Acat the God of
Tattooers
Culture : Mayan
Classification: God or spirit
Association: Tattooers, the fetus.
Acat was a deity in Maya mythology associated with the
process of tattooing. The Maya placed great importance on the tattooing
process, believing that tattoos in the image of a god would imbue a person with
some of that god's power.
many believe his name means ‘reed’ , a reference to the art
of tattooing the skin with a reed.
Because of the importance and difficulty of this art form it
was only natural that there was a god responsible for it. Acat was said to
bless the ink, needles, and work spaces, and steady the hands of the artists
for better results.
To them, tattooing was an act of faith. Body modification
was very popular amongst the Mayans and became increasingly extreme by today’s
standards the higher the person’ social standing was. Babies’ skulls were
elongated by wrapping their heads tightly in cloth, or by tying a board to the
backs of their head with cloth and gradually tightening a rope mechanism to
create the desired shape. Numerous piercings were also encouraged, teeth were
inlaid with precious stones and a more extreme form of tattooing was also
practiced.
The Mayans decorated themselves with a plethora of images
and iconography when tattooing: everything from celestial entities to flowers
and gods, but the most important thing to them was the sacrifice and pain
involved in the process. Without it, their world would quite literally cease to
exist.
Tattoos had major religious significance for the Mayans.
They believed that by drawing the symbols of gods on their bodies, they could
attain to some of the characteristics of those gods. So accuracy was highly
valued in such tattoos.
Tattoos had major religious significance for the Mayans.
They believed that by drawing the symbols of gods on their bodies, they could
attain to some of the characteristics of those gods. So accuracy was highly
valued in such tattoos.
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