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When I visited
Western Samoa, the traditional tattooing of men was still
common. This photo was taken at one of about half a dozen
tattooings I attended that year. Since then, I've also
attended tattooings in Auckland, New Zealand, and San Jose,
California. The tattoo specialist, or tufuga, a highly
respected specialist, dips a comb-like instrument with
needle-like points into a dish of pigment made from ground-up,
burned lama nut, places the comb on the area of skin to be
tattooed, and strikes the comb with a stick, driving the
needles through the skin. |
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| Here's a closer look at the tattoo
pigment being applied to, and driven under, a young man's skin. Most
of the design has already been completed. The process is performed
without anaesthesia and is said to be very painful. Sometimes a young
man being tattooed finds it so painful that he'll climb a coconut tree
in order to avoid any more sessions. A young man with a pe'a, a
traditional tattoo, that is only partly completed, and who refuses to
have the design finished, is mocked and considered something of a
buffoon for the rest of his life. Remember that all this occurs in a
highly communal society, where everybody knows everything about
everyone else, and where secrets don't exist. |
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Tatau Samoa Samoan Tattoo
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These photographs and explanations represent Samoan culture and
Samoa village life as it
was from 1968 through 1984. We gratefully acknowledge
Richard A. Goodman's
work and
his kind approval to use his photos and commentary.
Samoan tattoo design is
traditional. Comparison of a detailed drawing of a traditional
Samoan pe'a in one of the old books about Samoa—Kramer's
The Samoan Islands—shows little difference from the designs I
saw being applied in the late '60s and early '70s. This reveals
something very important about Samoan culture—a basic conservatism
that works against change. Elsewhere in the Pacific—for instance, in
the Marquesas Islands—designs changed so rapidly that in 20 years
patterns being applied were enormously different from those applied
two decades earlier. In many aspects of their culture, the
Marquesans were much more open than the Samoans to innovation and
creativity.
What then
of the women? In Samoa, the women were not excluded from tatau;
in fact the tattooing of women was considered to be more sacred in
some ways than tattooing the men.
There were separate styles for the
women, including designs on the hand and the malu on the
thighs. The malu, applied only to a woman's thighs, was far
less extensive than the male pe'a and more of a lace web than
solid patterning. The malu is sometimes flashed when Samoan
women dance the traditional siva.
Two sisters, Taema and Tilafaiga, are credited with bringing the art
of the tatau from Fiji. However, the tradition they had been
taught in Fiji of "the women get tattooed and the men do not," got
reversed on their journey home. From this mix-up evolved the current
Samoan tradition and saying, "women have children and men get
tattooed." Thus, in ancient Samoa, the most extensive tatau,
in the form of the pe'a, were applied to the men. However,
the women did share in the art as well. The pe'a covers the
thighs, butt, and lower back, with a final "locking" piece applied
just around the navel. The pe'a as a whole is a
representation of a bat, its wings wrapping around the legs of the
man. In ancient times, the pe'a was a sign to the village and
larger community that a young man was committed to serving his
aiga, or extended family. In fact, getting the pe'a was a
prerequisite for a man to receive a matai (chief's) title. In
general, a young man with a pe'a was deemed to be more
attractive to women because he had shown his dedication and bravery
by undergoing the very painful process of the pe'a.
More from Richard A. Goodman on
Traditional Samoa Village Life & Customs;
Samoa Fales, Men's Work,
Women's Work in Samoa and Samoan Traditions and Church life. |
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And here's the finished product. The
design covers the young man's body from just above the knees to the
waist, front and back, mercifully sparing the genital area. Early
explorers, seeing naked but tattooed Samoans from a distance through
a spyglass, mistook the tattoos for clothing and didn't realize that
the men were nude. In 1968, nobody normally paraded around naked,
but Samoans considered that being naked and tattooed wasn't quite
the same thing as really being naked.
Another photograph of a traditional
Samoan tattoo. This pe'a (traditional tattoo) was actually applied
in a house a few hundred feet from the old Tivoli Theatre in
downtown Apia, where this picture was also taken. If he is still
alive, the youth in this picture is now about 50 |
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