Draft:Indigenous tattoo practices
Traditional tattooing practices vary greatly across the world.
Africa
Traditional tattooing practices existed among the Malagasy of Madagascar, but had largely lost favor by the 1950s. Other African ethnic groups with traditional tattooing practices include the Afar and Menit, Fang, Fula, Makonde, and Yoruba[5]: 219
Berbers
Berber communities in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia practice tattooing on the arms, hands, face, neck, and collarbones.[5]: 217 [6][7] It is thought the tradition in these communities goes back several thousand years.[8] Tattoos serve multiple purposes, including decoration, tribal affiliation, symbols of life transitions, and medicinal and fertility purposes.[6][7][8][9] The practice is mainly limited to women,[7] although some men receive tattoos for healing or medicinal purposes; these tattoos tend to be smaller and more discreet.[6][8][9] Traditionally, girls would receive their first facial tattoo at puberty.[10]Symbols used include the yaz, representing freedom,[7] nature symbols like suns, animals, and plants,[9] and geometric symbols like lines, dots, triangles, circles, half circles, and diamonds.[8][9][10]
The tradition has declined due to the influence of Islam, in which tattooing is forbidden, and specifically a wave of stricter Salafism in North Africa in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[6][11] Berber tattoo artists both in North Africa and in the diaspora are continuing the practice.[12][7]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Tigray_woman_with_tattoo_%28Ethiopia%29.jpg/180px-Tigray_woman_with_tattoo_%28Ethiopia%29.jpg)
Copts
Coptic tattoos often consist of three lines, three dots and two elements, reflecting the Trinity. The tools used had an odd number of needles to bring luck and good fortune.[13]: 87 Many Copts have the Coptic cross tattooed on the inside of their right arm.[14][15]: 145 This may have been influenced by a similar practice tattooing religious symbols on the wrists and arms during the Ptolemaic period.[13]: 91
Asia
Bedouin Arabs
16th century Ottoman scholars described the tattoo as very common among the Arabs.[16] Tattoos among Bedouins have long been documented and continue until the present, especially among women. The tattoos are usually done at home by other women, and symbolize personal milestones and community history and identification. The tattoos are often made by indentation and insertion of indigo dye on the face, ankles, wrists and other body parts. They are also considered to ward of the evil eye and forces, and protect the person, with some attributing healing and medical properties, similar to Ancient Egypt.[17]
Kurds
Traditional Kurdish tattoos are called deq.[5]: 216 Facial tattoos are popular among the Kurdish people in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran, mostly in the form of dotted tattoos on the chin. They are most common among women aged 60 and above. Younger women often have more minimalist tattoos, such as a dot on the cheek or chin. These tattoos are often done at home with a sewing needle and soot filled into the puncture. Many of the tattos depict symbols from nature, such as plants, animals and stars. Tattoos between the eye are meant to protect from the evil eye.[17]
India
Europe
Traditional tattooing practices in Europe include sicanje (Roman Catholic Croats).
North America
A number of indigenous nations in North America historically and currently practiced tattooing. These tattoo practices include tavlugun (Inupiaq), yidiiltoo (Hän Gwich’in).
Yupik[19]
Inuit
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Eskimofrauen_mit_ihren_J%C3%BCngsten_von_King%27s_Island%2C_Alaska.jpg/220px-Eskimofrauen_mit_ihren_J%C3%BCngsten_von_King%27s_Island%2C_Alaska.jpg)
The Inuit have a deep history of tattooing. In Inuktitut, the Inuit language of the eastern Canadian Arctic, the word kakiniit translates to the English word for tattoo[20]: 196 and the word tunniit means face tattoo.[21] Among the Inuit, some tattooed female faces and parts of the body symbolize a girl transitioning into a woman, coinciding with the start of her first menstrual cycle.[20]: 197 [21] A tattoo represented a woman's beauty, strength, and maturity.[20]: 197 This was an important practice because some Inuit believed that a woman could not transition into the spirit world without tattoos on her skin.[21]The Inuit have oral traditions that describe how the raven and the loon tattooed each other giving cultural significance to both the act of tattooing and the role of those animals in Inuit culture and history.[20]: 10 European missionaries colonized the Inuit in the beginning of the 20th century and associated tattooing as an evil practice[20]: 196 "demonizing" anyone who valued tattoos.[21]
Alethea Arnaquq-Baril has helped Inuit women to revitalize the practice of traditional face tattoos through the creation of the documentary Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos, where she interviews elders from different communities asking them to recall their own elders and the history of tattoos.[21] The elders were able to recall the traditional practice of tattooing which often included using a needle and thread and sewing the tattoo into the skin by dipping the thread in soot or seal oil, or through skin poking using a sharp needle point and dipping it into soot or seal oil.[21] Hovak Johnston has worked with the elders in her community to bring the tradition of kakiniit back by learning the traditional ways of tattooing and using her skills to tattoo others.[22]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/T%C3%A4towierung_Inuitfrau_1654.jpg/220px-T%C3%A4towierung_Inuitfrau_1654.jpg)
Oceania
Traditional tattoo practices in Oceania include batok (the Philippines), malu and peʻa (Samoa), Rapa Nui tattooing (Rapa Nui), tā moko (Aotearoa/New Zealand), and tatu (Marquesas Islands).
