El maori tattoo originates from the natives of New Zealand, who adorned their faces with graceful spirals hand-drawn by the confident hand of the tattoo artist, whom they regarded as someone sacred.
As you might expect, the history of maori tattoo it is very interesting and worth knowing, since it is one of the origins of tribal tattoos that we see today and that were so fashionable during the nineties.
Maori tattoo history o Moko
File source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Louis_John_Steele_-_Portrait_of_a_young_Maori_woman_with_moko_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
For thousands of years, the Maori, inhabitants of the islands of New Zealand, have used the Moko as a rite of passage between childhood and adulthood. In fact, wearing them was so common that it was considered that whoever did not wear them was not because of pleasure, but because they had no money.
Tattoos were worn by both men and women and wearing them was considered to make you much more attractive in the eyes of others. Among men, it was common to wear tattoos of this style on the face, butt and legs, while women wore them on the chin and on the lips.
Nowadays, many Maori still wear this type of tattoo as a sign of cultural identity, although they are usually done with tattoo guns and not with the traditional method, which is much more painful.
How do you get a Maori tattoo?
Traditionally, tattoos of this style were made by chiselling the flesh, not piercing it, so that the tattoo was ultimately raised. It is a painful technique, in which they used to use a kind of needles and chisels made of albatross bone.
Although most of the tattooists were men, it is known that a not inconsiderable number of women also did tattoos, especially from the end of the XNUMXth century.
The history of the Maori tattoo is exciting, right? Tell us, do you have any tattoos like these? Remember that if you want to tell us what you want, you just have to leave us a comment!