Tattoo Art

Are You makeing These Mistakes With Your Maori Tattoo Design? 

From Eastern Polynesia to New Zealand.

Tattooing came from Eastern Polynesian culture to New Zealand according to archaeological evidence.

In archaeological sites in New Zealand and Eastern Polynesia, the bone chisels used for tattooing can be found. The Maori practiced tattooing for sure, but as per the Moriori people, there are no evidences.

Tattoo maori designs Click here.

In the earlier times of New Zealand, the early sites can showcase the widest chisel blades, leading to proving the theory that there might be a preference towards rectilinear tattoo patterns.

The most sacred part of the body is the head, and tattoo craftsmen or “tohunga-ta-oko” are considered very tapu persons because tattooing causes blood to run them. Persons who were not tattooed are considered unimportant people, while all Maori of high ranks were tattooed.

Many rites and rituals occur at puberty, including tattooing. In addition to making a warrior attractive to women, the tattoo practice marked both rites of passage and important events in a person’s life.

For the facial tattoo, sexual intimacy and eating of solids are forbidden, this are some of the prohibitions during the process of tattooing. Due to swollen skin, liquid food and water was drained through a wooden funnel to be sure that there will not be contact with any contaminating product. Until the wounds heal, this is the only way the tattooed person can eat.

Maori Tribal Tattoos Click here.

The full faced tattoo was very time consuming, and a good tattoo craftsman would carefully study a person’s bone structure before commencing his art.

This process was extremely excruciating, agonizing and long, so to speed up the healing process, leaves from the native Karaka tree were placed over the swollen tattoo cuts. Warriors get to have just a slight time to recuperate because there was so much war going on. To help soothe the pain, flute music and chant poems were performed during the tattooing process.

Even though at that time the tattoos were mainly facial, swirling double spiral tattoos on both buttocks can be seen in North Auckland warriors, they often even lead down their legs until the knee.

The women were not as extensively tattooed as the men. Their upper lips were outlined, usually in dark blue. They also have very finely notched nostrils. The chin moko was always the most popular, and continued to be practiced even into the 1970s.

One thing that is annoying many traditional maoris as mentioned is the stealing of these tattoo designs and the reason that it is annoying them, is the fact that they foresee a day when the maori will have lost everything, they believe they have lost their land, now they are loosing something that makes the maori for who they are today, and that is the maori through their tattoo designs, they feel that this is the last thing to go in terms of spirituality before they have lost all to the west, which is quite sad as all cultures on earth are only bound as a culture through their individual rituals and unique flair such as tattoos in the maoris case.

Maori Tattoo Designs Click here.