Is there a noun for a tattoo?

Question

If I'm reading it correctly, Cicero uses the verb compungo in De Officiis to mean something like "branded" to describe tattoos:

Qui, ut scriptum legimus, cum uxorem Theben admodum diligeret, tamen ad ear ex epulis in cubiculum veniens barbarum, et eum quidem, ut scriptum est, compunctum notis Thraeciis, destricto gladio iubebat anteire praemittebatque de stipatoribus suis, qui scrutarentur arculas muliebres et, ne quod in vestimentis telum occultaretur, exquirerent.

I could not find a noun for a tatto itself, though. Is there a dedicated noun for tattoo, or would the Romans simply have called them "markings on the skin" or something like that?

Answer 1

You highlighted your answer already: nota would indicate the physical tattoo in that sentence of Cicero's. We see it used in Pomponius Mela, too:

Mossyni...notis corpus omne persignant
The Mossyni "sign" their whole body with notes (words?).

You'll should keep the perfect passive participles with it, though, if you plan on using it to describe someone.

There are a few other words for tattooing, besides compungere. Mela also uses pingere:

Agathyrsi ora artusque pingunt
The Agathyrsi paint their faces and limbs.

I don't know if we know whether this was literal painting, but Lewis and Short use tattoo here.

You also have this passage from Pliny the Elder (22.1.2):

inlinunt certe aliis aliae faciem in populis barbarorum feminae; maresque etiam apud Dacos et Sarmatas corpora sua inscribunt.
That, among some barbarous peoples, the females stain the face by means of various plants, there can be little doubt, and among the Dacians and the Sarmatians we find the men even marking their bodies.

inlinere here probably does not indicate needle under the skin tattooing, but something like how henna is used in India. Similarly, there's just no way of knowing if the Dacians and Samartians used needles or marked their bodies some other way.

If you go even later, Isidore uses stigma, -atis as a tattoo, which is a borrowing from the Greek στίγμα. This usage goes all the way back to Herodotus, but you see it in a variety of locations

στίγμα, ατος, τό, tattoo-mark, Hdt.5.35, Arist.HA585b33, GA721b32, IG42(1).121.48, al. (Epid., iv B.C.), Polyaen.1.24; στίγμα ἱρά, showing that the persons so marked were devoted to the service of the temple, Hdt. 2.113; esp. of a slave, Pl.Com.187, Ps.-Phoc.225, Cod.Theod.10. 22.4; or a soldier, ibid., Aët.8.12; “στίγματα ἐξαίρει βατράχειον καταπλασθέν” Dsc.Eup. 1.110

Answer 2

As pointed out by cmw's answer, nota is a valid word for a tattoo but too general to use without context. If you are speaking of tattoos, nota will do just fine, but nobody will think of a tattoo first if you say that you saw a cool nota the other day. The goal of this answer is to give nouns that you could use that way. There will be no perfect choice as the Romans appear not to have had a word for a tattoo.

Of the various verbs cmw mentions, I think compungere is the least ambiguous, as it refers to puncturing or stinging instead of painting or anointing or something that can be easily interpreted without any relation to tattoos. It seems that the object of compungere, at least in the Cicero quote you mention, is the person tattooed, not the tattoo itself. Therefore nota compuncta does not quite work.

What we need is an adjective that says "related to compunging", and the most apt derivative suffix I can think of is -ivus. This suffix is quite productive, so I think it is within reason to use the adjective compunctivus despite not being given in classical dictionaries. It appears that compunctio also has the (post-classical) sense of "sting of conscience" or "remorse", so nota compunctiva can be seen as a "sign of remorse", which is not good for a tattoo someone is proud of.

The unprefixed version punctio does not seem to have this moral side to it and refers more exclusively to a physical puncture. Therefore my suggestion for "tattoo" is nota punctiva. This is not a standard expression so it can take a bit of explaining, but it is clearly a "stingy stamp" of some sort.