Maori Tattoos

Hello! As someone who is learning all about tattooing at Speakeasy Tattoo in Los Angeles California, I wanted to take some time to dive deeper into some specific tattoo areas. I have always been fascinated by the shapes of Maori tattoos and took this week to learn more about them. 

Maori Tattoos originate from the indigenous people of New Zealand. Their form of body art is known as moko but more popularly referred to as Maori tattoos. This highly sacred form of tattooing is celebrated in their community. “Maori society flourished from voyagers who traversed the Pacific using large canoes. These groups were led by their ancestral knowledge, including skills like how to read the signs of the natural world, such as the stars and the currents. The polynesian people first populated Aotearoa around 1250 AD… Long before European colonisation, Māori communities had customs and traditions which expressed their shared values and way of life. Many long-standing traditions and art forms are still upheld, such as ta moko (tattoos), haka (performance), and whakairo (carving). All of which are ways of telling a story, representing values and personal meanings,” (Zealandtattoo).

The most popular Maori tattoo is on the face because the Maori people consider the head to be the most sacred part of the body. This tattoo would likely cover the whole face in spiral designs and curved shapes and display the wearers rank in society and social status.

“The Maori tattoo artist is called the tohunga ta moko which means moko specialist. These tattooists are highly respected, and considered tapu which means inviolable or holy,” (Zealandtattoo). The process of tattooing these designs into the skin was not with the use of needles. Instead the Maori people used knives and chisels made from shark teeth. “The chisel, also called the uhi, was made from albatross bone although some were said to be made of iron,” (Zealandtattoo). The pigment they used was made from burnt wood. They would reserve the burnt wood pigment for the facial tattoos and use ink made from caterpillars for other less sacred tattoos. 

One of the most fascinating things about Maori tattoos is that no two Maori tattoos are the same. They are all unique and have their own ways of shaping the face. There is a lot to learn from studying the unique designs of these sacred pieces.