Twenty-four-year-old Catt Gallinger has always loved seeing her friends. Their eyes were different. Not because they sparkled, but because their eyes were not white. They had been permanently tattooed with the colour of their choice. Now Catt has chosen to do the same. She already had 25 tattoos on her body. She has chosen a pink shade to accentuate the green colour of her irises, even though black is the colour most often chosen for the whites of her eyebrows. A tattoo of the white of the eyelashes is not a classic tattoo. A mixture of dye and saline solution is slowly injected with a fine needle just below the surface of the conjunctiva. Things can go wrong quickly. In Catt’s case, it did.
After the tattoo, her eyesight had to be saved by surgery, and before that, her eyes were treated with steroid drops and antibiotics because her eyeballs had become severely swollen. Catta’s boyfriend, the tattoo artist, who convinced her that he knew the procedure to a T, forgot to use hydrochloric acid and injected the ink with a needle that was too thick and too fast.
In theory, it is possible to get a tattoo of the white eye without permanent damage; for example, Catta’s friends have had no problems. Yet there are many cases of infection or injury, even if they have not made the pages of the newspapers. The tattooist’s hand must be extremely steady so that the needle does not slip too deep into the eye, the ink must not be too thick and there must not be too much dye in the solution. It would be even better if the eye were tattooed by surgeons, which in rare cases, because of the effects of corneal disease, it is.
Tattooing of the white eye became fashionable ten years ago, but now the same tattoo artists who introduced it are warning of its undeniable dangers. Body adornment has clearly gone a step too far, after having sailed in relatively safe waters for millennia.
The ancient Egyptians, at least, were tattooed, as evidenced by female mummies dating back to around 2000 BC. In the modern era, tattoos were part of the avant-garde until the advent of Generation Y, or the young people born between 1980 and 2000, when they became almost commonplace. In America, it is estimated that at least 40% of young people from this generation have tattoos, and it is the same in Europe.
Between 2003 and 2009, the Germans noticed that the number of women in all age groups who wanted a tattoo doubled. Why? Perhaps because tattooing has also become a form of therapy: it is an attempt to express something that is important to the individual or to show belonging to a social group. Nevertheless, people often choose an image just because they like it, without even knowing what it expresses.
The first and last word is the tattooist’s
In contrast, Polynesians still know very well why they decorate their skin, but they have one of the longest tattooing traditions, dating back two millennia. Their tattoo artists were valued in the past and are valued today. As a rule, they were always men with an exceptional expertise in tattooing. They were equally familiar with the literal and figurative meanings of the designs they painted on the skin, and they knew where on the body to place them.
They were fully aware of the responsibilities that their work entailed. In fact, most often it was they who decided what kind of motif someone would have, and if they did not think an individual was suitable for a tattoo, they could calmly reject them. Sometimes, before the tattoo, they would also order the person to fast or go on a special diet, forbid some activity or other, so that their soul would be really clean on the day of the tattoo.
As tattooing used to be more or less restricted to the upper classes, the tattooist came to their home. He was entertained there until he had finished his work, which took almost three months. When he left, he was rewarded with a number of valuables, such as expensive carpets, wood or weapons in Samoa.
Tattooers were so wealthy, but their wealth came at a price. They often had to give up family and other close relationships to pursue their profession, and they also had to be careful about their lifestyle. If they offended the gods with it, they would be deprived of the gift of tattooing.
The way tattoos are applied has not changed much since Polynesia. First, the outline of the image was drawn on the skin with charcoal or coloured earth. Then the tattooist took needles in his hands. They were made of bird bone, tortoiseshell, bamboo or sometimes a shark’s tooth. He attached them to a wooden handle. Before that, he mixed the soot with various liquids, including oil, sugar cane juice, coconut milk or water, juices from other plants and ordinary water to make the dye. After that, the tattooing began.
More or less linear geometric motifs or dots were drawn on the skin, which ended up representing women, animals, birds and objects that came from the hands of humans. Each image had several meanings. Each of them depended on where on the body the tattoo was, how it fitted in with other tattoos and who the wearer was. It was usually up to the tattoo artist to decide what image was appropriate for whom and to explain the story behind it to the person.
