tattoo

Forms

1.An image made on a body part, usually the skin with ink and a needle.
- His shirt sleeves were turned up, so upon his brawny arms his tattooes were visible.
- And when they do, readers may find themselves on an unfamiliar website with an odd name, faced with a photo gallery of regrettable tattoos or a listicle on 22 celebrities with ugly spouses.
2.A method of decorating a body part, usually the skin, by inserting colored substances under the surface with a sharp instrument (usually a solenoid-driven needle).
3.A signal played five minutes before taps (lights out).
- Study goes on until tattoo, which, when Pops was at the Point, was sounded at 9.30, followed by taps at 10.
4.A signal by drum or bugle ordering soldiers to return to their quarters.
- The bumblebee's mane glowed in the morning light, each hair sharp and distinct to Eragon, and its blurred wings generated a gentle bombilation, like a tattoo played on a drum.

1.To tap rhythmically on, to drum.
2.To apply a tattoo to (someone or something).
3.To hit the ball hard, as if to figuratively leave a tattoo on the ball.
- Jones tattoos one into the gap in left; that will clear the bases.

Rare· #4998

From earlier tattaow, tattow, a borrowing from a Polynesian language, e.g.

Samoan tatau (“tattoo; to tap, to strike”).