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Tattoo Anthropologist

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March 12, 2013

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  • Sad to report that Lawa Toyu has crossed the Rainbow Bridge to meet her Atayal ancestors. I was fortunate to meet her in 2016. She was the last Atayal women with facial tattoos in Taiwan. There is much I could say about Atayal tattooing, but I will leave this post with the words of Vuvu Lawa: “We are those who have truly lived by the Atayal traditions. The younger generations who can write must record this tradition, do not forget... Once we are gone, there will be no one else with facial tattoos.” #taiwan #atayal #blackwork #handtappingtattoo #heritage #culture #oceania #asia #asiantattoo #elders #rainbow #bridge #tatouage #tatowierung #tattoos
  • Hammered gold hand with intricate tattoo motifs and turquoise inlays. Lambayeque culture, Middle Horizon, 900-1100CE. Collection of Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC. 8 x 2.9 x 1.7 in. (Cat. # PC.B.463). Through diplomacy and war, the Chimú Empire of Pre-Columbian South America spread to the north and south of the Moche valley of Peru. As the empire grew, so did its capital city Chan Chan. Here master artisans, some drawn from the conquered territories of the Lambayeque culture, crafted burial ornaments of finely hammered gold for the royal and aristocratic dead. Occasionally these effigy objects took the form of human appendages (arms, hands, and legs) modeled in gold, wood, or silver. Although the precise function of these objects is not known, many of them bear tattoos that parallel those found on Chimú mummies. Because human skin is impermanent and these funerary objects were not, perhaps the tattoos were protective in nature and helped carry the deceased safely into the afterlife? Or maybe they allowed the ancestral dead to help recognize the interred person in the afterlife? Could it be they were symbols of virility or fertility which helped sustain the dead in the afterworld? These and other ideas are possible. A prominent tattoo design seen here consists of several bands decorated with naturalistic and anthropomorphic waves. These waves recall the Sea, an all-powerful deity whose resources sustained life on the coast but whose seasonal El Niño events could spell disaster and death. The cruciform solar motif could be associated with growth, life, and regeneration. Maybe you, the reader, can offer other interpretations? #chimu #peru #precolumbian #ancienttattoo #solar #sun #waves #lambayeque #chanchan #turquoise #gold #tattoos #tattooing #afterlife #mummy #mummytattoo #mummies #funeraryart #ritual #death #reincarnation
  • In 2013, I interviewed facially tattooed Neets’aii Gwich’in linguist and writer Adeline Raboff of Arctic Village, Alaska, for my 2014 book Tattoo Traditions of Native North America re: Gwich’in tattoo history. In the 1980s, she self-stitched her chin with three lines because there were no living tattoo artists from her tribe. She had them redone by machine in 1996 because they were not dark. Her lines represented the achievement of raising a family and taking responsibility for her children. Raboff told me: “Tattooing stopped very early [among our people] because of Anglican missionary Robert McDonald,” who arrived in the 1860s. “He forbade tattooing and men’s braided hair, both of which demonstrated a person’s stature in the community,” she said. “McDonald also discouraged the harangue, which is a really important part of ceremony, where people recounted genealogies and relatedness to different families.” Indeed, the harangue formed a significant part of the traditional Gwich’in code of warrior behavior and these oratorical displays not only testified to a person’s ancestry, but also their individual visions, spirituality, and personal actions. “McDonald did everything in his power to squelch this custom, because he thought it glorified the past and shamanic beliefs,” Raboff said. Tattoos on the chin of Gwich’in individuals were tribal markers. “There were nine Gwich’in groups in the interior, and they all had different tattoos to show what Tribe they belonged to, especially women. The width and spacing of the chin markings is what differentiates the Tribe.” This drawing shows a Gwich’in warrior ca. 1847. He bears red facial paint which partially covers his blue-black tattoos on the chin and cheeks. Raboff told me tattoo pigment was usually derived from soot, but a black lichen was also used. #gwichin #yukon #yukonterritory #canada #alaska #athapaskan #indigenous #missionaries #tattoo #tattoos #blackworktattoo #braids #oratory #orator #tribaltattoo #warrior #warriors #anglican #chin #colonizer #colonizers #visions #spirituality #genealogy #decolonization