Melanesia
Traditionally, Melanesian tattoos were primarily for women, as seen in the Fijian traditional of veiqia. Women from Papua New Guinea received geometric tattoos across the body.[5]: 316
Micronesia
In Micronesia, tattooing done on both men and women, and was primarily done on the torso, arms, and legs. Women's tattoos were tied to marriage and childbearing. Common designs were frigate birds, dolphins and sharks, stripes, and arches on the back (seen mainly in Yap).[5]: 314
References
- ^ Fiksa, Radomir (2022-07-17). 2. Lexikon of tribal tattoos. Radomír Fiksa. ISBN 978-80-87525-58-6.
- ^ Dauge-Roth, Katherine; Koslofsky, Craig (2023). Stigma: Marking Skin in the Early Modern World. Penn State Press. ISBN 978-0-271-09588-2.
- ^ Sapiens (2019-03-13). "A New Generation Is Reviving Indigenous Tattooing". SAPIENS. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ Odle, Mairin (November 2022). Under the Skin: Tattoos, Scalps, and the Contested Language of Bodies in Early America. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-1-5128-2317-2.
- ^ a b c d e Friedman, Anna Felicity; Elkins, James (2015-01-01). The World Atlas of Tattoo. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-21048-4.
- ^ a b c d Achlim, Yasmina (2022-02-09). "Amazigh tattoos are fading, is it too late to revive them?". www.newarab.com. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
- ^ a b c d e El Gahami, Fatima (8 October 2023). "Tattoo artist connects a new generation to North African Indigenous culture". CBC. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Berber tattoos on the decline in Morocco". Africanews. 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
- ^ a b c d Bendaas, Yasmin. "Algeria's tattoos: Myths and truths". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
- ^ a b "AP PHOTOS: In Morocco, tribal tattoos fade with age, Islam". Associated Press. 2018-10-25. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
- ^ "Amazing Tribal Tattoos at Risk of Disappearing in N. Africa | Al Bawaba". www.albawaba.com. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
- ^ Abidellaoui, Jihed (29 September 2022). "Tunisian tattoo artist revives Berber designs for new generation". Reuters. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
- ^ a b Tassie, Geoffrey J. (2003). "Identifying the practice of tattooing in ancient Egypt and Nubia". Papers from the Institute of Archaeology. 14: 85–101. doi:10.5334/pia.200.
- ^ "Deep Thoughts: Coptic Orthodox Tattoo". Mojoey.blogspot.com. 19 January 2005. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
- ^ Jones, C. P. (1987). "Stigma: Tattooing and branding in Graeco-Roman antiquity". Journal of Roman Studies. 77: 139–155. doi:10.2307/300578. JSTOR 300578. S2CID 162719864.
- ^ Kafadar, Cemal (2007). "Janissaries and other riffraff of Ottoman Istanbul: Rebels without a cause?". Identity and Identity Formation in the Ottoman World.
- ^ a b "Partridge eyes and stars: Traditional tattoos of Amazigh, Bedouin and Kurdish women". Middle East Eye.
- ^ "'A marker of identity': Inside the world of India's indigenous tattoo traditions". The Indian Express. 2022-10-27. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ Dunham, Mike (2011-04-05). "Alaska artist is a walking canvas of traditional Siberian Yupik tattoos". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ a b c d e Oosten, Jarich; Laugrand, Frédéric (January 2016). "The Bringer of Light: The Raven in Inuit Tradition". Polar Record. 42 (222): 187–204. doi:10.1017/S0032247406005341. S2CID 131055453.
- ^ a b c d e f Arnaquq-Baril, Alethea (2011). "Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos". Cinema Politica. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
- ^ Johnston, Angela Hovak (2017). Reawakening Our Ancestors' Lines: Revitalizing Inuit Traditional Tattooing. Canada: Inhabit Media.
Further reading
- ^ Krutak, Lars F. (2014). Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity. Stichting LM Publishers. ISBN 978-94-91394-09-6.