DECORATED
August 8, 2004 | 12:00am
It’s curious how diverse Austronesian-speaking social organizations in Southeast Asia share certain practices like adorning their bodies with tattoos. This tradition, which Peter Belwood wrote in Pre-history of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago as coming from the northwest of Formosa and western Malaya Polynesia, spread to the Sinoi of Malaya and was found among the isolated Tasadays and Manobos of Mindanao. Murut men of northern Borneo tattooed stars on their shoulders to denote captured heads.
For the Manobos, tattooing was a rite of initiation to manhood and womanhood. The men had their tattoos on their shoulders preferring designs of bird feathers called limoken after their mythological bird who was the soul of their hero Tiwaang. Those distinguished in warfare had tattoos on their neck that had a likeness of the body of the human being they killed. There were several methods in tattooing. One was by puncturing the skin with a sharp instrument and rubbing it with soot from resin. Favorite figures such as leaves, feathers, flowers were tattooed on almost all parts of the men’s bodies while the Manobo women confined designs to their calves and legs.
Another tattooing procedure was done by pricking the skin until the blood came out. With a sharp delicate pointed object, a design was executed by drawing lines outlining the patterns of the body. On the fresh bleeding surface they applied black powder from charcoal and its soot. A third procedure in tattooing, William Hengscott wrote, "was by tracing designs on the body with an ink made from pitch soot. It was then pricked into the skin with a small tool set with a number of short needles like the teeth of a comb and soot was rubbed into the fresh wounds." Others used instruments of iron or brass points heated with fire. Our ancestors did not tattoo their whole body at the same time, but by phases so that the process often lasted a long time. Fr. Mateo Sanchez in 1617 observed that the sessions could cause high fever and infection, even death.
An exciting observation was written by William Henry Scott. The Spaniards called the Visayans Pintados because they were painted. The tattoos were like modern military decorations that announced each feat and victory of the wearer. Serving as a test for manhood, being tattooed itself was painful enough. Those who submitted to facial tattooing up to the eyelids constituted the "Spartan elite." Men with such countenances were truly terrifying and no doubt intimidated enemies in battle as well as townmates at home. Any other man would surely be slow to challenge and antagonize a man with such visible signs of physical fortitude.
Author-traveler Fr. Francisco Collins in 1603 said that the Visayans tattooed their chins and around the area of their eyes. In fact, the Visayans went on tattooing all parts of their body such as the chest, the stomach, legs, arms, shoulders, hands, and muscles and among some, the posteriors. Fr. Pedro Chirino in 1604 recorded that for Cebuanos and Visayans, tattoos were the principal clothing of the naked man and that they appeared to be dressed in a kind of handsome armor engraved with very fine work.
Just imagine yourself a conqueror face-to-face with heavily tattooed Visayans, who had the reputation of being ruthless tattooed raiders and feared by the Chinese for carrying out devastating raids as far as the south China coast during the 13th century... Would you be terrified?
Parents tattooed their children’s bodies from early childhood and from their head to their feet. They were young and had enough strength and energy to suffer the torment of tattooing. The chronicles of Jesuit priest Pedro Chirino in 1604 also added that the Pintados "wore a bahag, a cotton cloth two fathoms long and three fourth fathoms wide, which they wrapped around the waist and between the legs so as to cover their private parts and posteriors, while the rest of the body was dressed by the tattoos, when they had accomplished some act of valor. For each part of the body that was tattooed meant the person had performed a new act of bravery."
Tattooing was likewise practiced among the people in the Cagayan Valley in northern Luzon. In Ilocos they also tattooed themselves, although not as much as the Visayans. For both, hog bile was used as ink. The designs used were called appaku because it looked like the paku fern. Appaku was tattooed on the warriors’ wives because the souls of women who were not decorated could not enter the land of the dead.
Different regions were no doubt distinguished by different patterns, but a few generalizations can be made. Labid were the distinctive inch-wide lines, both the straight ones and those which, as Father Sanchez observed in 1617, "go snaking or zigzagging up the leg to the waist." Ablay were those on the shoulder. Dubdub were those on the chest up to the throat. Daya-daya or tagur in Panay were tattoos on the arms. Bangut was a muzzle or halter drawn on the face that became such a frightening mask called langi or gaping because the design was like a crocodile’s jaws or the beak of a bird of prey. Hinawak or hawak was a tattoo meant for a tight, lean waist because men were tattooed below the waist and lipong was for the heroes who were tattooed all over except under the G-string, since they appeared to be like the fancy linipong porcelain jars from China. Women only tattooed their hands, one or both, and the lines were exceedingly fine and had the appearance of damask or embroidery.
Tattooing is an old custom distributed around the world. Practiced in Egypt before 1300 BC, evidence of tattooing was found in burial remains in Siberia dating back to 300 BC. Julius Caesar reported that the natives of Britain were tattooed when he invaded their island in 54 BC.
