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The Greeks learned tattooing from the Persians and used it to mark slaves and criminals so they could be identified if they tried to escape. The Romans in turn adopted the practice from the Greeks and, in late antiquity when the Roman army consisted largely of mercenaries, they also were tattooed so that deserters could be identified.
The Latin word for tattoo was stigma. Among the definitions of "stigma" listed by Webster are "a prick with a pointed instrument," ... "a distinguishing mark ... cut into the flesh of a slave or a criminal," and "a mark of disgrace or reproach."
Tattooing as punishment is mentioned by many Greek and Roman authors.
Suetonius says that Caligula amused himself by capriciously ordering members of his court to be tattooed.
The Emperor Theophilus took revenge on two monks who had publicly criticized him by having eleven verses of obscene iambic pentameter tattooed on their foreheads.
As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, the tattooing of slaves and criminals was gradually abandoned. The Emperor Constantine decreed that a man who had been condemned to fight as a gladiator or to work in the mines should be tattooed on the legs or the hands, but not on the face, "so that the face, which has been formed in the image of the divine beauty, should be defiled as little as possible."
Not punishment tattoos but re: branding,
Slaves in Ancient Rome, who ran away and were caught, were branded with the letters "FUG" (for fugitivus or "fugitive") on the forehead. Slaves were also branded with KAL (for liar) and FUR (for thief).
More recently, Morris & Rothman's The Oxford History of the Prison (1998) says that regicides in France would be branded with an "R", a thief with "V" for voleur and those who were to be put into forced labour a "T" for travaux forcés
Don't know much about Japanese punishment tattoos but Tattoo History: A Source Book, by Stephen G. Gilbert says:
The first written record of Japanese tattooing is found in a Chinese dynastic history compiled in 297 AD. According to this text, Japanese "men young and old, all tattoo their faces and decorate their bodies with designs." Japanese tattooing is also mentioned in other Chinese histories, but always in a negative context. The Chinese considered tattooing a sign of barbarism and used it only as a punishment.
By the seventh century the rulers of Japan had adopted much of the culture and attitudes of the Chinese, and a result tattooing fell into official disfavor. The first record of tattooing as punishment in Japan is found in a Japanese history compiled in 720 AD. It reads: "The Emperor summoned before him Hamako, Muraji of Azumi, and commanded him saying: ΠYou plotted rebellion, and your offense is deserving of death. I will, however, exercise great bounty, and remitting the penalty of death, sentence you to be tattooed."
After the sixth century tattooing was widely used to identify criminals and outcasts. Outcasts were tattooed on the arms: a cross might be tattooed on the inner forearm, or a straight line on the outside of the forearm or on the upper arm. Criminals were marked with a variety of symbols which designated the places where the crimes were committed. In one region, the pictograph for "dog" was tattooed on the criminal¹s forehead. Other marks included such patterns as bars, crosses, double lines, and circles on the face and arms. Tattooing was reserved for those who had committed serious crimes, and individuals bearing tattoo marks were ostracized by their families and denied all participation in the life of the community. For the Japanese, who valued family membership and social position above all things, tattooing was particularly severe and terrible form of punishment. |
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