Flash Art or Mind-Body Connection?
Maori Tattoo Traditions Respect Process As Much as Design
In Polynesian cultures, the experience of giving and receiving body art can be as important as the final result.
A “flash” tattoo is something you might pick up on the street. It is a design (original or not) in a shop window that you can have copied onto your skin. But is that really what you want?
A related article on suite 101 suggests a respectful approach to choosing a tattoo design and tattoo artist, given the importance of body art to indigenous cultures in the South Pacific and elsewhere. This article discusses in more detail the significance of the tattooing process.
In an essay in Being Bodies (Boston: Shambhala, 1997), Julie Henderson laments the western experience of the body as an “expensive product”. Helena Norberg-Hodge observes in the same book that globalisation, by weakening the connection between humanity and the natural world, has assisted in “society’s denial of the bodily experience”.
Process in the Tradition of Maori Moko
In contrast to the “flash” approach. the practice of many New Zealand Maori body artists is based on traditions and cultural principles around not only tattoo design but the actual experience of ornamenting skin. For example, there should be much prior discussion between the artist and the client, and a mutual respect for the work. Also, the environment must be physically and spiritually safe.
“Korero”, or Talk
Nau Moko: The World of Maori Tattoo (Ngahuia Te Awekotuku with Linda Waimarie Nikora, Auckland: Penguin Group, 2007), a visually beautiful history of the art, features interviews with wearers of Maori tattoos and Maori body artists talking about how they approach their work. Fundamental is establishing a relationship with the person who will receive the tattoo. From discussion the artist can learn about the "whakapapa" or heritage of the potential wearer, and can generate ideas about how visually to express his or her story.
Korero and other aspects of cultural practice are so important that a new word, “kirituki”, has developed to refer to work done using Maori images on non-Maori skin, to distinguish this practice from the traditional moko. The kirituki concept is, however, controversial. Many Maori artists consider that all people have stories and are part of the human family, and consequently there doesn’t need to be a distinction. The issue is whether the potential wearer understands the significance of the moko process and is approaching it with respect.
Respect
In return for the gifting of skin, the body artist is creating a taonga or treasure that should be with the wearer for life. Placement of the design is important; moko artists speak of “sensitivity to the medium of human flesh”. Te Awekotuku’s stories of moko wearers describe “the physical sensation of pain, the taking and enduring” as “an essential part of the experience”.
Safety
Health and hygiene issues aside, many body artists value creating a warm, comfortable place for the making of the tattoo. Maori tattooists may silently or aloud speak a karakia, a small prayer for protection and to promote wellbeing. Moko artist Te Rangikaihoro comments: “Above all, it is necessary to have a loving, nurturing environment….I have learned that I value everybody who is prepared to shed blood.” Sometimes the breaking of the skin and the experience of receiving the tattoo can bring emotions to the surface for the recipient, and the artist must be prepared for this.
Non-Maori tattoo artist Roger Ingerton has a place in the Te Awekotuku book as an experienced practitioner working in the field in the 1970s, prior to the widespread Polynesian revival of the art in New Zealand. These days while he maintains a thriving studio, he refers people looking for traditional facial moko on to Maori artists.
Ingerton speaks of the significance of the tattoo process from the perspective of the practitioner. “You are holding your breath until the end of that line. It’s like diamond cutting, and a person is a million-dollar diamond, so you must pay attention.”
