern taps). The