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cherokee tattoos on hands

Tattoos: A Language Beyond Communal Bounds

Before the development of the Cherokee written language, tattoos were used to identify one another in historic societies, and were especially prevalent among warriors, who had to earn their marks. We talked to Mike Crowe, one of the Atsila Anotasgi Cultural Specialists at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, to find out more about traditional tattoos and practices of the Eastern Band of Cherokee People