Tatau - Sāmoan Tattooing - Tales from Te Papa episode 87

It's often a painful experience getting a tattoo; curator Sean Mallon explains why it is so important in Sāmoan culture. TALES FROM TE PAPA is a fascinating new series of mini-documentaries for TVNZ 7 that showcase many of the exciting, wonderful and significant pieces that are held in our national museum. Tales from Te Papa is commissioned by TVNZ 7, in partnership with Te Papa. www.tepapa.govt...
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Transcript:
Riria Hotere: Some people may tell you that getting a tattoo doesn’t hurt, much.
All I can say is, it does!
Having someone draw on my back with sharp metal needles was painful enough, imagine if they were using bone chisels?
Because that’s the traditional tool of Sāmoan tattooing where the fashion for tatau (Sāmoan tattoo) is cultural.
Sean Mallon: In Sāmoan customary context, tattooing is a very important way of transitioning into different parts of your life, into different roles.
So individuals will get the tattoo in order to perform duties for Sāmoan chiefs and ceremonial occasions.
It’s also an important marking of Sāmoan identity, Sāmoan culture.
The tools are made out of a piece of stick, a small piece of turtle shell, and pieces of boar’s tusk which are cut into the form of a comb.
They dip this into some ink, some pigment made from the soot of a candlenut, and they’ll use this stick here to tap the pattern - or the ink - into the skin.
In Sāmoa, the main styles of tatau which are important are the pe‘a for the men, and the malu for women.
There are other forms, such as the taulima, and these days in New Zealand, full chest pieces, shoulder pieces, and back pieces are all becoming more popular.
But in ceremonial situations, it's the pe‘a and the malu which are most important for Sāmoan people.
Riria: Do you have one?
Sean: I don't have a pe‘a or malu, but I have been tattooed with Sāmoan tools all down my back, so, it’s an undertaking.
And I think if you go for the full customary Sāmoan tattoo forms, you’re really making a commitment to the art form and the culture.
Riria: These tools are a slice of living history.
Similar ones are still being used by tufuga tā tatau (master tattooists) in Sāmoa and Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Sean: When people go to a tufuga to get tattooed, the tufuga will choose the work for them, in most cases.
There is a certain structure that they use, say for the pe‘a, for example, but how the tufuga fills in that structure is up to him.
So he has a lot of freedom within some widely-shared basic structures.
One of the most important documentations of Sāmoan tatau practice in New Zealand has been undertaken by Mark Adams, who is one of our most well-known New Zealand photographers.
Since the 1970s, he has had a close relationship with certain leading tattooists, and he’s created a massive body of work that shows tattooing being done in people’s living rooms, their garages, in very different sets of situations and circumstances than they would have been done in Sāmoa.
Riria: Mark Adams’ photographic record proves that tatau is alive and well 3000 years after tattoos first appeared in the Pacific.
Through the skill of today’s tufuga tā tatau, it's likely future generations of Sāmoans will feel the pleasure - and pain - of the tatau.