From the early 1990's on, there has been a tremendous increase in the popularity of tattooing among the general public in North America and Europe, a trend that has since spread around the world. Anyone who has taken even the most cursory glance at the mainstream media during the past decade could quite easily come away with the impression that the current popular interest in tattoos and other forms of body modification, such as body piercing, has arisen out of a cultural void and that there is scant evidence to suggest where the roots of the resurgence might lie. In point of fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Tattoos have had a rich and colourful history in western popular culture for the better part of two centuries and nowhere is this better illustrated than by the rather extraordinary number of historical figures and modern day celebrities who, have sported or currently have body art.