March 29, 2010
Are You makeing These Mistakes With Your Maori Tattoo Design? Part 2
So you think that getting a tattoo by today’s standards is painful, well traditionally the maori made deep cuts into the skin using brutal tools and yes also the bones of albatrosses, for the maori to be able to distinguish themselves from the other tribes they used the color of the ink to tell the family history and the patterns on the skin would then allow someone to interpret the family history of these patterns What this would essentially do for some one is that they would if they were an elder be able to tell the history by looking at the design the moko and of course the patterning of the skin Many people teach that or tell other that maori tattoos in their original roots of tattoo designs were only done on the face and now they have moved to other parts of the body now, however this is utter rubbish they have been done for centuries on maoris bodies, it was only people high up in maori circles who tended to get these tattoos
Click here for the best Maori Tribal Tattoos
It is now common for westerners to have maori tattoo designs, this can be seen as a way of promoting the maori culture, however do you know that is a form of stealing maori tradition and culture? At first it might not seem apparent when taking symbols and images from the maori culture without having an idea of what they mean, but you should never do this as they might belong to a family who have had this maor tattoo designs in their family tree for years One thing not to do is to go out into the world of maori tattoo designs and just start copying any design, this could lead to a situation of stealing some maoris family tree
Im going to let you in on something, this is going to let you know what maoris think about the western world when they steal their tattoo designs and especially their maori tattoo designs.
The word “pakeha” might not mean anything to you as a westerner however in the maoris language it is associated with negativity, those that never asking for anything and simply take without asking! Wouldn’t you say that this sounds more like stealing someones culture? Well this is what the maori think of other people and especially the western world for taking their tattoos, they feel that not only did they loose their land but also now they are loosing their culture of tattoo designs
From the maoris point of view taking from their culture without asking them or having a design on you that is a replica is a weakening of their identity in terms of their culture, westernising them further through the stealing of their heritage and also they feel that they will eventually have nothing left that is sacred and original for them to hold onto in the future.
So now that you understand some of these ideas and concepts how is this going to help you in finding the right maori tattoo?
The simplest thing you can do is not to go out and copy the first maori tattoo design that you see on a maori in new zealand for starters, you would be surprised how many people have done this!
The quickest way to get a traditional maori tattoo design would be to contact someone in new zealand who is in charge of a tribe or a tribal tattoo artist and ask if the design that you are looking at is not someones design already, though this might seem dumb as mentioned we have to be sensitive to a culture that has shrunk over the last 200 years, with the internet this could be done in a matter of hours Maoris are really only annoyed when you just take, they might even grant you a special maori tattoo for asking, do you want to know how many people would actually ask for a design? Not many! That’s right if you ask you will more likely be given the go ahead for a special maori tattoo design, this way it will be even more unique and you will have a one of a kind maori tattoo design that you can be proud of
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