Marks carries story and identity.
The marks drawn on the body or the surface of an object carries a lot of meaning either for traditional identify or painful stories that needs to be celebrated always (having that legacy to live on). That's where the tattoo's mark concept was introduced. The marks tells a story either traditionally related, painful impact, joyful or memorable experience.
Africans, Indians, Hawaiian these are different people with different cultures bit has a common practices on skin markings.
The early concept of painting or surface scratching was purposely for identification, territory marking or ownership while if it was painted on the body either by pigment liquid or deep skin scratched.
Basically in Africa it's formally a common practice that when a child is given birth an ancestral markings should be done on the child's body or a deep scratch on the skin either on the face or hand. It is done on infant identified as twin for better identification among them.
When you gazed at a black African individual especially from the western part tribes like the igalas, yorubas and igbiras and the fulani but to name a few, these are tribe that I cam basically say they embrace the mark identification more often than other tribes.
By staring at the face the first thing noticeable are the trinal marks and with that you can tell which particular tribe that individual belongs too. So outsiders can tell from the marks the particular tribe and tradition.
Though in this present time the tribal markings on face or any part of the body has been stopped because it wasn't that satisfactory for the skin medically and again different religions practice decided to abolish (every person's has the right to identify his or her self by the way they speak, the cloth they wore often and their traditional practice other than skin markings.
The Hawaii indigenous people are one of few I love and admire the system in which they showcase their identity, the warriors marks drawn on the chest and arm (as a Maui) to the dance of war (haka) these has their marks drawn on the body of an Hawaiian.
On the other hand of memories, marks tells a great story, in a situation that I've seen where a father lost his son due to cancer he drew the child's face on form of a tattoo for the sake of remembrance automatically reminding the father always of when the child was alive. Some left marks on their body base on the incident that caused that mark wasn't pleasant to serve as a forever warning to the carrier and others they encounter.
There's another aspect of marks that carries stories also, the mark of covenant oath, which two or more individuals create on themselves for brotherhood or sisterhood bond, these os associated with mostly secret society also know as occultic practices either for hierarchy identification or membership.
Despite the modernism pattern that's taking over tradition the Hawaii are still holding firm that tribal markings, so also some African culture.
All images are mine