Tag Archives: tattoo

inspiration

Face tattoos

Sunday, 4th September, 2011 – 6:00 pm

Chin woman by Jeff & Susan

Photo by Chen Yuzhou / for China Daily

Brent Lewin for National Post

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inspiration

Asia – Myanmar / Burma / Chinlady

Saturday, 3rd September, 2011 – 11:55 pm



Asia – Myanmar / Burma / Chinlady, originally uploaded by Rudi Roels.

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costume inspiration

Book: Oceanic Art by Nicholas Thomas

Thursday, 20th January, 2011 – 9:48 pm

featherblium

1981 Photo Maureen Mackenzie.

feathercape

Peacock, mallard duck, parrot, chicken and other feathers. Bishop Museum, Honolulu. Photo Seth Joel.

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Theodore Kleinschmidt’s drawing of Tui Nadrau, the chief of Nadrau (central Viti Levu, Fiji), wrapped in barkcloth for ceremonial presentation, October 1877.

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tattoomen

Left: Fully tattooed Marquesan man, engraving after a drawing made in 1804. From G. H. von Langsdorf, Voyages and travels in various parts of the word. London, 1813-14.

Right: Male tattoo designs, Marquesas Islands. From Karl von den Steinen, Die Marquesaner und ihrer Kunst, Berlin, 1925-8.

maorichief

Photo John Hillelson Agency.

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inspiration

John Webber

Monday, 3rd May, 2010 – 9:30 pm

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Chugach  Eskimo  woman  with labret  and piercings, Prince  William  Sound, Alaska, in engraving  made  1778
Chugach

Chugach man wearing spruce root hat, beads, earrings, nose piercing, woven cloak; Prince William Sound, Alaska engraving c. 1778

oonalashka

A Woman of Oonalaska (sic) [engraved portrait by John Webber of Aleut woman with tattooed face and linked nose labret.]

nootka

Nootka woman with woven hat & cedarbark cape, Nootka Sound, British Columbia, in engraving made 1778

oonalashkaman

A Man of Oonalashka, c. April 1778

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magic

Eyebrow painting of North African women

Wednesday, 27th January, 2010 – 10:50 am

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All from Harquus: North African Women’s Traditional Body Art Volume 2: Paint (pdf) by Catherine Cartwright-Jones.

“A person with thick, black eyebrows can see better in very bright light, and will be less likely to squint. Eyebrow paint may have had the same function as sunglasses, while accenting expressive eyebrow movement.”

I think I prefer the explanation from Catherine’s Introduction to Harquus Part 2: Kohl and Surma (pdf):

“Some women believed that blackening their eyelids and eyebrows would protect them from the glance of the Evil Eye, and also prevent them from transmitting the Evil Eye to another person.”

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magic

Tribal women of Formosa

Friday, 9th October, 2009 – 8:41 pm

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According to Masegseg Jingror: “”Tattoo marking is a common practice among the…Atayal. For women, having tattoo marks on one’s face and body means three things: First, it is a symbol of reaching maturity.Second, it indicates that she is a person capable [of] weaving. And finally but not the least, when they pass away they can recognize the spirits of their ancestors in heaven through the design of the tattoo marks.Besides, tattoo marks were believed to have magical power which enabled them to avoid evil forces. But more importantly, tattoos are marks of their identity indicating to which tribe they belong”" (Tung 1996, p.152).

Gerald Warner Taiwan image collection.

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magic

Pict warriors

Monday, 28th September, 2009 – 9:53 pm

Book_of_Kells_Dornai

Engravings by Theodore de Bry’s based on paintings by John White found on dornai.com. Another image here: [http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/debry&CISOPTR=52&CISOBOX=1&REC=1] of a Pictish woman with flowery tattoos. There’s two other images of Picts in this set but I can’t find them, any help out there?

“In the English translation of this text, Thomas Hariot describes this image: “The trvve picture of a yonge dowgter of the Pictes III. THe yong dougters of the pictes, did also lett their haire flyinge, and wear also painted ouer all the body, so much that noe men could not faynde any different, yf the hath not vse of another fashion of paintinge, for the did paint themselues of sondrye kinds of flours, and of the fairest that they cowld feynde. being fournished for the rest of such kinds of weappon as the woemen wear as you may see by this present picture a thinge trwelly worthie of admiration.” Source: Thomas Hariot, “A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia.” Frankfort: Theodore De Bry, 1590.”

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Uncategorized

MAORI CHIEF

Sunday, 22nd February, 2009 – 6:41 pm

maoriman

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Uncategorized

AINU TATTOO

Wednesday, 18th February, 2009 – 10:07 pm

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The completed lip tattoos of women were significant in regards to Ainu perceptions of life experience. First, these tattoos were believed to repel evil spirits from entering the body (mouth) and causing sickness or misfortune. Secondly, the lip tattoos indicated that a woman had reached maturity and was ready for marriage. And finally, lip tattoos assured the woman life after death in the place of her deceased ancestors.

Apart from lip tattoos, however, Ainu women wore several other tattoo marks on their arms and hands usually consisting of curvilinear and geometric designs. These motifs, which were begun as early as the fifth or sixth year, were intended to protect young girls from evil spirits…Other marks were placed on various parts of the body as charms against diseases like painful rheumatism.

http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattooing_among_japans_ainu.htm

http://siris-collections.si.edu/search/results.jsp?q=ainu+tattoo&x=0&y=0

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drawing

NORTHERN BORNEO TATTOO

Wednesday, 18th February, 2009 – 8:24 pm

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This Kayan woman (ca. 1930) was of high rank, as evidenced
by the number of rings around her calves. The motif running up the thighs is called silong lejau (tiger’s faces). At the terminus of these bands you can barely make out a different pattern just above the horizontal lines of the calf. This is called nang klimge (“important design”) and is a degraded anthropomorph. The curclicues below the horizontal lines around the calves are called tushun tuva “the tuba root motif”). Each one of these designs was believed to repel evil forces in the jungle. The unmarked portions of her thigh are also visible

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