Etymology Dictionary

TATTOO (1),  the beat of drum recalling soldiers to their quarters.  (Du. or Low G.)   'Tattoo, Taptoo (also Taptow), the beat of drum at night for all soldiers to repair to their tents in a field, or to their quarters; also called The Retreat;' Phillips, ed. 1706.   'To beat the taptow, de Aftogt slaan;' Sewel, Eng.-Du. Dict., 1754.   'The taptoo is used in garrisons and quarters by the beat of the drum;' Silas Taylor, On Gavelkind, ed. 1663, p. 74.   The word, though omited by Sewel, must be Du. or Low G.—Du. taptoe, tattoo (Tauchnitz Du. Dict.)—Du. tap, a tap; and toe, put to, shut, closed.   The sense is 'the tap is closed;' cf. Du. Is de deur toe = is the door closed? doe het boek toe = shut the book; haaľt venster toe = shut the window (Sewel).   The tattoo was thus the signal for closing the taps of the public-houses.   β. This looks, at first, more like a bad jest than a sound etymology; but it is confirmed by the remarkable words for tattoo in other languages, viz. G. zapfenstreich, the tattoo (lit. tap-stroke), where zapfen is a tap of a cask; and Low G. tappenslag, the tattoo (lit. a tap-shutting).   Cf. Low G. tappen to slaan = to close a tap, an expression used proverbially in the phrase Wi wilt den Tappen to slaan = we will shut the tap, put the tap to, i.e. we will talk no more of this matter.   This last expression clearly shews that 'a tap-to' was a conclusion, a time for shutting-up.   ¶ I do not think that Span. tapatan, the sound of a drum, has anything to do with the present matter.   It is remarkable that the word should appear so early in English, and should be omitted in Sewel's Du. Dictionary. [†]

TATTOO (2),  to mark the skin with figures, by pricking in colouring matter.  (Tahitian.)   'They have a custom... which they call tattowing.   They prick the skin so as just not to fetch blood,' &c.; Cook, First Voyage, b. i. c. 17; id. ib. b. iii. c. 9 (R.)   Cook is speaking of the inhabitants of Tahiti.—Tahitian tatau, signifying tattoo-marks on the human skin; derived from ta, a mark, design; see Littré, who refers us to Berchon, Recherches sur le Tatouage.

ADDENDA

'Sir Jas. Turner, in his Pallas Armata (a treatise on military affairs, c. 1627), gives it as taptoo, and explains it as the signal for closing the sutlers' canteens;' N. and Q. 3 S. vii. 374; q.v.   This is a very early example.