Royal Ontario Museum Blog
Monthly Archive: December
Tattoos: Exploring Tattoo Culture Around the World
![Back of man, covered with Tattoos.](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/tattoo1.jpg?itok=6hksnym2)
Tattoos: Ritual, Identity, Obsession and Art.
Tattoos: Glossary
One in five Canadians has at least one tattoo, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who sports a Haida symbol on his left shoulder. Tattoos have moved into the mainstream, companies have begun to relax rules on visible tattos in the workplace. The new exhibition charts the journey of tattooing from its deep historical and global roots, via its marginalizaiton, to its current revival in many cultures around the world. Here are six essential tattoo terms to know while walking through the Tattoos exhibition:
ROM Research: Detailing Wendiceratops
![Wendiceratops Skeleton drawn picture of the skeleton of the Wendiceratops](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/journal.pone_.0130007.g003.jpg?itok=3sXhHgGi)
David Evans and Michael Ryan reveal a spectacular new species of ceratopsian, Wendiceratops was approximately 6 metres from nose to tail and weighed more than a ton (2,000 lbs).
Guest blog by Shiona M. Mackenzie.
Go with the Flow: Technology & Early Glass
![Six-handled green glass jar - Blown glass with trailed handles, Syria - Late Roman - c. 300-425 AD, ROM #909.3.41 - The Walter Massey Collection - Height 12.9cm Width 9.4cm Diameter 7.6cm. ROM Photography. Six-handled green glass jar - Blown glass with trailed handles, Syria - Late Roman - c. 300-425 AD, ROM #909.3.41 - The Walter Massey Collection - Height 12.9cm Width 9.4cm Diameter 7.6cm. ROM Photography.](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/rom2010_11597_26ab.jpg?itok=nSX9wJw4)
Glass is probably the most fluid of solids. Looking at blown glass, such as that in the ROM's Chihuly exhibition, is like watching movement made still. If you look carefully at the handles of the perfectly preserved handles of this Roman glass vase from Syria (above), it looks as though it is still a fluid, still dynamically moving along its flow. In a way, that is because it is. Glass essentially has the atomic structure of a fluid, but it has been so rapidly cooled that it is essentially stuck in that condition.
Blue Whale Research
![Jacqueline Miller holding a bone of a blue whale A photograph of a woman holding a bone of a blue whale.](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/dsc02284-colour.jpg?itok=NglGPmLS)
Scientific study and preservation continue for the ROM’s Blue Whale
The Tattoo Hunter
![Lars Krutak the Tattoo Hunter A man in a green shirt and blue bandana taking a selfie with a Makonde tattoo master](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/7_krutak_and_pius.jpg?itok=lQN77cM2)
Guest blog by Doug Wallace
Anthropologist Lars Krutak has documented the tattoo traditions of Indigenous people all over the world, from the Amazon to the high Arctic.
New Acquisitions: Screening Process
![New Acquisitions: Screening Process A woman measuring an ancient Japanese print](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/collecting2.jpg?itok=a8v9l3Kx)
Ever wonder what the process is whenever the ROM gets a new acquisitions? Well wonder no more! Here is the general process of how the ROM screens new acquisitions.
Profile: Canada's First Lady of Literature
![Canada's First Lady of Literature A woman in a pink shirt and a scarf taking a selfie reflection in a convex mirror with a man in a black shirt and glasses](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/eleanoranish.jpg?itok=dsU1a6_J)
Eleanor Wachtel is a Canadian writer and broadcaster, and host of the CBC Radio’s popular literary show Writers & Company. Over the 26 years Wachtel has been hosting her show, she has interviewed some of the most compelling figures in Canadian literature, including Saul Bellow, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, and Mordecai Richler. Wachtel is renowned for turning the traditional interview into an in-depth portrait of her subject.
Tattoos: 7 Common Styles
The Tattoos exhibition features many different kinds of tattoos both historical and contemporary. There are seven basic contemporary tattoo styles listed below. Let us know in the comments if you have ink that fit in one of these styles.
1. Japanese
Often derived from watercolour inspired artwork, as well as word and phrase tattoos.
Exhibit A: Light of the Desert Cerussite Gem
![Light of the Desert Cerussite Gem A diamond like gemstone on a black background](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/rom2008_10048_7.jpg?itok=N12dG6y7)
At 900 carats, this magnificent gemstone is the world's largest faceted specimen of the mineral cerussite.