Tattooing in Ancient China and Asia
In ancient China, prominent facial tattooing was a form of extreme punishment. According to Han Shu, a codebook of the period, there were more than 500 crimes for which a tattoo punishment was meted out ‒ these punishments were called ‘mo zui’, or ink crimes.
A painting of Captain James Cook in his naval uniform from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. Photo: National Maritime Museum
Confucius also wrote about this matter, suggesting that it is “honourable to preserve the body in the form created by the parents” and that it is detrimental to have the human body ‘defamed’ by tattoos (Reed, 2000, p. 364).