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Through reports of French colonialists in America, we know that there was hardly anyone among the "Illinois" speaking native peoples of the Midwest of the USA whose skin was not tattooed. But what did the tattoos mean? Craig Koslofsky explains that the tattoos were meant to show the other person who he or she was looking at. They gave information about certain achievements in the war or about the social status – a kind of business card. For white Europeans, however, tattoos were tantamount to a stigma.