tattoo

• IPA^(key): /tæˈtuː/, /təˈtuː/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː

A tattoo (image made in skin)

From earlier tattaow, tattow, a borrowing from a Polynesian language, e.g. Samoan tatau (“tattoo; to tap, to strike”).

tattoo (plural tattoos)

1. An image made in the skin with ink and a needle.
   • 1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 22:

     Victor was spot on, of course; in fact, I have often been tempted to seek him out when I have been plagued by diseases of the heart. He'd be able to tell me in ten seconds whether someone was worth a tattoo or not.

   • 1997, Carlin, George, Brain Droppings‎, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 31:

     And here's a solution to an age old tattoo problem. If your girlfriend's name, say, "Suzie," is tattooed on your arm, and you break up with her, don't have the tattoo removed. Just have the tattoo reworked so it says, "Fuck Suzie."

2. A method of decorating the skin by inserting colored substances under the surface with a sharp instrument (usually a solenoid-driven needle).

• sleeve tattoo
• tat
• tatt
• vattoo

tattoo (third-person singular simple present tattoos, present participle tattooing, simple past and past participle tattooed)

1. To apply a tattoo to (someone or something).
2. (baseball) 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.

• screwed, blued and tattooed
• screwed, glued and tattooed

• tattoo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From earlier tap-to, borrowed from Dutch taptoe, from tap (“tap; faucet on a cask”) + toe (“to; shut”). More at tap, to.

tattoo (countable and uncountable, plural tattoos)

1. (nautical) A signal played five minutes before taps (lights out).
   • 2017, Charles King, Cadet Days:

     Study goes on until tattoo, which, when Pops was at the Point, was sounded at 9.30, followed by taps at 10.

2. (military) A signal by drum or bugle ordering soldiers to return to their quarters.
3. (military) A military display or pageant.

tattoo (third-person singular simple present tattoos, present participle tattooing, simple past and past participle tattooed)

1. To tap rhythmically on, to drum.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 22, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     He had looked at the clock many scores of times; and at the street, where the rain was pattering down, and the people as they clinked by in pattens, left long reflections on the shining stone: he tattooed at the table: he bit his nails most completely […]

• military tattoo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From Hindi टट्टू (ṭaṭṭū).

tattoo (plural tattoos)

1. A pony of a certain breed from India.