In Samoa, the tradition of tattooing has been going on for 2000 years. The tattooing tools and the way of working have not changed much in the 2000 years of continuous Samoan tattooing tradition. The knowledge is still passed on from son to father. Today, although the technical details can be found on the internet, the locals still insist that the son must assist his father for several years before he can work on his own.
When he becomes a tattoo artist, he can also tattoo leaders who come from prominent families. In the old days, young leaders were ritually tattooed at the threshold of puberty, because without it they would not have been able to assume their role. The permanent markings on their bodies forever marked their endurance and their dedication to tradition, because ritual tattooing was extremely torturous.
The pain was extreme and the risk of death from infection was high, but tattooing was unavoidable. If anyone tried to resist, they risked being branded a coward and expelled from the clan. Those who could not endure the pain and gave in before the tattoo was finished carried the stain of shame with them throughout their lives.
Thus, few Samoans resisted tattooing, which covered the area from the waist down to the knees. Because the area was so large, tattooing was time-consuming. They started in the morning and finished at sunset, or when the man could no longer stand the pain. The next day everything started again, unless the skin became inflamed and they had to wait a few days for it to settle down. When the last puncture was made about three months after the start, the family held a party in honour of the new tattooist, although he could hardly attend the party, so sore was his body.
The official end of the test came when the oar broke in front of his feet, but his torment continued. The skin took months to heal. Family members and friends rinsed the new tattoo with salt water and massaged it to correct the imperfection. He could not do it himself. His skin was so sensitive that even walking and sitting caused him immense pain. The final image of the tattoo was visible within six months, and it took a year for the man to be in the condition he once was.
Tattoo for a man with a heart
Tupuola Savea was one of eight brothers and five sisters born in the village of Siumu in Samoa. After graduating from college in 1967, he decided it was time for a tattoo. For him, it symbolized a commitment to serve the people of his village and country, his family and his church. His father was a tattoo artist and he decided to become his apprentice.
“In August, I went to the Big Island of Hawaii with my mum and dad. So, I went with them and watched people lying down, screaming and moaning as they got tattooed,” he explained his preparations for the big test. He was undaunted by the sight of it all. I decided to get a tattoo “because I thought it was pointless to help with the tattooing and I don’t have one myself”.
He was also influenced by the words of his grandmother, who mentioned to him several times in his childhood that she wanted him to have a tattoo because it would “make him a gentleman and a man with a heart”. He first asked his father for permission. When he got it, he told his mother. She cried. She thought he was too young for such an ordeal. Even his older brothers did not have tattoos. But Tupuola knew that there comes a time for everything: if he doesn’t get a tattoo now, he never will. His mother relented.
“When I got my tattoo, I felt like a man. Like a gentleman. I felt responsible for my family, for everything a gentleman can do. That’s why it comes from my heart.” And because it comes from the heart, he believes it is permissible to have one, even though “supposedly the Bible says not to”.
His tattoo was done by his father. First he drew the outline of the design on his skin, then he gave him instructions. Second, don’t shout. And third, if you move, I will hit you with a stick. I said, ‘All right, all right’. I didn’t shout. I felt in my heart that this is what I wanted. When I felt the pain, I pushed it inside. I didn’t scream it out.”
Because his father was the tattoo artist, he relaxed as his body got used to the pain. He even fell asleep now and then. People nearby “wondered how I could sleep. I believe God was with me all the time.”
About a year after the tattoo, he became a soldier. He was captured by the Vietnamese. “They started to get angry with me and tried to scratch my tattoo off.” He managed to escape and return home, but the next year he was back in Vietnam and again he was caught, along with five comrades. They were imprisoned in a bamboo hut in a swampy area. “They took off our clothes. Suddenly, they got at me again. What is this?” They tried to scratch his tattoo again.
When their commander heard about her, he demanded that Savea be brought to headquarters. There, he had to spin around on his axis while the soldiers tried to scratch his tattoo. Finally, the commander just realised that it was not going to work. “When I die, I will have to carry it to my grave,” Savea explained. The commander became curious. Where are you from, he asked. From Samoa. He explained that he was in Vietnam to serve America. They laughed out loud. Then they wanted him to serve them.
