美国凯尔特结文身的起源

說到文身，大家一定不会感到陌生。它是时下年青人突显个性、展示自我、美化自己的一种方式。事实上，这股潮流已经流行了几千年。古代埃及人、古代欧洲人、非洲部落和印第安人等等都有文身的传统。在本期中，我们将一起来探究充满宗教色彩、优雅而拥有永恒美丽设计感的凯尔特结文身的起源，喜欢文身的小伙伴们，长知识的时间到了～

Ari Shapiro （Host）： This is the sound of a tattoo needle.

（Soundbite of Tattoo Needle）

Shapiro： And as it buzzes away， I want you to picture in your head， what is the most cliché tattoo you can think of？ Chinese characters？ A tribal armband？ How about a Celtic knot？ Those interlocking lines that look like ropes or basket weaving. Last week I was in Ireland and decided to investigate the roots of this trend with Kevin McNamara at the Dublin Ink tattoo parlor.

McNamara： Without Celtic knots and shamrocks， I would never learned how to tattoo. And the first couple of months， or first couple of years， that was how I made my money.

Shapiro： The Celtic knot is his retirement fund. And he can spot a Celtic knot customer the minute one walks in the door—young， earnest and almost always American.

McNamara： You can tell， like， maybe a rain jacket， the style of jeans they wear， like， kind of fanny packs， glasses， baseball caps. And also， they let you know that theyre American， you know？ You dont have to worry about that.

Shapiro： The image of the Celtic knot is thousands of years old. Its carved into ancient stones all over Ireland. But it turns out the Celtic knot tattoo is a bit like the Chinese fortune cookie—American born and bred.

Anna Felicity Friedman： Im Anna Felicity Friedman. Im a tattoo historian. I run a blog called tattoohistorian.com. There is actually no evidence of Celtic tattooing.

Shapiro： In fact， while people in other parts of the world have been tattooing themselves for thousands of years， the practice only really came to Ireland in the last century. The Celtic knot tattoo seems to have started on the American West Coast in the 1970s and 80s. It was part of a trend in tattooing called blackwork.

Friedman： So blackwork is sort of the more PC term thats come to be common lingo for what used to be—in the 1980s and 1990s—called tribal tattoos.

Shapiro： Big， black geometric designs—much bolder than the old-school 12mermaid or cobra. Some of the early designs came from Native American or aboriginal patterns. The blackwork style took off.

Friedman： Combined with this desire to mark European heritage. Tattoos that mark heritage have always been popular.

Shapiro： The Celtic knot tattoo spread across the U.S. and over the ocean to Europe. It was sort of the lite rock radio station of tattoos—pretty， bland and inoffensive. It could work for women or men. It didnt have biker or sailor connotations. And it implied heritage and history. At Dublin Ink tattoo parlor， Irishman Greg Donne is getting a geometric pattern on his right shoulder. And on his left shoulder， an intricate Celtic knot has begun to fade.

Greg Donne： Oh， this one？

Shapiro： Yeah.

Donne： Ah， it was just the very first one I got. You know when youre—you just really want a tattoo， and you dont know what to think—what you want.

阿里·夏皮罗（主持人）：这是文身针发出的声音。

（文身针的声音）

夏皮罗：在这嗡嗡声中，我想让你在脑海里想一想，哪些是你最常见的文身？是汉字文身？还是部落袖标的文身？那么凯尔特结文身呢？那些环环相扣的条纹，看起来像绳子或是网篮。上星期我在爱尔兰决定与都柏林文身会所的凯文·麦克纳马拉一道研究这股风潮的起源。

麦克纳马拉：没有凯尔特结和三叶草（的形状作为模型），我是不会去学怎么文身的。这就是我在头几个月或是前几年赚钱的方法。

夏皮罗：做凯尔特结文身所赚的钱是他的退休基金。他能在客人一进门就判断出他要做凯尔特结文身——他们年轻、热情而且几乎都是美国人。

麦克纳马拉：你可以辨别出来，像是，也许通过一件防雨夹克、他们牛仔裤的款式，像是，腰包、眼镜、棒球帽。还有就是，你知道吗？他们会让你知道他们是美国人，你不需要为此感到担心。

夏皮羅：凯尔特结已经有几千年的历史了，爱尔兰到处都是刻有它形状的古老石头。但是事实上凯尔特结文身有点像中国的幸运饼干——在美国土生土长。

安娜·费利西蒂·弗里德曼：我是安娜·费利西蒂·弗里德曼，是一名文身历史学家。我开了一个名为tattoohistorian.com的博客。实际上凯尔特结文身没有留下任何证据。

夏皮罗：事实上，尽管世界上其他地方的人们几千年前就开始文身，这项艺术在上个世纪才传到爱尔兰。凯尔特结文身应该始于20世纪七八十年代的美国西海岸，它曾是文身的一种潮流，也叫作黑线绣。

弗里德曼：而黑线绣是一个政治上更为正确的词，渐渐成为了常用的文身术语，它在20世纪八九十年代被称为部落袖标文身。

夏皮罗：大块、黑色的几何图案——比老式的美人鱼或眼镜蛇图案更醒目。一些早期的设计来自美国本土或土著的式样，黑丝绣在那时很流行。

弗里德曼：同时，人们渴望彰显欧洲的遗产，因此能够表现其遗产的文身艺术总是很受欢迎。

夏皮罗：凯尔特结文身席卷了美国，并漂洋过海到了欧洲。它就像文身中的轻摇滚电台——精致、温和而无害，男女都适用。它不代表摩托车手或是水手。它蕴含着文化遗产和历史。在都柏林的文身会所，爱尔兰人格雷格·多恩正在他的右肩上刺一个几何图形。而在他的左肩上，一个复杂的凯尔特结文身开始褪色。

格雷格·多恩：噢，你说这个吗？

夏皮罗：嗯。

多恩：啊，这是我刺的第一个图案。你懂的，当你——你只是真的很想要一个文身，你不知道你在想什么——你想要什么样的。