  • Female Inuit hand tattooing is related to a powerful deity, the “mistress of marine animals,” who controlled the movements of all sea mammals. Known by various names (Sedna, Nuliajuq, Taliilajuq, Takannaaluk, etc.), she controlled the sea animals because they originally sprang from her severed finger joints. Many Inuit peoples believed that the souls of the dead must pass her house on their journey to the afterlife. If a woman was not properly tattooed (or not tattooed at all) on her hands, Nuliajuk would become displeased and not grant them passage to the Land of the Blessed, a place of bounty. Historical drawings and photographs demonstrate that Inuit women across the Canadian Arctic often had one or two (sometimes three) black bands of tattooing on their first and second finger joints, precisely in the same locations where Nuliajuq’s fingers were cut off in myth to give rise to the sea mammals. A prehistoric female mummy of the Old Bering Sea culture of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, radiocarbon dated to 1600 years ago also has two rows of tattooed dots just below her knuckles, as did the digits of Ammassalimniut women of East Greenland. I believe there is a connection between all of these forms of finger tattooing (see my 2014 book), because these ancient tattooing traditions served as a kind of sacrifice to Her and perhaps the game animals (they are attracted to beautiful things), while also helping to recount the ancient tale in order to keep it in collective memory. drawing: Kitlinermiut tattoo styles for women. After Jenness (1946). #sedna #tattoo #women #goddess #arctic #sea #afterlife #copperinuit #nunavut #stlawrenceisland #oldberingsea #eastgreenland #historyoftattooing #ancienttattoos #blackwork #alaska #drawing
  • Apo Kayan woman of Kalimantan, photographed by Hendrik Tillema, ca. 1930. Collection of Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden. An Apo Kayan woman's social position is indicated by the number of rings around the calves of her legs, and this woman is of a very high status. Curling V-shaped designs running down her legs are "tiger's faces" (silong lejau), a symbol of the aristocracy believed to repel evil spirits. Just above the rings circling her calf is another apotropaic motif (kalong kelunan) representing an ancestral face. Curlicue bands below the calf lines represent the tuba root, which was used as a poison to stupefy fish but also was believed to repel evil spirits. These hand-tapped tattoo motifs were applied via stencil blocks (klinge) carved by men, but all Apo Kayan tattooing was performed by expert women who worked under one of two tutelary deities. These patron goddesses of tattoo artists were provided with blood sacrifices (eg, chickens) and other offerings (beads, etc.) prior to the tattooing. A dayong, male or female priest, was also present, and through ritual prayers asked the tattoo deity to ensure the client would not feel pain and the artist would create beautiful designs. The dayong was paid a gong, sword, or a quantity of heirloom beads for their services. Upon completion of the tattooing, other prayers were offered so that no harm would come to the tattoo client, since her bloody wounds could perhaps attract a lurking evil spirit. It was important to keep a small sliver of V-shaped leg skin unmarked, as in this photo. If these areas were marked, the Apo Kayan believed a woman would be denied entrance into the afterlife and her legs would become infected with gangrene. Apo Kayan tattooing (tedek) was universal. Women believed that tattoo designs would become "torches" after death, leading them through the darkness of the afterlife to the communities of their beloved ancestors. #borneo #kalimantan #kayan #dayak #tattoo #tattoos #tattoowoman #tattoowomen #afterlife #spirits #ancestors #blackwork #blackworktattoo #blackworktattooartist #indonesia #indonesian #legs #leg #femaleartist #women #woman
  • From antiquity to the present, Tattoo Uprising reveals the artistic and historical roots of today's tattoo explosion. This sweeping overview explores Biblical references and early Christian practices before moving on to the voyages of Captain James Cook and finally to our modern day, ever-evolving use of the tattoo in the Western world. Alan Govenar's new documentary "Tattoo Uprising" will screen in New York City on September 13, then travels to other North American venues. It's a project nearly 40 years in the making. Check out the trailer here and a PR blurb from the website...please pass it along>>>! Alan Govenar began work on this film in 1980 while finishing his infamous short documentary Stoney Knows How. Tattoo Uprising features some of the most extraordinary people of the tattoo world including Ed Hardy, Stoney St. Clair, Cynthia Witkin, Calamity Jane, Anne de Hey! and more, as well as an