Tattoo Music Exclamation

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Rodney from Suffolk, Virginia.

Hi, Rodney. Welcome to the show.

Hi, thanks.

What can we do for you?

Well, I’ll tell you the word I’m interested in. I used to hear my grandmother say every once and again when I was younger is the word tattoo. And as I got older, of course, I knew tattoo was related to skin art. But the way she used it was when her and my grandfather would go see a concert or a band. You know, if she really raved about it, talking to other family members or friends, she would say it was just such a wonderful tattoo. And it never really struck me as a child until I got older. And I wondered why she would use, you know, that word in that type of situation.

And did she say it about concerts specifically or other things?

Oh, there was other things. You know, she would use it if, you know, she went to a wedding. But I think it was mostly if it had to do with music behind it, that kind of thing. That was the whole tattoo. It was such a wonderful tattoo is how she would say it.

Interesting.

And it never struck me until we moved to the Virginia area. My wife’s in the military, and they have what’s called the Virginia International Tattoo. And come to find out it had nothing to do with skin art or anything along that nature.

-huh. And tell us what that is.

Honestly, I’ve never been. I really don’t know. Other than there is music behind it or it’s music-oriented. And it’s like a concert or something?

Yeah, apparently it’s many different bands. I think there’s also like a Scottish-type bag piping and things of that nature.

That makes sense.

Yeah, part of the problem here is that there are two different uses of the word tattoo, T-A-T-T-O-O, and they’re completely unrelated. There’s the tattoo that, as you said, refers to skin art, and that comes from the languages of the South Seas, where tattoos, I think, originated or were first observed by Westerners. And then the other kind of tattoo is a kind of military signal that calls sailors to quarters at night or calls in soldiers, and it’s a kind of signal that gets sent out to them to tell them to come on in. But that has a Dutch origin and isn’t related to the Polynesian or Micronesian language.

Right, right.

So it’s two different words that are spelled exactly the same, two different tattoos. Ain’t English wonderful.

Yeah.

Yeah, and so what I’m thinking is that this kind of tattoo may have to do with sound. You know, the fact that a tattoo, a military tattoo, can call soldiers in for the night. So we’re talking bugles and chomping and drumming.

Yeah, that kind of thing.

Okay, well, that makes a little more sense.

Yeah, that’s the only connection that I can see there.

Yeah, I need a time machine. We go back and talk to her and figure it out. This is, I would say, early to mid-70s. You know, I was probably 10, 11, you know, at the time whenever I would hear her say this. And like I said, it was mostly when her and my grandfather would go out to see a concert or something along those lines. You know, if she really raved about it, you know, I just remember, you know, she would say, you know, it was just such a wonderful tattoo. Such a wonderful tattoo.

And were your grandparents military folk? Were they part of that culture?

My grandfather was, yes. He was in the military during World War II.

That’s the best we can…

That’s possible she picked it up.

Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. And so she borrowed the usage kind of indirectly and just generalized it, which is kind of the way words and new meanings are formed.

Well, cool. If we find out more about somebody else using tattoo kind of as a compliment or catchphrase like that, we’ll let you know, Rodney, all right?

That’d be wonderful. Thank you so much.

Thank you for your call. Really appreciate it.

Yeah, thanks for sharing this linguistic heirloom with us.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Bye.

Bye, Rodney.

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