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Tattoo Anthropologist

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July 17, 2013

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Previous article AT THE TAIL OF THE DRAGON: VANISHING TATTOOS OF CHINA’S LI PEOPLE

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  • Ra Enge from Tawaleka, Fiji, 1870s. In 19th century Fiji, tattooing (veiqia) was only performed by and for women, & primarily confined to the buttocks, vulva, and upper/inner thighs. Charles Wilkes, writing around 1840, stated: "The women believe that to be tattooed is a passport to the other world, where it prevents them from being persecuted by their own sex, numbers of whom, by command of the gods, would meet them, if not tattooed, and, armed with sharp shells, would chase them continually through the lower regions. So strong is this superstition, that when girls have died before being tattooed, their friends have painted the semblance of it upon them, in order to deceive the priest, and thus escape the anger of the gods." Hand-tapped tattoos were created by skilled female artists who have been described as "hereditary priestesses." According to a local chief writing in the 1890s, the tattoo artist and her assistant were specifically referred to as "wise women." One was a kind of healer and the other an "expert tattooer." Tattooing was performed in secret locations in the forest or in a cave, and young women were usually tattooed after they had reached puberty and before they were married. The ancestors were invoked to help guide the ceremony. The chief said: "The woman to be tattooed must fast for twelve hours, from daylight till eve, and the night before she must fish for freshwater prawns from dark till dawn, and must search for and procure three lemon thorns to be affixed to pieces of reed stems as handles [for the tattoo instrument]. Then, she had to lie on her back before the old woman who concocted in a coconut shell the liquid [candlenut soot mixed with water or coconut oil] used for the staining. This ancient dame blessed the liquid and prayed to the spirits of the dead to soften the skin of the girl so that the operation should not pain her too much. Then the tattooing commenced, the sacred part [vulva] being the first to be done. The pain which it caused was called 'the extraction of the spear.’” Spots at the corners of the mouth notified, on some islands, that the woman had borne children. #fiji #polynesian #women #tattoo #tattoos #blackwork
  • https://www.larskrutak.com/naga-tattoos-of-myanmar/ #myanmar #naga #burma #india #lahe #tattoo #tattoos #indigenous #tribaltattoo #blood #portraitphotography #portrait #asia #asian #blackwork #heart
  • On Ontong Java (1880s), tattoos were hand-tapped with combed tools of bird bone (eg, frigate), attached to handles of wood or coral. Nuts of a local beach shrub were gathered and heated to produce an opaque oily pigment. Tattooists were skilled women and the art was passed down from mother to daughter. According to oral tradition, tattooing was gifted to the people by the goddess Luahina and women were tattooed in her honor. Luahina was the daughter of the Sea God Lolo who created the Ontong Java archipelago; he was also the first chief. Men's foreheads were marked with small squares representing the frigate. Below the top row of these boxes, men wore another pattern shaped like an arrow tip symbolizing the frigate's beak. Some men preferred a pair of whales or small dolphins in its place. Beside the eyes, men wore a small line of XXX’s representing a type of bristle worm. Arrow-shaped designs were called ika or “fish.” A “big fish” pattern was placed down the center of a man’s chest. It was called “hau” but more popularly “tagaloa.” Whether this word referred to the ancient Polynesian deity of the same name is not known. Beside the “hau” (running up and down) was a tattoo of an edible sea worm of the reef (with many feet), followed by sets of small whales or dolphins. Above the nipple were two transverse stripes signifying the carved bar in the elder’s house (hare tapu), a cultural feature found across Polynesia. Below the nipple appeared a series of “king” and “red fish” winding around the back. Designs of sharks (four) flanked the navel. An abstract ocean reef was tattooed upon a man’s torso/upper breast. For ex., a series of small, connected rectangles arching outwards from the clavicle represented the pattern found on the shell of a large marine mollusk. It sits on a line of similar but smaller designs that reproduce a reef lying in shallow water. The transverse tattooing style expresses the reef's unevenness caused by drainage channels of the coral heads. #tattoo #tattoos #pacific #blackwork #polynesia