unforgettable appearance by filmmaker Werner Herzog, who allows a rare glimpse at his Ed Hardy tattoo. The film was shot in part by the late legendary filmmaker Les Blank, who also appears on camera. Opens September 13, 2019 in New York City at the Cinema Village. Two days Only! September 13 + 15, 2019 at the Metro Cinema in Edmonton, Alberta. One week only! October 11 - 17, 2019 at the Lake Worth Playhouse in Lake Worth, FL. Theatrical Premiere: July 12 - 18, 2019 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, CA To watch the trailer visit: http://firstrunfeatures.com/tattoouprising.html #tattoos #tattooed #tattooedgirls #tattoodo #documentary #newyorkcity #tattoohistory #film #wernerherzog #edhardy #tatuajes #tatouage #tatuagem
  • The Berbers of North Africa believe that supernatural energy (Baraka) resides in all things, including the saliva of the tattoo artist who was female. Tattoo designs hold this sacred energy, and were used to deal with evil spirits (jnoun), cure illnesses, and increase a woman’s fertility. Tattoos were often placed near body orifices (eyes, mouth, nose, navel) or surfaces believed vulnerable to spirits. For example, tattoos usually marked the feet to protect women from spirits entering their body through the earth. An elderly woman interviewed about 1920 said that a woman without tattoo marks on her left heel would not have children. Other designs on the ankles, hands, and face were believed to protect the person from the Evil Eye. Motifs, like crosses, horns or others ending in sharp points were thought to “pierce” the Evil Eye. Tattooed diamond-shaped lozenges, often placed on the forehead between the eyes of girls, were believed to reflect the Evil Eye back towards the person who cast it. Other tattoos were derived from the Berber alphabet, Tifinagh, including symbols of tools, sea products, and constellations. Palm tree motifs (nahla) on women, often in the form of chin markings (siyala), were thought to induce fertility - they also continued down the torso to the navel. The origin of the symbol is identified with the ancient Carthaginian goddess Tanit. Tattoo artists were usually old women who pricked designs into the skin with needles dipped in a liquid pigment of lampblack mixed with juice from fava bean leaves. Because spirits disliked (sharp) objects associated with the blacksmith’s fire (needles, daggers, sickles, swords), not to mention sooty pigment derived from fire, needles and pigments themselves offered purificatory and protective potential. Drawings: 1) Protective hand tattoos, Tunisia, 1920. 2) Palm tree tattoos, Tunisia, 1920. 3) Chaouian Berber tattoos, Algeria, 1915. 4) Leg tattoos, Morocco, 1920. #northafrica #africa #women #fire #tattoos #crosses #magic #baraka #sun #tunisia #morocco #algeria #evileye #spirits
  • For more than 1000 years on St. Lawrence Island (SLI, Alaska) and the neighboring shores of Siberia, Chukchi, Maritime Chukchi, and Yupik women received three tightly grouped tattoo lines on their outer cheeks for potential infertility issues. Similar groupings of lines appear on the cheeks of prehistoric ivory “doll heads” (see pic) dating to the Punuk culture (800-1200AD). In 2001 Estelle Oozevaseuk, a Yupik elder from SLI, told me a story about Ayngaangaawen, a young woman. She refused to get her facial tattoos because of the pain associated with stitching them into the skin; skilled women performed the tattooing. As a result, she could not bear healthy children, and they died as infants. Distraught over her loss, she finally agreed to become tattooed, and “when she got some marks she had children,” Estelle said, and they lived into adulthood. The face was a primary location of amuletic tattoos because the spirits of infertility and disease attempted to enter the body through major body openings (mouth, nose, ear, etc.). Tattooing pigment - soot mixed with human urine from elderly women - shut down these passageways, since both substances were disliked by spirits. Soot was associated with Fire. Sometimes female shamans, who were also tattooists or consultants, applied these tattoos on the body or they stitched-in other marks that had medicinal value. Examples from SLI: a mark over the sternum to cure heart trouble; small straight marks over each eye to cure vision issues; for headaches “always” a small tattoo in front of the ears. Photos: Ancient Punuk ivory doll-head with dotted fertility lines on cheek. Chukchi woman (ca. 1900) with fertility lines. SLI Yupik elder Anna Oktokiyuk (1997) with fertility lines and other tattoos. For more info, see our book (2018) “Ancient Ink: The Archaeology of Tattooing,” pp. 262-285. #medicine #therapy #tattoos #ink #stitch #women #alaska #siberia #fire #shamanism #shamanichealing #blackwork #healing #yupik

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