Tattooing and body modifications have been around in human history for thousands of years. Whether you getting a tattoo, a brand, implant, scarification, and so on, each mark usually meant something much deeper than we realize today.
A person would get some sort of marking on their body for things like adolescence/coming of age, victory in a battle, a successful hunt, getting “married”, having a child, if you were a healer/priest, representation of your role in society and so on.
Not all markings put on the body were by choice nor considered “good”. Some would be marked for being a thief, being a murderer, a heretic, possessed by evil spirits, marked for death, a rapist, a person in exile/banished from society. This is just some of the things you could be forcefully marked for.
Many indigenous people around the world still put these meaningful markings into practice, as passed down to them for many many generations.