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 Maori Tattoo Methods
Adapted the technique that they had already evolved for wood-carving: a bone-cutter tool that was first used to shape wood was now employed upon skin. This was called uhi – essentially a tattoo chisel – that cut directly into the skin. Incisions were made and then ink was rubbed into the open cuts, or added to the incisions with a new serrated uhi that had been dipped in pigment.
Unusually, these tattoos caused the skin to heal with the groove of the wounds intact; scars usually tend to heal smooth or raised, and the prevention of this occurrence was thought to possibly have something to do with the ink used, involving a particular process of manufacture and a special caterpillar species. A tattoo done by this method was undoubtedly hugely painful, and many of the rituals surrounding the practice seem designed as useful distractions for the subjects! Music and chanting were integral elements, for example. Maori tattooing methods changed in the 1700s when European explorers landed in New Zealand with supplies of metal.  Ancient Tattoo methods of Borneo!
The ritual and symbolic significance of tattooing from ancient Borneo is evidenced by the meticulous way in which they packaged and presented their tools. There is for example a “tattoo box” artifact, a carved figurine of a hippo, carrying a man, a woman and a basket on its back: the basket would have held the mixed pigment, and the body of the hippo contained all the rest of the equipment needed to tattoo. This included ‘stencil stamps’ and a needle and tap tool. The needle was a wooden stick with a needle emerging from it’s top at a ninety degree angle; a second, plain stick was tapped onto this stick in order to insert the pigment dipped needle into the skin. Credits: Article - Rachel Kennedy Photo - Tribal Artifacts |
