Maori Art Essay

First, Many people choose to get a tattoo to commemorate a loved one who has passed or celebrate a special event in their lives. "Tattoos are a wonderful way to keep the memory alive of that special person". When getting a tattoo, people should take the reason into consideration and decide whether it is something they want for a lifetime. Tattoos are very personal and should be treated as such.

In our world today, Tattoo is a form of art displayed on the skin. In many countries, tattoos symbolize different meanings, but in America, tattoo has lost its true meaning and is being performed on a daily basis. In our society today, tattoos are becoming more of a trend. For instance, people are getting flowers such as a rose being a popular one, tattooed on them. Currently nowadays, people are getting anything tattooed that interests them and it is losing its significance. Back in Samoa, a small little cultural country, traditional Samoan Tattoos are something that are considered sacred and have true meaning behind it. The artwork and designs go beyond being skin deep. In every Samoan tattoo, there are history and deep meanings behind each and every one. It takes a lot of hard work to earn in order in having the honors to receive the Samoan tattoo. Not only is the Samoan Tattoo a form of beautiful art, but it also resembles respect, loyalty, honor, community, and the growth of accomplishment in a person. It is not like in America where getting a tattoo done is easy and your own decision, the Samoan culture takes a lot of pride and courage into doing so.

Tattoos have recently become increasingly popular in youth, due to the hidden meanings and symbolism that they are endowed with. Helen Day’s opinionative blog entry, The Power of Ink, asserts that the significance of tattoos have diminished due to the fashionable aesthetics that tattoos project. A highly casual, yet acknowledging tone characterises her blog entry, which is predominantly catered to young Australian readers who are interested in receiving a tattoo. Accompanying her blog entry is a number of comments which both support and criticise the new phenomenon of tattoos. Poignantly complementing her article is an image of Ta Mako tattoos, a Maori form of body art, and the front cover of the written work “No tattoos before you’re

My senior project was over the History of Tattooing, I chose this as my topic because Tattoos really interest me with all the different styles and meanings behind them. Some things I already knew about Tattooing is a lot of tribes used tattoos to symbolize things, but I didn’t know what.

It is this sort of strictly prescribed, highly ritualistic decoration that Beckwith and Fisher depict in African ceremonies. “ We have tried to show how body art is relevant to every stage of development, from birth to death”, says Fisher. But while the traditional, often spiritually based versions of bod mod are quickly disappearing among indigenous peoples, the impulses behind personal adornment remain unchanged: attracting a mate, signaling status, declaring allegiance to a group( Lemonick 75). For men, the tattoo is a public identity symbol, and their first is usually on their arm. Women reserve their tattoo for a more intimate audience, and they usually choose their breast. For most, the tattoo is symbolic of their individuality and having withstood a painful and exciting event. Tattooees enjoy being noticed, although they reveal their tattoos selectively ( Davis 471). Anthropologists describe body art or modification as a way of identifying oneself as being a part of a group, a tribe, or a gang: of denoting one’s financial status or marital status: or even as a way of beautifying the body (Grief, Hewitt 368).

Similar to that idea, not all Polynesian tattoos have the same flow and shape as others. Along with that, there are also different meanings for different designs. In the Maori culture, tattoos are not always based on the life a person is living but also on milestones that they’ve reached. “For the Maori these tattoos symbolize spiritual rituals related to specific events in a person's life. The Maori men were only allowed to receive their first tattoo upon reaching adolescence.” (Laura du Toit). There was also a process that went along with receiving a Maori tattoo that one would have to partake in order to receive a tribal tattoo. “Before receiving a Maori tattoo the person would have to fast. The entire lwi would be present at the ceremony itself and this would be celebrated with music and dancing.” (Laura du Toit). In Samoan cultures, tattoos were also very sacred due to the meaning it held. “It means that a soga’imiti (traditional Samoan male tattoo) has a higher social status in his community than others, and is given more opportunities to learn correct protocol, history, oratory skills and other intricacies of the Fa’asamoa.”

We know of these tattooed tribes largely due to texts written by ancient Romans, who invaded the British Isles, and in them they described the tattoos on the Britons as making them all the more terrifying in battle.

Tattoos have been around throughout our history, from Egyptian times to the present day. Many people may say they know the history of tattoos, and where they originate from, but do they really? Does one know that there were reasons that some people had tattoos? There may be people who know the actual history of tattoos and body art and why one would decide to get one; however there are people who do not. To be able to understand the idea of tattoos, one should educate themselves to the history of tattoos. Although tattoos have been considered taboo and a stereotype, history reveals that this particular form of body art has been used for self expression, status and

- Ainu people (western Asia) also used tattooing to show social status, for example a married women would have a specific tattoo. The Ainu people soon introduced tattoos to Japan who used them for religious rites

Tattooing is the art of marking the skin with indelible patterns, pictures, or legends by making pricks and inserting colored ink. The word itself has its origins in the South Pacific. The art had been referred to as pricking, scarring, or staining until explorer Captain James Cook encountered the indigenous peoples of Tahiti. (Wilkinson 6)

One in every five Americans have a tattoo. It is no longer surprising to see people with markings on their bodies. Many believed it is a form of self-expression. Even though some cultures or religions view tattoos as a negative thing, that does not stop people from getting them. To have a better understanding about tattoos we must go back and trace how it all began. From the tools, they used to the ink, it is incredible how tattooing has evolved over the years.

When everyone looks and acts remotely the same, people end up losing their individual identity. When people feel like they are losing their individuality, they try to find ways to redefine their uniqueness in society. One of the more efficient and permanent ways of self-identification is by giving yourself a tattoo. Tiffany Cross studied this ideal of self-identification in her article, Stigmatization or Decoration: Tattoo as Deviance, a Cross-Cultural Study, where she says that, “the tattoo historically has been that symbol of rebellion, and here we see the tattoo emerging as a symbol of values and beliefs anew. The individual establishes his or her independence because the tattoo as a symbol is still enough to visually separate oneself from society at large” (Cross 20). Most of the time, tattoos are very meaningful, and hold some sort of value for the person who has them. By having a meaningful design constantly a part of you, people have essentially rediscovered themselves. Tattoos can also act as symbols of memories or influential experiences for a person. They are a constant reminder of an event that someone wants to feel and reminisce in every day of their lives. Tattoos can definitely have a large underlying meaning for the people who get

Tattooing was a way of life to the Polynesians, they were tattooing even before the Europeans came to the South Pacific. The Polynesians and Samoans had some of the most skillful and intricate tattoos in the entire world. The tattoos typically stood for their religious beliefs and for warfare. Most of their tattoos were geometric shapes. They were tattooed in a way so they could

Polynesian tattoos are beautiful and intricate with their detailing. They date back two thousand years ago. Polynesian tattoos first took off in Samoa, with New Zealand being the last country to begin tattooing. People first starting getting them because it was something that would forever be with them. Each tattoo is diverse and has its own meaning. Even though each Polynesian culture has their own way of doing things, they have similar traditions.

Tattooing was also popular amongst Maori men of New Zealand, who covered their buttocks, thighs, and faces. Maori men had their faces tattooed by a “moko“ artist, a technique that is unique to the Maori. The pattern was slowly carved into the skin with a chisel, much in the same way a design might be carved into a plank wood. Ink was then be placed in the fresh wounds to create the tattoo. The process, which was extremely painful, was typically done in stages,