Tattoo Clue – Polynesian and European Tattoo History

Tattooing involves placing ink permanently under the skin epidermis. It has been practised among
many cultures, including the Egyptians, Celts, and American natives, Eskimos, Japanese, south
east Asians and Pacific Islanders. The earliest form of tattoo has been found on a European
‘Iceman’ dated about 5 300 years old.


Polynesian tattoos

The Polynesian term ta-tau translates roughly to strike or mark. Various islands in the South Pacific
used tattoos to indicate social standing, social customs, adulthood and courage. Sometimes,
tattooists worked on groups of people at the same time – particularly for males undergoing adult
initiation. The tattooist would work quickly on one body, moving to the next person and so on,
leaving each one to recover slightly before working on them again. Tattooing was also
accompanied with ceremonies consisting of religious leaders, music, dancing and specially
constructed huts or tents.

Finely detailed tattoos were normally reserved for the chiefs, their family and the upper classes.
These were produced by highly skilled tattooists, while females and lower classes of society were
worked upon by apprentice tattooists (which often meant longer sitting periods, greater pain and
less intricate patterns!)

Traditional tattooing tools consisted of a wooden handled comb made of bone or shell with three to
twenty sharpened needles. A pigment was usually made from the soot of burnt candlenut (tiari)
mixed with water or oil. The needles were dipped in the pigment, then placed on the skin. The
handle was tapped with a wooden stick, so the needles punctured the skin and inserted the
pigment below the epidermis. While straight lines are rarely found in nature, many Pacific area
tattoo patterns tended to consist of rectangles, triangles and lines. This may be for aesthetic
reasons or it may have reflected their navigational skills.

Hawaiian tattoos
Generally, Hawaiians were tattooed on opposing body parts (eg the right chest and shoulder with
upper left leg). Their motifs tended to be chequered patterns and triangles.

New Zealand /Maori tattoos
Initially, it is thought that Maori tattoo patterns consisted of short lines and crosses, which evolved
into spirals and linear patterns. Tattooing around the face was often in a style called moko where
deep grooves were chiselled into the skin. Moko was common on men and women, although
women had moko restricted to the chin and lips and men were often marked over the whole face.
The chiselling tool was usually made from albatross bone and later from metal when Europeans

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settled in New Zealand. The chisel was dipped in ground charcoal (burnt rimu, kauri or kapara),
mixed with water or fat and tapped into the skin. The pigment was black, but appeared dark blue
due to the reddish transparency of human skin tissue.

Chiselling mokos was very painful and it usually took one to two days to complete. Sometimes
women would only have their chin and lower lip done, as they could not endure the pain again to
have their upper lips marked. Others completed the job with needle tattooing, which left ink, not a
deep groove and was less painful.

Tahitian tattoos
In Tahiti, tattoos would indicate female sexual maturity, social restrictions such as food taboos,
genealogy and rank in society. Generally, males were more heavily covered in tattoos around the
thighs and buttocks, while women were marked on the thighs and arms.

The Marquesas Islands tattoos
Marquesans display the greatest coverage of tattoos. Men from the Marquesas could have
patterns that covered the entire body. These were tattooed by marking an outline with charcoal,
then tattooing with the ground ink. It often took a week to complete the full body tattoos, or they
may have been completed in small sections, depending on the person’s achievements and status.
Females were normally only tattooed on the arms, legs and upper body. Tattooing was often
followed by more than a week of inflammation, fever and swelling, sometimes being treated with
the juice of a banana stem as a healing ointment. Occasionally there were deaths from infection or
shock.

Native Americans
Native American tribes used thorns as their puncturing needles and soot or berry juice for pigment.
Eskimos used soot-covered thread, which was passed through the skin’s epidermis to form the
pattern.

European explorers and tattoos
Although tattooing was practised amongst Celtic races, it had disappeared by the time of Captain
Cook on HMB Endeavour. When the Celts were converted to Christianity, tattooing died out as it
was thought that the human body was made in God’s image and should not be altered. James
Cook reported on the ‘tatau’ (which became tattoo in the English language) amongst the Pacific
Islanders. Cook’s own crewmen and subsequent English crews started getting tattooed. Sailors
adopted the practice eagerly and tattooing spread to other occupations. There was an exchange of
tattoo patterns between the English and Polynesians, each culture tattooing the other so both
cultures cross-fertilised tattoo patterns.

Sydney Parkinson – the artist on HMB Endeavour noted that Tahitian tattoos had “a lively bluish
purple, similar to that made upon the skin by gunpowder”. Indeed, sailors began tattooing
themselves on board, using gunpowder and needles. Designs were generally simple stars, hearts
and initials. Over time, other designs such as flags, anchors, palm trees, ships, Neptunes and
mermaids became popular designs. Tattoos were seen as charms, which would ward off storms,
shipwreck, shark attack and the evil eye as well as protecting from drowning, plague and venereal
disease. Roman Catholics had crosses on their arms to ensure they were buried in consecrated
ground.

Omai was a native from the Society Islands who travelled back to England on HMS Resolution I
and was popular with Royalty and the upper classes. While some scholars linked the renewed
interest in tattooing to Omai, his only visible tattoos were on his wrist and on buttocks, which were
unlikely to be displayed in public back in England in the 18th century! It is thought that the
resurgence of tattooing was due to a new enthusiasm for eastern cultures.

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Document Outline

• Polynesian tattoos
• Hawaiian tattoos
• New Zealand /Maori tattoos
• Tahitian tattoos
• The Marquesas Islands tattoos
• Native Americans
• European explorers and tattoos

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