more on tattoos

[Waruno Mahdi]

Hi folks,

I just coincidentally discovered a web site dedicated to a monograph
on tattooing by Steve Gilbert. The head page at
         http://www.tattoos.com/jane/steve/index.htm
contains a verbatim citation from James Cook's "The Voyage in H.M.Bark
Endeavour":

  <<They stain their bodies by indentings, or pricking the
    skin with small instruments made of bone, cut into
    short teeth; which indentings they fill up with dark-blue
    or black mixture prepared from the smoke of an oily
    nut... This operation, which is called by the natives
    "tattaw", leaves an indelible mark on the skin. It is
    usually performed when they are about ten or twelve
    years of age, and on different parts of the body.>>

On a subordinated page: http://www.tattoos.com/jane/steve/banks.htm
there is furthermore a citation from J.C. Beaglehole, "The Endeavour
Journal of Joseph Banks", i.e. the entry for "Tahiti: August, 1769":

  <<.........
    So much for their persons. I shall now mention their
    method of painting their bodies or "tattow" as it is called
    in their language. This they do by inlaying the color black
    under their skins in such a manner as to be indelible;
    everyone is marked thus in different parts of his body
    according maybe to his humor or different circumstances
    of his life. Some have ill-designed figures of men, birds or
    dogs, but they more generally have this figure "Z" either
    simply, as the women are generally marked with it, on
    every joint of their fingers and toes and often round the
    outside of their feet, or in different figures of it as square,
    circles, crescents, etc. which both sexes have on their arms
    and legs. In short they have an infinite diversity of figures
    in which they place this mark and some of them, we were
    told, had significations but this we never learnt to our
    satisfaction.....
    .......
    Their method of doing it I will now describe. The color
    they use is lamp black which they prepare from the smoke
    of a kind of oily nuts used by them instead of candles
    [candlenut, Aleurites moluccana]. This is kept in coconut
     shells and mixed with water occasionally for use. Their
    instruments for pricking this under the skin are made of
    bone and shell, flat, the lower part of this is cut into sharp
    teeth from 3 to 20 according to the purpose it is to be used
    for and the upper fastened to a handle. These teeth are
    dipped into the black liquor and then driven by quick sharp
    blows struck upon the handle with a stick for that purpose
    into the skin so deep that every stroke is followed by a
    small quantity of blood, or serum at least, and the part so
    marked remains sore for many days before it heals.>>

There are many more interesting pages on the site. Happy surfing.

Regards to all,   Waruno

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Waruno Mahdi                  tel:   +49 30 8413-5411
Faradayweg 4-6                fax:   +49 30 8413-3155
14195 Berlin                  email: mahdi at fhi-berlin.mpg.de
Germany                       WWW:   http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/~wm/
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