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Tattoo Anthropologist

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July 1, 2013

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Previous article SHAMANIC SKIN: THE ART OF MAGICAL TATTOOS

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  • Had a great time working as the Resident Tattoo Historian for the pilot series INK EXPEDITION. Here is a snapshot of episode 1 - Japan. Would love to see a Season 2!!?? https://www.facebook.com/inkexpedition/
  • TODAY is the last day to support our documentary "Patterns of Life." We have eclipsed our funding goal - THANK YOU!! - but additional contributions will be carefully invested to make the project the best it can be. For more info, please visit: https://www.patternsof.life/ XOXO!
  • In this clip, Wassim Razzouk speaks about the importance of pilgrimage tattoos. His family's tattoo business extends back more than 700 years. Wassim is tattooing my friend and tattoo artist Yasmine Bergner. For more info, please visit: www.larskrutak.com/the-razzouks-tattooing-for-700-years.
  • Tackling the history of tattoo in 19 minutes, Netflix’s ‘Explained’ is an animated documentary that explores the ancient art of traditional and contemporary tattooing. I was humbled to be a featured guest along with my old friend Elle Mana-Festin (Spiritual Journey Tattoo), Chuck Eldridge (Tattoo Archive), tattoo artist Stephanie Tamez (Saved Tattoo), and legendary tattoo master Horiyoshi III.
  • 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

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