“I never went back to the mud where my comrades were, even though I was there for almost two and a half years. They gave me a good position and I slept on the bunk.” He felt guilty about this. He had lived well, but some American soldiers had suffered as Vietnamese prisoners for ten years.
“Some Vietnamese had the feeling that I was one of them,” he explained why he was able to borrow the comrades’ visits. When he first came to them, there were four of them in a bamboo hut in the middle of a swamp and one in a cave. He asked the commander if he could let him go, because it was better if the boys were together. He let him go.
Because of the tattoo that so impressed them, he was occasionally allowed to bring medicine and food to his friends, and sometimes even beer. “And for that I thank God. Without my tattoo I would never have come home. It wasn’t the guns that killed, it was the diseases that killed there. I think my tattoo saved me.”
His wife has since been informed that he has died. “When she heard that the prisoners were returning to the United States, she didn’t believe I was still alive. And she didn’t believe that I was among them. I went back to Honolulu and looked for her. Then I went back [to the barracks] and they gave me my wife’s new address.” He found her in Honolulu. “She didn’t believe I was still alive. My little son didn’t know who I was. He was seven years old when I came back. He was only four months old when I left.”
A tattoo saved Sava’s life. He had not thought of this possibility when he decided to get it, but he knew the Samoan saying that women have children and men have tattoos. Only it wasn’t entirely true. They tattooed women too.
Although, like men, women’s tattoos covered their thighs, they were smaller, so tattooing was not as unbearably painful. For Samoan women, however, the arms were also important. If a woman wanted to serve the local intoxicating drink to the gathered people during the tattooing ceremony, her arms had to be tattooed. And since serving at such an event was one of the greatest honours in Samoan culture, women were willing to suffer a lot to do it.
A painting, my decoration
The Maori of New Zealand also had to endure a lot. Because the head was the most important part of their body, they decorated it with intricate tattoos called moko. Each tattoo was unique and eloquent. It revealed, among other things, the status of the man whose face it covered, his military rank, who his ancestors were and what his abilities were. In fact, it was a kind of identity card or aesthetic code on the face. The pattern and location of a tattoo on the face, for example, could also be used to deduce which area its owner came from.
The power of tattoos was so great that the Maori also used them as a signature when signing official documents at a time when Europeans were coming to them. Yet underneath all these meanings was another, no less important: the tattoo was a status symbol and proof that a man had endured pain and survived.
The tattooing method was unique in the world, as the design was literally carved into the face. They used a sharp, bony chisel to make wounds in the skin 3 millimetres or more deep. Sometimes they even used the chisel to cut through a cheekbone or a nostril, even though they should not have done so.
When the first incision was made, the skin over the wound was rubbed with natural pigment with the fingers, although sometimes it was also applied with a chisel dipped in pigment. This was continued wound by wound until the tattoo was finished, which was often not until a year after it had begun. How the skin healed remains a mystery, but it certainly covered the tattoo and successfully sealed it.
Although similar motifs were used in Polynesia, only the Maori have spirals. The lines of colour on their faces were so soft and mimicked the human body. They could also be seen on the faces of warriors who, at various stages of their lives, had themselves ritually tattooed, except that for them the tattoo was also a kind of decoration, accentuating the facial features and making them more attractive to the opposite sex.
Women were also tattooed. They wore coloured ornaments under the lower lip and around the eyes to keep the skin from sagging and to keep them young, even though they were also tattooed to mark their transition from girl to woman. This practice was maintained until the 1970s, but began to disappear among men with the advent of Christianity.
The missionaries could not convince the Samoans that tattoos were the work of the devil, but they were more successful with the Maori, and full-face tattooing was slowly disappearing. Sometime in the 1920s, the last person to have a full-face tattoo died.
During the same period, the number of women choosing tattooing was increasing, but by then the chisel had been replaced by needles and tattooing was less dangerous and less painful.
Classic male face tattooing was revived sometime in the 1980s, but today most tattoo artists use a tattoo machine. They can work faster and produce much more precise designs.
