說到文身，大家一定不會感到陌生。它是時下年青人突顯個性、展示自我、美化自己的一種方式。事實上，這股潮流已經(jīng)流行了幾千年。古代埃及人、古代歐洲人、非洲部落和印第安人等等都有文身的傳統(tǒng)。在本期中，我們將一起來探究充滿宗教色彩、優(yōu)雅而擁有永恒美麗設(shè)計感的凱爾特結(jié)文身的起源，喜歡文身的小伙伴們，長知識的時間到了～

Ari Shapiro （Host）： This is the sound of a tattoo needle.

（Soundbite of Tattoo Needle）

Shapiro： And as it buzzes away， I want you to picture in your head， what is the most cliché tattoo you can think of？ Chinese characters？ A tribal armband？ How about a Celtic knot？ Those interlocking lines that look like ropes or basket weaving. Last week I was in Ireland and decided to investigate the roots of this trend with Kevin McNamara at the Dublin Ink tattoo parlor.

McNamara： Without Celtic knots and shamrocks， I would never learned how to tattoo. And the first couple of months， or first couple of years， that was how I made my money.

Shapiro： The Celtic knot is his retirement fund. And he can spot a Celtic knot customer the minute one walks in the door—young， earnest and almost always American.

McNamara： You can tell， like， maybe a rain jacket， the style of jeans they wear， like， kind of fanny packs， glasses， baseball caps. And also， they let you know that theyre American， you know？ You dont have to worry about that.

Shapiro： The image of the Celtic knot is thousands of years old. Its carved into ancient stones all over Ireland. But it turns out the Celtic knot tattoo is a bit like the Chinese fortune cookie—American born and bred.

Anna Felicity Friedman： Im Anna Felicity Friedman. Im a tattoo historian. I run a blog called tattoohistorian.com. There is actually no evidence of Celtic tattooing.

Shapiro： In fact， while people in other parts of the world have been tattooing themselves for thousands of years， the practice only really came to Ireland in the last century. The Celtic knot tattoo seems to have started on the American West Coast in the 1970s and 80s. It was part of a trend in tattooing called blackwork.

Friedman： So blackwork is sort of the more PC term thats come to be common lingo for what used to be—in the 1980s and 1990s—called tribal tattoos.

Shapiro： Big， black geometric designs—much bolder than the old-school 12mermaid or cobra. Some of the early designs came from Native American or aboriginal patterns. The blackwork style took off.

Friedman： Combined with this desire to mark European heritage. Tattoos that mark heritage have always been popular.

Shapiro： The Celtic knot tattoo spread across the U.S. and over the ocean to Europe. It was sort of the lite rock radio station of tattoos—pretty， bland and inoffensive. It could work for women or men. It didnt have biker or sailor connotations. And it implied heritage and history. At Dublin Ink tattoo parlor， Irishman Greg Donne is getting a geometric pattern on his right shoulder. And on his left shoulder， an intricate Celtic knot has begun to fade.

Greg Donne： Oh， this one？

Shapiro： Yeah.

Donne： Ah， it was just the very first one I got. You know when youre—you just really want a tattoo， and you dont know what to think—what you want.

阿里·夏皮羅（主持人）：這是文身針發(fā)出的聲音。

（文身針的聲音）

夏皮羅：在這嗡嗡聲中，我想讓你在腦海里想一想，哪些是你最常見的文身？是漢字文身？還是部落袖標(biāo)的文身？那么凱爾特結(jié)文身呢？那些環(huán)環(huán)相扣的條紋，看起來像繩子或是網(wǎng)籃。上星期我在愛爾蘭決定與都柏林文身會所的凱文·麥克納馬拉一道研究這股風(fēng)潮的起源。

麥克納馬拉：沒有凱爾特結(jié)和三葉草（的形狀作為模型），我是不會去學(xué)怎么文身的。這就是我在頭幾個月或是前幾年賺錢的方法。

夏皮羅：做凱爾特結(jié)文身所賺的錢是他的退休基金。他能在客人一進門就判斷出他要做凱爾特結(jié)文身——他們年輕、熱情而且?guī)缀醵际敲绹恕?/p>

麥克納馬拉：你可以辨別出來，像是，也許通過一件防雨夾克、他們牛仔褲的款式，像是，腰包、眼鏡、棒球帽。還有就是，你知道嗎？他們會讓你知道他們是美國人，你不需要為此感到擔(dān)心。

夏皮羅：凱爾特結(jié)已經(jīng)有幾千年的歷史了，愛爾蘭到處都是刻有它形狀的古老石頭。但是事實上凱爾特結(jié)文身有點像中國的幸運餅干——在美國土生土長。

安娜·費利西蒂·弗里德曼：我是安娜·費利西蒂·弗里德曼，是一名文身歷史學(xué)家。我開了一個名為tattoohistorian.com的博客。實際上凱爾特結(jié)文身沒有留下任何證據(jù)。

夏皮羅：事實上，盡管世界上其他地方的人們幾千年前就開始文身，這項藝術(shù)在上個世紀(jì)才傳到愛爾蘭。凱爾特結(jié)文身應(yīng)該始于20世紀(jì)七八十年代的美國西海岸，它曾是文身的一種潮流，也叫作黑線繡。

弗里德曼：而黑線繡是一個政治上更為正確的詞，漸漸成為了常用的文身術(shù)語，它在20世紀(jì)八九十年代被稱為部落袖標(biāo)文身。

夏皮羅：大塊、黑色的幾何圖案——比老式的美人魚或眼鏡蛇圖案更醒目。一些早期的設(shè)計來自美國本土或土著的式樣，黑絲繡在那時很流行。

弗里德曼：同時，人們渴望彰顯歐洲的遺產(chǎn)，因此能夠表現(xiàn)其遺產(chǎn)的文身藝術(shù)總是很受歡迎。

夏皮羅：凱爾特結(jié)文身席卷了美國，并漂洋過海到了歐洲。它就像文身中的輕搖滾電臺——精致、溫和而無害，男女都適用。它不代表摩托車手或是水手。它蘊含著文化遺產(chǎn)和歷史。在都柏林的文身會所，愛爾蘭人格雷格·多恩正在他的右肩上刺一個幾何圖形。而在他的左肩上，一個復(fù)雜的凱爾特結(jié)文身開始褪色。

格雷格·多恩：噢，你說這個嗎？

夏皮羅：嗯。

多恩：啊，這是我刺的第一個圖案。你懂的，當(dāng)你——你只是真的很想要一個文身，你不知道你在想什么——你想要什么樣的。