![]() ![]() I learned about “tatouage,” as it is called locally, from Teiki Huukena, an expert on the history and meaning of tattoos in the Marquesas Islands. This is done by inlaying the Colour of Black under their skins, in such a manner as to be indelible…This method of Tattowing I shall now describe…As this is a painful operation, especially the Tattowing of their Buttocks, it is performed but once in their Lifetimes.” Petroglyphs in the museum on Ua Huka island depict variations of the Tiki symbol In the ship’s log, he wrote, “Both sexes paint their Bodys, Tattow, as it is called in their Language. ![]() Spiral or rainbow petroglyph carved into a boulder on Nuku Hiva Island represented the eye of the ancestor and was the precursor to Polynesian tattoos in the Marquesas Islandsĭuring his first landing in Tahiti, Captain James Cook was fascinated by the tattoos that covered the bodies of the indigenous Polynesians. Over the centuries, tattooing has been practiced for a variety of spiritual and protective purposes, but perhaps nowhere has it been more strongly ingrained than in the culture of the Marquesas Islands. The mummified body of Ötzi the Iceman, discovered on the border between Italy and Austria in 1991, has been dated to between 33 B.C. ![]() Polynesian Tattoos were being applied at least as far back at Neolithic times. Seaman aboard the Aranui 5 cruise ship is covered from head to toe in Polynesian tattoos Over the next two weeks, I would learn that tattoos in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia are not only accepted but cherished. He stared back, perhaps as curious about me as I was about him, but then nodded once. After my initial shock, I gathered my wits and asked permission to take his photo. ![]() When my eyes finally adjusted from the brilliant sunshine outside, I found myself staring into the face of a sailor who was covered from head to foot with Polynesian tattoos. I’d stepped through the bulkhead door and into a dim interior passageway on board the Aranui 5 cruise ship. ![]()
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