While few Maori still choose to get tattoos to prove that they are Maori, most non-Maori see their painted faces as an expression of their Maori identity.
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Getting a tattoo for a better self-image
Even Californian attorney Mary Lynn Price had to explain to her friends a bit why she decided to go to the tattoo table at the age of 45. While tattoos covering a large area of the body had fascinated her for years, she probably wouldn’t have got hers if she hadn’t felt so bad about her body.
A few years ago, she became acutely ill and had to undergo emergency surgery. Her life was saved, but now she has a scar running across her abdomen. Every time she saw it in the mirror, she remembered the operation and the trauma she had suffered. She tried to put both out of her mind, but it was no use.
Then she read in a book about a woman who, after a mastectomy, decided to get a tattoo, “a very lovely flowering vine”. She started to think about getting a tattoo too. What image would be ideal for her? What does she like and what would cover the scar? She liked birds. She had been raising them for some time. She wanted a tattoo that would express something beautiful and amazing, something positive and constructive. A bird seemed to be made for her, and its wings could easily cover the scar that was stretching across her stomach.
She drew what she wanted to have, but she didn’t just go to the tattoo parlour. Tattoos are with you for life and the decision to get one requires careful thought, so she developed the idea slowly. She dug into books, read everything she could about tattoos, talked to people who had them and looked at thousands of pictures of the tattoos they had chosen.
It was also at that time that she got an interview with tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy. She had never heard of him before, and the black and white pictures of his tattoos were simply beautiful. If she decides to take this step, he will tattoo her, she decided, after thinking for a long time about how to find a good tattoo artist in the first place.
When the time came, she called him, sent him a sketch of her bird, he worked on it artistically and sent it back to her. She liked it and they had a deal. They just had to do the hard work, but it turned out to be neither hard nor painful. Mary felt the sting but not the pain.
The tattoo ended up being a bit more artistic than she had originally planned, but she still had no problem hiding it under her clothes. That was also her condition. Tattoos are often distracting in the workplace, or they can even put you out of a job. As a lawyer, she simply could not afford to get a tattoo.
Now people only see her when she’s in a swimsuit, but that’s her free time, so it doesn’t bother her. For her, the most important thing is that the memory of a traumatic experience has turned into something beautiful, something to look forward to. Now she is happy to look at her body again and she feels that she has become a slightly more mature woman by getting a tattoo.
Tattoo as an amulet
Thai monks once believed that a body covered from head to toe in magical symbols was protected from flying knives and arrows, and that nothing could pierce such protected skin. However, they believed that the protection only worked if the best tattooist chose the best tattoo and if the monks prayed constantly while they worked.
This type of traditional tattoo, once given to warriors, is called Sak Yant or Yantra, and is also attributed with other magical powers, such as healing, good luck and protection against evil.
Where and what kind of tattoo someone will get is nowadays usually decided by the monks, not because they want to, but because they are often visited by tourists who do not speak the language, so it is easier if they choose it for them.
There are thousands of motifs, but many of them depict animals. The tiger is the most popular among people, because whoever tattoos it on their body takes on the spirit of the tiger, which means that this spirit takes control of their life. For example, Angelina Jolie has a classic Thai tiger on her arm.
More often than not, the tattoo has no recognisable image, but is a reproduction of prayers, as these tattoos are most often done in shrines and temples. There they also make ink from snake venom, Chinese charcoal, palm oil and other ingredients that the monks do not want to disclose, but which are not harmful to humans.
This type of tattooing is, of course, much more painful than needle tattooing. The pain is sharp and deep, as traditional Sak Yant tattoo the skin with a long metal spur or with bamboo, which is sharpened at the end. The tip is dipped in dye and then the spike is driven into the skin by hand until the dots, which are placed side by side, reveal an image. In this type of tattooing, the skin resembles an embroidered tapestry.
But the conditions for tattooing are not what they used to be, when Thai monks had to undergo long training to find that space within themselves where no one could disturb them. It was only in this state and in a real space of perfect peace that they could direct their minds, bodies and hearts in such a way that the miraculous tattoo was created.
