Did you know that on U.S. Army bases, soldiers get a tattoo every day?

Grammar girl here, I'm Mignon Faggarty and you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language.

We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff.

This week we'll talk about tattoos and why you should keep reading and writing as you age.

When you say the word tattoo, most people think body art.

You might picture a World War II sailor with a heart on his bicep and scribe with the word mother.

You might see a tattooed lady from an old time circus or you might think fondly of your favorite barista.

But chances are you don't hear this.

That's the sound of a different type of tattoo.

You might be surprised to learn that the word tattoo has two different meanings with two different origins.

The first refers to images or patterns permanently drawn on the skin.

These are created by puncturing the skin and adding ink.

Sometimes this is done with needles, sometimes with bones or thorns.

Sometimes the ink is introduced into a simple pen prick, other times it's added to a scratch or even a knife slash.

But whether you think tattooing is cool or creepy, humans have been doing it since the dawn of civilization.

We've found tattoos on Egyptian mummies from 2000 BC.

We've also found what might be tattoos on the iceman, the mummified human found in the Alps and radio carbon dated back to 3000 BC.

The iceman's back left leg and right ankle are marked with short blue lines.

Now these may be scars from primitive surgeries or they may be proper tattoos.

Although this practice is ancient, the word tattoo itself came into English in the 1700s.

That's when James Cook, a British captain, undertook three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean.

He found in charted New Zealand, accidentally landed in Australia and visited Jakarta and Tahiti.

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