Tattoos are a great way of showing off your personality, but sometimes a design can have a deeper meaning than you first thought.

Some tattoos have a closely guarded history that can get you into a world of hurt if you don't do the proper research.

With that, let's investigate why some tattoos can get you into serious trouble.

You're listening. You're listening to be amazed. can get you into serious trouble.

Before I reveal which tattoos can get you into trouble, it's important to know how and why tattoos have become so popular.

So let's start from the beginning. The practice of tattooing is so old that no one is really sure when it first began.

The oldest example known to science is from O.T.'s, a 5,300-year-old mummy, thought to have

been alive around 3,300 BC.

The corpse had 61 tattoos of vertical and horizontal stripes.

Scientists believe these were made by rubbing fire ash into thin incisions and letting

the skin heal over them.

Now that is hardcore.

As we advanced, tribal designs and ancient piercing techniques evolved the world over to engrave the skin with ink by hand, some of which are still used today.

But fast forward several thousand years to 1890 and the perforating pen was invented by none other than Thomas Edison.

This inspired New Yorker Samuel O'Reilly to make the first ever tattooed gun.

From then, up until the 1930s Western Society saw tattoos as a novelty with tattooed men and

ladies appearing on the stage in circuses and shows. Around this time, the Russian criminal

vass began to use tattoos to define rank and reputation amongst fellow inmates,

which eventually transferred over to American prisons as well.

But then, Western sailors adopted tattooing as a method of storytelling.

Different styles of tattoo indicated different ports and places visited and helped sailors tell stories of their exploits. For example,

swallowbirds indicated they'd traveled 5,000 nautical miles and a shellback turtle meant

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