While working, they had to continuously recite a sutra, which they had to be able to choose from among the 108 existing sutras, and they were allowed to start working only when their hearts were purified of all egoistic motives. Only then could the tattoo be pure and act as a talisman.
There are many Thai tattoos, but those that attract luck, money and prosperity are said to be Buddhist. These are usually geometric and based on the image of a Buddha, a bow or some other Buddhist symbol. Tigers, dragons, lions, leopards, snakes and other animals also bring good luck, money and prosperity. All are sacred and bring good luck, but the tattoo is only complete when they are tattooed on the skin by a monk who recites sutras while working.
Thais also have a special tattoo for improving interpersonal relations, which is said to boost self-confidence and oratory skills. This tattoo is particularly painful as it is tattooed on the tongue.
A little less courage is needed to get a tattoo on the top of your head, which is said to “flood your head with the blessing that protects your soul”. But since the soul in the head rests not far from happiness, this tattoo could also be useful for business and relationships. In principle, however, all Thai tattoos are said to be more powerful the closer they are to the head.
The Great Warrior
While modern Thai tattoo artists draw on tradition, Chinese tattoo artists are breaking new ground. Most young tattooists have taught themselves the art and picked up the designs from the internet, which is why they are also predominantly westernised, although China actually has a very rich history of tattooing.
For example, legend tells of the famous 12th century general Yue Fei, who was famous not only for his military successes, but also for upholding extremely high ethnic standards.
He had just come of age when the enemy threatened China’s borders and the empire desperately needed soldiers. Yue Fei was faced with a dilemma: on the one hand he wanted to fight the invaders and defend his homeland, on the other he wanted to stay at home and look after his ageing mother. Torn between two equally strong Chinese values, he did not know what to do.
To encourage him, his mother told him to take off his shirt. She then tattooed four Chinese characters on his back: jing zhong bao guo, or loyally serving your country. Now he was able to fulfil his mother’s wish and at the same time do his duty to his country.
Tattooing is also mentioned in the Chinese novel Water Margin, one of the four classic novels of Chinese literature. It tells the story of 12th-century bandits and says that the bodies of three of the 108 companions were completely covered in tattoos.
As far back as 350 years ago, women from the Dulong group tattooed their faces. Because they lived along the Dulong River, they were often attacked by their neighbours and many were taken into slavery. In response to the attacks, they began to tattoo their faces. If they were uglier, they reasoned, they would be less likely to be raped. Over time, the risk of abduction diminished and disappeared with modern times, but the tradition has survived.
Today, the faces of girls aged 12 or 13 are tattooed to symbolically mark their transition from girlhood to adulthood. By Western standards, they are by no means women at that age, but another Chinese people, the Dai, in ancient times began tattooing their children as early as 5 or 6 years old. Today, they mark their adulthood in this way at the age of 15 or 16.
This is when girls get tattoos on the inside of their arms or tiny dots between their eyebrows. As tattoos symbolise strength and fertility in men, they should be done in such a way as to accentuate the muscles. There are no traditional designs for this, but wild beasts such as the dragon and the tiger are the most commonly used.
Tattoos have also always been at home on Hanian Island, where locals also got tattoos when they were supposedly adults, between the ages of 13 and 14. The girl was first tattooed on her neck, throat and face, which took about four days, maybe five. Three years later, their legs and arms were tattooed, but not their hands. Only married women were allowed to have tattoos on their hands, and it was not considered proper for an unmarried woman to have them.
Men were tattooed much less, with only three blue rings on their wrists, supposedly for health reasons. In much of China today they would be considered obscene, because although General Yue Fei was famous for his service to his country, the Chinese have long been reluctant to get tattoos.
The Imperial Court even chose them as a special punishment, tattooing criminals on their faces before sending them into exile. If they returned, everyone would know immediately that they were criminals, so this type of punishment was called Ci Pei, or tattoo/exile.
By the time of the Cultural Revolution in 1949, tattoos had already been linked to criminal gangs and were banned by the Communist Party. As a result, tattoos are still taboo for older Chinese, who consider them ugly, a symbol of the lower classes and an insult to the family.
Wherever they are in the world, tattoos seem to be regaining popularity, even if they are still accompanied by mistrust and disapproval in many places.
