If they believe that elements of their art should be left alone, that feeling warrants respect. Many of these cultures are alive and thriving. “I’ve always been interested in sharing the traditional art of tatau with other people.”Īs with many things to consider as a visitor in a destination, it ultimately comes down to respecting the wishes of the Indigenous people. It’s cultural, and not fashion,” he says. When people understand that there’s always a meaning and story behind Polynesian tattoos, Samuela believes they spend more time thinking about what they want and how they want to memorialize their journey. ( This woman sailed the Pacific without maps, reviving a Polynesian tradition.) Being intentional It’s only the outside cover of the book that makes up the whole person.” People don’t automatically understand your story just by looking at your tattoo. “The pain and symbolism in the act of the tattoo is very internal, and what you see isn’t necessarily what you get. “Every tattoo I have took me three years-from the time I started thinking about it, to the time it took to find the right artist, to talking with that artist about the symbolism behind it,” says Tahiarii Yoram Pariente, a Polynesian cultural advisor and conservator based on Raʻiātea. It should be a representation of your individual journey and accomplishments. While it’s acceptable as a traveler to be inspired by something, it helps to have a connection to the design you ultimately choose-after all, you’ll be living with it for the foreseeable future. Additionally, different island groups have long traditions about where tattoos are placed on the body, like Tongan warriors, whose tattoos were placed from the waist to the knees. Because of tattoo’s history as a canvas for family lineage and accomplishments, there remain designs that are traditionally guarded for appropriate use that are tapu, or forbidden, for others. While there are online sources that list the meaning of different images and patterns, much of the information isn’t accurate, which is why it’s essential to communicate with the artist about the purpose behind the tattoo and what you want represented.įor many people, their tattoos have a deep meaning and are personally connected to them. ( This former Buddhist monk spreads positivity through his tattoo art.) That freehand sketch allows the tattooist the flexibility to shape a one-of-a-kind composition as they go. Instead of first drawing a tattoo stencil on paper and transferring it onto the skin, many Polynesian artists sketch the design directly on the body with a pen. I explain that as I adapt the design so it corresponds to the client’s narrative.” Replicating something that’s personalized is a form of appropriation-like stealing someone else’s story. If the client shows me a picture, wanting that exact design, I won’t copy it. ![]() ![]() “As they talk, I’m already making the design in my head. “I ask clients about themselves, their own story, and what they want their tattoo to represent,” says Eddy Tata, a Marquesan tattoo artist who practices his work aboard the Aranui 5, the half-passenger, half-freighter ship that sails from Tahiti to the Marquesas, Tuamotu, and Society Islands. On the cover of the July 2022 issue of National Geographic, Quannah Rose Chasinghorse-a model with Hän Gwich’in and Oglala Lakota heritage-is photographed near the red rock formations in Tse’Bii’Ndzisgaii, or Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park (the portrait by Kiliii Yüyan is part of a feature package on the Native sovereignty movement). Indigenous tattoo traditions have recently become more visible: In 2021, a Māori journalist became the first person with traditional face markings to host a primetime news program on New Zealand television. The Polynesian Triangle includes more than a thousand individual islands in the South Pacific Ocean forming several dozen cultural groups, most of which have their own distinct tattoo traditions.Īcross the world, tattoos have become more popular-no longer a personal interest to be covered up at work. The legacy of Polynesian tatau, the onomatopoeic name for the practice of tattoo, began 3,000 years ago-the designs as diverse as the people who wear them.
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