Droit et Cultures (Dec 2023)
Surveiller et punir. La pratique du tatouage dans l’antiquité gréco-romaine
Abstract
This article examines the use of compulsory tattooing in Greco-Roman antiquity. During the ancient period, ornamental, prophylactic, apotropaic or religious body marking was practiced in many of the civilisations with which the Greeks and Romans interacted. However, the Greeks and Romans disapproved of the custom of voluntary tattooing on the grounds that it violated the integrity of the human body and was contrary to traditional morality. In Hellenic and Roman society, tattooing was necessarily an expression of punishment or domination. Penal tattoos were used to punish prisoners of war, delinquent slaves and criminal freemen. It served to punish by infamy the person who had it, but also to distinguish him or her from other individuals so as to prevent their escape. As for the tattoo of belonging, it was most often affixed to Roman soldiers and imperial officials. Its purpose was to identify agents of the state and thus easily prevent or repress the evasion of their duties.
