320 FASHION IN DEFORMITY xx 



pressed upon the skin by the introduction of colouring matter, 

 generally some kind of lamp-black, by means of an instrument 

 made of a piece of shell cut into a number of fine points, or 

 a bundle of sharp needles. When the custom of the land 

 demands that the surface to be treated thus is a large one, 

 the process is not only very tedious, but entails an amount 

 of suffering painful to think of. When completed it answers 

 part at least of the purpose of dress with us, as an untattooed 



FIG. 14. Australian native, with bone nose- ornament. 



skin exhibited to society is looked upon much as an unclothed 

 one would be in more civilised communities. The natural 

 colour of the skin seems to have influenced the method and 

 extent of tattooing, as in the black races it is limited to such 

 scars as those spoken of above; which, variously arranged 

 in lines or dots, become tribal distinctions among African 

 negroes. In Europe tattooing on the same principle as 

 that of the Polynesians is confined almost exclusively to 

 sailors, among whom it is kept up obviously by imitation or 

 fashion. 



The nose, the lips, and the ears have in almost all races 

 offered great temptations to be used as foundations for the 