  • Dear Friends! Big SHOUT OUT to all of you who supported "Patterns of Life" documentary! We have eclipsed our 25,000 Euro fundraising goal with 4 days to go and all extra funds will be carefully invested in this groundbreaking project to make it the best it can be! Thank you! XOXO @patterns.of.life.documentary #documentary #documentaryfilm #tattoo #tattoos #patterns #life #blackwork #culture #heritage #history #film #humans #human #thankyou
  • It is not known when or where the practice of tattooing originated among the Catholics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Croatian anthropologists Ćiro Truhelka (1890s) and Mario Petrić (1970s) wrote that the combinations of cruciforms, celestial bodies, and other natural symbols that comprise this graphic tradition predated Christianity. British travel writer Mary E. Durham (1929) was told by a local priest, “They have a number of curious pagan beliefs, which they will not tell me. I have found that they believe in two powers—Light and Darkness—which are in conflict—Good and Evil. These tattoos are in some way connected with this belief.” In Bosnia, some of the traditional patterns were as follows: kolo (“the circle”), named after a customary dance, klas (“ear of corn”), ograda (“fence ring”), narukvitza (“bracelet”), grancitza (“small pine twig”), eliza (“fir tree”), krizh or krizhevi (“cross,” “crosses”), and Sun, Moon, and Morning Star (see Krutak 2007:46). The tattoo patterns were traditionally applied by old women, who first stenciled the design onto the skin with the blunt end of their tattooing needle or a chicken feather. Sometimes the design was carved into a piece of willow or ash bark and stamped onto the epidermis. Generally, tattoo pigment consisted of the soot of resinous pinesap collected on a plate and then combined with honey, water, saliva, and mother’s milk from women who had a male child with blue eyes. Many other substances could also be combined with soot to produce tattoo ink, including milk from a black sheep, horse milk, egg yolk, juniper berry juice, holy water, or sugar. Annunciation Day (March 25), Good Friday, Palm Sunday, St. John’s Day (June 24), and St. Joseph’s Day (March 19) were common tattooing days. #bosnia #croatia #sun #moon #religion #tattoo #women #blackwork #ink #tattoos #nature #balkan
  • Come One, Come All! Hope to see you there Oct. 25-28 on the Big Island of Hawai'i! Check website for details and events!
  • Before a Paiwan girl was tattooed in Taiwan, her parents had to present the ruling chief of the village with ceremonial beverages of millet wine: for it was the chief who decided the appropriate day of the tattooing. The parents of the girl then asked him which class of tattoo patterns – there were five classes comprised of various combinations of designs – she could receive. “We could not decide it ourselves,” says 86-year-old tattooed elder Vuruvur Saivig. “The patterns on my fingers are associated with my social class. And at that time, the tribal rule was that only one child – the eldest one – in one family could have tattoos.” Tattooing (kivutsik, ‘to print or carve’) was usually performed in winter because the drier air was believed to aid in healing. A small hut was constructed in a semi-isolated area for the tattooing to take place. To prevent intruders from watching, especially pregnant women, a bamboo stick was erected in front of the hut. If a pregnant woman saw the tattooing, it was believed that the tattoo client’s hands would swell and become septic or their tattoos would fade and eventually disappear. If someone sneezed or farted during the tattooing, the operation was postponed immediately; otherwise, the soul of the person being tattooed “would be taken away.” Ljalep Qamuljilj (pictured here) was born in 1927 and was a Paiwan aristocrat. She was tattooed by a female artist. “When the tattoo operation was completed, there must be a ceremony to cool the temperature of the hands. We also prayed to the Ancestral Spirit so that the wounds would not become infected and that the patterns would be clear and bright,” she said. Sadly, Ljalep died shortly after this photograph was taken. #tattoos #tattooing #women #taiwan #blackwork #hand #asia
  • Thank You @bhorn.tattoo (Barcelona) and @the_island_tattoo_connection for your gracious Charity Day event to help support our documentary project @patterns.of.life.documentary ...Over 3000 euro raised! Gracias a todos! #tattoo #tattoos #documentary #barcelona #spain #blackwork #culture #tattooideas #charityevent #gracias #indigenas

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