"The most complex decorations of tattoos recorded were made by the Austronesian people on the Marquesas Islands in Polynesia. In fact, the word ‘tattoo’ comes from the Tahitian ‘tatu’ where both men and women were tattooed, especially those of high social status. Sometimes, a man’s entire body was covered with a network of designs. Even the scalp, eyelids and the inside of the lips might be ornamented. Marquesan designs were obstructions based on the human figure and objects in everyday use," writes Philip C. Gifford.
He goes on, "Some tribes of South America used an arrow or a tooth for their designs in the belief that man could intimidate evil spirits with the picture of a sharp implement. The Burmese were tattooed from the waist to the knee with repeated individual figures in patterns with a brass, penlike implement with a slit point and a weight on the upper end. Pigment was rubbed into the knife slashes on the punctured skin done by thorns or other needle-like implements.
"The Japanese employed different colors like red and blue, and carried the art of tattooing to a rare perfection while the Filipinos only used black."
Whew, I can feel the pain just writing this. And wow, did it hurt!
Another tattooing procedure was done by pricking the skin until the blood came out. With a sharp delicate pointed object, a design was executed by drawing lines outlining the patterns of the body. On the fresh bleeding surface they applied black powder from charcoal and its soot. A third procedure in tattooing, William Hengscott wrote, "was by tracing designs on the body with an ink made from pitch soot. It was then pricked into the skin with a small tool set with a number of short needles like the teeth of a comb and soot was rubbed into the fresh wounds." Others used instruments of iron or brass points heated with fire. Our ancestors did not tattoo their whole body at the same time, but by phases so that the process often lasted a long time. Fr. Mateo Sanchez in 1617 observed that the sessions could cause high fever and infection, even death.
Author-traveler Fr. Francisco Collins in 1603 said that the Visayans tattooed their chins and around the area of their eyes. In fact, the Visayans went on tattooing all parts of their body such as the chest, the stomach, legs, arms, shoulders, hands, and muscles and among some, the posteriors. Fr. Pedro Chirino in 1604 recorded that for Cebuanos and Visayans, tattoos were the principal clothing of the naked man and that they appeared to be dressed in a kind of handsome armor engraved with very fine work.
Just imagine yourself a conqueror face-to-face with heavily tattooed Visayans, who had the reputation of being ruthless tattooed raiders and feared by the Chinese for carrying out devastating raids as far as the south China coast during the 13th century... Would you be terrified?
Parents tattooed their children’s bodies from early childhood and from their head to their feet. They were young and had enough strength and energy to suffer the torment of tattooing. The chronicles of Jesuit priest Pedro Chirino in 1604 also added that the Pintados "wore a bahag, a cotton cloth two fathoms long and three fourth fathoms wide, which they wrapped around the waist and between the legs so as to cover their private parts and posteriors, while the rest of the body was dressed by the tattoos, when they had accomplished some act of valor. For each part of the body that was tattooed meant the person had performed a new act of bravery."
Different regions were no doubt distinguished by different patterns, but a few generalizations can be made. Labid were the distinctive inch-wide lines, both the straight ones and those which, as Father Sanchez observed in 1617, "go snaking or zigzagging up the leg to the waist." Ablay were those on the shoulder. Dubdub were those on the chest up to the throat. Daya-daya or tagur in Panay were tattoos on the arms. Bangut was a muzzle or halter drawn on the face that became such a frightening mask called langi or gaping because the design was like a crocodile’s jaws or the beak of a bird of prey. Hinawak or hawak was a tattoo meant for a tight, lean waist because men were tattooed below the waist and lipong was for the heroes who were tattooed all over except under the G-string, since they appeared to be like the fancy linipong porcelain jars from China. Women only tattooed their hands, one or both, and the lines were exceedingly fine and had the appearance of damask or embroidery.
"The most complex decorations of tattoos recorded were made by the Austronesian people on the Marquesas Islands in Polynesia. In fact, the word ‘tattoo’ comes from the Tahitian ‘tatu’ where both men and women were tattooed, especially those of high social status. Sometimes, a man’s entire body was covered with a network of designs. Even the scalp, eyelids and the inside of the lips might be ornamented. Marquesan designs were obstructions based on the human figure and objects in everyday use," writes Philip C. Gifford.
He goes on, "Some tribes of South America used an arrow or a tooth for their designs in the belief that man could intimidate evil spirits with the picture of a sharp implement. The Burmese were tattooed from the waist to the knee with repeated individual figures in patterns with a brass, penlike implement with a slit point and a weight on the upper end. Pigment was rubbed into the knife slashes on the punctured skin done by thorns or other needle-like implements.
"The Japanese employed different colors like red and blue, and carried the art of tattooing to a rare perfection while the Filipinos only used black."
Whew, I can feel the pain just writing this. And wow, did it hurt!
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