Face Tattoos!
- Livia Michael
- 27 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Greetings, internet! It’s Livia Michael, an apprentice at Speakeasy Tattoo in Los Angeles! I’ve been thinking a lot about face tattoos recently. The taboos, the indigenous and cultural relevance, and growing popularity. Even throughout the course of my life, the taboo of facial tattoos has lessened in severity. When I was younger, the general consensus was that facial tattoos were worn by criminals and public pariahs, such as Mike Tyson. However, in the current day and age, mainstream celebrities and artists such as Post Malone, Jelly Roll, Kehlani, Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne, Halsey, and Kat Von D all have at least one facial tattoo. Nearly every day I see someone on social media or in real life with some sort of face tattoo. So, why is there a social stigma about face tattoos? And why have they become more commonplace in the last few decades?
Face tattoos carry immense cultural significance in many indigenous cultures. The Maori people of New Zealand have a strong connection to tattoos, especially facial tattoos since the head is considered the most sacred part of the body. Tattoos are closely tied to religion and signify strength and societal rank in Maori culture. Tattoos are the expectation for Maori people, as it is taboo in that culture to have no tattoos. However, like with many indigenous peoples, the imposition of Western ideals and values by way of colonization affected this centuries-old cultural practice. In 1907, the government in New Zealand made Maori medicinal and tattooing practices illegal. It was not until the 1960s that this was reversed. Indigenous Maori tattoos or Maori-inspired tribal tattoos have exploded in popularity in recent years, even among those that do not have any affiliation with the Maori people.
Similarly, the ancient facial tattooing practices among indigenous peoples in Alaska has also been threatened by colonization. The Gwich’in Nation in Alaska was threatened by the onslaught of European colonizers in the early 1900s, who set out to diminish and ban their language and cultural traditions, like facial tattooing. However, in the last ten years, there have been many social justice movements aimed toward reclaiming the lost cultural practices and languages of indigenous peoples across the globe. Many indigenous people have begun to get facial tattoos as a way of paying respect to their heritage and history.
In the Western world, there remains a widely Eurocentric expectation for beauty and behavioral standards. Even though there are many public figures and artists with face tattoos, there still remains a strong taboo against face tattoos for everyone else in most parts of the world. Many employers and companies prohibit the hiring of persons with facial tattoos, leading those that have them to exist in more countercultural spaces and industries. Although it has become increasingly common to see people show off their tattoos at work and other public spaces over the last fifty or so years, the general acceptance margin remains below the collarbone. Recent facial tattoo trends involve face-framing botanicals creeping out from behind the ear, or subtle cursive letters on the side of the jaw. Even still, face tattoos are still shocking because they exist in a spot on one's body that is always on display, and used to communicate with the world around us.
I am interested to see the direction in which the facial tattoo taboo will go in the next twenty years. Will it become something more trivial, like an arm or wrist tattoo, or revert back to being considered an unthinkable mistake?
Until next week…
-Livia Michael
Sources:
https://inkppl.com/en/magazine/knowledge/face-tattoos-everything-you-need-to-know-before-getting-one
