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There are two schools of thought
on the origin of the word "tattoo".
One school of thought has it that the word comes
from the Samoan
and Tahitian word, "tatau" which
means "to mark twice, with color." This
comes from "ta" "ta" "u"
- mark, mark, color. The Marquesan (related Polynesian
culture to Samoa and Tahiti) word is "tatu"
which means to mark and puncture skin.
Some people claim that the word
comes from the Dutch word "taptoe" which
means to signal, and came from tap-toe, "tap"
a faucet, and shut, "toe".
However tattoo originated, it is
one of most comonly misspelled words in the English
language. Popular misspellings include "tatto,"
tatoo," "tato," and "tatu."
It is infact the number two most misspelled word
in Internet searches, with most common misspellings
being "tatto," and "tatoo."
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