... The daughters of chiefs and those of
wealthy Indians generally are denoted by a small round spot
tattooed on the forehead."
(Mallery, 1888-89, 395.) Bossu says regarding the practice of
tattooing by the Osages (in 1756): "It is a kind of knighthood to
which they are only entitled by great actions." Blue marks tattooed
upon the chin of a Mojave woman indicate that she is married. The
Serrano Indians near Los Angeles had, as late as 1843, a custom of
having special tattoo marks on themselves which were also made on
trees to indicate the corner boundaries of patches of land. (Mallery,
1882-83, 64, 182.) In his book on the California Indians, Powers
declares (109) that in the Mattoal tribe the men tattoo themselves; in
the others the women alone tattoo. The theory that the women are thus
marked in order that the men may be able to recognize them and redeem
them from captivity seems plausible for the reasons that these Indians
are rent into a great number of divisions and that "the squaws almost
never attempt any ornamental tattooing, but adhere closely to the
plain regulation mark of the tribe." The Hupa Indians have discovered
another practical use for body-marks. Nearly every man has ten lines
tattooed across the inside of his left arm, and these lines serve as a
measurement of shell-money.
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