Stories Engraved on the Skin: Tattooing in Loreto frome the Sixteenth to Twenty-First Century

The text explores the ancient practice of Loreto tattoos, linked to the pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Loreto, for the entire modern age the most important in Europe together with the Spanish sanctuary of Santiago de Compostela. These religious tattoos were made, by local ‘marcatori’ (the term ‘tattooing’ only became widespread in the 18th century after Cook's travels), with wooden moulds and needles. They represented sacred symbols, linked to the prodigious arrival in Loreto of both the Holy House of Mary and the so-called Black Madonna, and had devotional, magical-protective and identity functions. The author analyses the historical, cultural and religious context in which tattoos developed, emphasising the symbolic importance of pain and blood as elements of faith and sacrifice. In addition, the influences of religious orders, such as the Franciscans and Jesuits, of ‘Marche’ pontiffs, as in the case of Sixtus V, and in general the relationship between Loreto and the Catholic Counter-Reformation are highlighted. Today, this practice is experiencing a revival, albeit in modern and obviously less bloody forms. The phenomenon reflects, in general, the return of interest in bodily symbols and rituals, in a society that is increasingly digital but in search of a concrete physicality.